About 20 cloves each of some half dozen varieties will have to do it for my garlic. I will also have topset (Egyptian), white and yellow multipliers, Copra cooking onions, sand leeks and some elephant garlic - spring planted. IOW about a third the amount of alliums I planted last fall. I ran out of room for other things I also wanted to grow. This year I need to be a bit more restrained.

Nowhere near as much as you, LOL! I have maybe a 6x4 area I might be able to plant to garlic. If I'm lucky.

Any suggestions for a good variety to plant specifically for the scapes?

Ours is a self-sufficiency garden where the goal is to grow just enough but not too much of everything. When I have grown 120 bulbs it was too many, so I shoot for around 90. The mix is roughly one third large hardnecks, one third medium-small hardnecks, one third softnecks.

I planted around 500 last year, but do not think I have the energy to plant that much this year. So far I have gotten out and fertilized and cultivated 7 of the 15 raised beds. May get out and plant some early varieties today and wait to see if I have the energy to make one or two new beds before I plant the porcelains.

No such thing as too much garlic. What other vegetable sells for $8/lb and upwards? I can sell all I want to sell either to a market gardener who uses it for seed or to the small organic market in my town.

I'll be planting 360 cloves this year at my garden in Floyd, VA. The mix is half Music, a quarter German Red, and the balance Estonian Red and Russian Red. Recently widowed this is more than I need for a single person, but it is a fun crop to grow and I'll be giving some away to neighbors and friends.

TomNJ/VA

Planting is not the problem for me. I've planted a large daffodil bed (about 500 bulbs), two daylily beds and two beard iris beds.

The issue is the cost of the seed garlic bulbs. I've not accumulated enough seed bulbs. At $10/lb or more, the seed cost is high if you plant a lot.

I'll be planting about 1/3 long-neck with the rest softneck. Softnecks will be used to make garlic powder and other preserved food.

hello RedSun, you mention the cost of garlic seed bulbs holding you back from planting more garlic. Have you considered leaving the scapes to grow on your hardnecks so that you can replant the bulbils. It's a two - three season exercise to get full sized bulbs but an inexpensive way to dramatically increase your stock. Many seed garlic bulb suppliers sell umbels of bulbils too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing bulbils

Yes, I'll do that. I've set an area to grow garlic and to experiment things.

So sorry to hear of your loss, Tom. Great planting plan...as they say, you can bury a lot of sorrow in the dirt.

Thanks Barbara!

I have recovered from the garlic disaster of 2012 to the point where I hope to be planting 12,000 premium cloves and 10,000 rounds and bulbils. Last fall I planted every last clove and bulbil that I had and ended up harvesting around 12,000 bulbs and rounds this summer, along with tens of thousands of bulbils. Ended up with a lot of undersized reject bulbs that will be used for food instead of seed stock. I plan on being much more picky this year, selecting for size. I will also get back to removing scapes next June. It is a long process having to restart from scratch...

I have reacquired many varieties but my favorite one is still German Brown rocambole. Other favorites are German Red, Russian Red, German Extra Hardy, Estonian Red.

My garlic planting season always starts third week in October, the season is fast approaching. :-)

Happy Planting!
-Tom