Garlic, 'Product of China'.
 

I read somewhere that China has overtaken USA for #1 in garlic production. Gilroy isn't the garlic capital any more.

I bought some grocery store garlic last month, 'Product of China'. Sigh. I've been trying to buy just USA products before China takes over everything, but bought the imported stuff this time. Couldn't help it; they were beautiful. Clean and bright, uniform in size (all five heads in the package were between 70 and 75g each). $1.49 for the five.

Took 'em home, busted a bunch open. Hardneck. Liberated the seven largest cloves (9 8 8 7 7 7 7 grams), made pasta with a bunch of the 6g and less cloves. Delicious. Only about a 2 or 3 on the heat side, but the flavor was an 8 or 9.

Planted the seven liberated cloves 21 October. They were up in a week. And now, early morning 02 November, they're up over four inches. All seven of 'em. I planted other varieties (mostly heirlooms) 14 and 16 Oct, and maybe 3 or 4 of those have popped up, barely. Yet here's some new stuff out of China that got so tall in just a week and a half. And it tasted wonderful.

Though I'm trying to buy american, China is growing some fine garlic, in this case anyway. Anyone else attempting China garlic?

Awaiting next year's crop,
Jay

[quote=Soilsniffer;77945]I read somewhere that China has overtaken USA for #1 in garlic production. Gilroy isn't the garlic capital any more.
------------Jay[/quote]
Let it be known that garlic grown in China lacks the chemical component neccessary to [FONT='Times New Roman']fend off[/FONT] Dracula and vampires.

dcarch:twisted:

[IMG]http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/0/08/250px-Tombofdracula.jpg[/IMG]

I could never buy garlic from the grocery ever again. Not since growing my own. The difference is unbelievable. Kind of like having an heirloom tomato and then going back to the bland, lifeless tomatoes in the store. Fresh garlic beats store garlic from anywhere in the world. Including here.

Are you sure they're really hardneck? One head of hardneck should yield 4-6 large cloves per head. So, from 5 heads I would expect 20-30 seed cloves.

Other questions to keep in mind:

How were they grown, were they chemically treated? Were they treated in some way prior to export? When were they harvested? How long will they store? Granted, if you're buying garlic only as you need it, storage won't be an issue.
But, I can tell you the flavor of freshly harvested garlic is wonderful, of course you need to let them cure for a few weeks. One last thing, you only need to buy seed garlic once. Save the largest heads for the next planting.

I've been growing the same unknown hardneck for years. This year, by chance I bought a couple of heads of Bogatyr from a local farmer. After doing some research this summer, Bogatyr will probably become my main garlic crop in the future. The descriptions I've read say this usually always produces the largest heads and storage of 9 months is common.

Won't be long before you'll read a headline like this:

Chinese Garlic Recall
Chinese garlic growers accused of stuffing "lead shaving" in garlic heads to increase weight! :-)

With all that lead over there it's a wonder China hasn't sunken out of sight and become another sea. :-)

[QUOTE] Chinese Garlic Recall
Chinese garlic growers accused of stuffing "lead shaving" in garlic heads to increase weight! :-)[/QUOTE]

[IMG]http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_11_6.gif[/IMG][IMG]http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_11_6.gif[/IMG] Good one Earl

[FONT=Times New Roman]You guys better think long and hard before you eat food grown in china.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]I heard the soil was so contaminated there that stuff like PCB’s were showing up in vegetables and the like.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]These guys don’t give a dam about their people, so what makes you think they give a dam about us.:evil: [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]They are using polluted water from industry runoff to irrigate their crops.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]Shame on companies that go for more profit at the cost of human life:x [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]Just my take on the matter,;) [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]Worth[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]

I've seen a lot of Chinese garlic stuff in our shops and markets as well. The apperance and taste are on a lower side than our local varieties produced in Belarus. But Chinese prices beat ours. That's the only reason why our people buy Chinese products.
Generally speaking agriculture of Belarus produce everything for our needs but Tropic fruits. Many friends of mine used to come to Belarus from Baltic countries and Poland (all now in EU) to buy our vegetables because of mostly organically grown technologies, an exceptional taste well-known from Soviet times and much lower prices. Their grocery stores now full of tasteful vegetable products mainly from Holland and China. They failed to support their own farmers like France always do and now they forced to go abroad to find tasty vegetables...

To expand just a bit --

All of a sudden I feel the need to defend myself. I bought supermarket garlic ... because I had to. My homegrown stash (Bogatyr, Music, the other usual suspects) ran out in four months. I agree homegrown garlic is superior, I was just sharing an observation about how much the China garlic grew in just a week. And it's up another inch since my earlier post.

Neoguy: Yep, definitely hardneck. I bought a pack of five, and two of them had the distinctive hard stem thing in the middle. The other three did not, and were two-layered.

Worth: I've 'heard' similar stories about food and other things produced in China (BESIDE the lead paint recalls lately which got a LOT of media coverage) but didn't mention anything here lest a political argument would start, which isn't my intention. I'm with you on your thoughts tho.

J

J

[IMG]http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/11/11_2_106.gif[/IMG]No offense intended here. I just ramble.....

Jay,

Next year you'll have to plant 3 times as much;)

[FONT=Times New Roman]I don’t feel you need to defend your self Jay, I buy store bought garlic all of the time.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]Probably even Chinese garlic, I had no idea they shipped garlic from China.:shock: [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]I wonder how much that poor farmer gets for his garlic.:( [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]Worth[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]I wonder how much that poor farmer gets for his garlic.[/FONT]:(

I recently purchased 10 heads of garlic in a net sack for 99cents with the lable (product of china) on it, here in Tucson. The farmer obviously got nothing for this sack of garlic. To grow in china soil, truck to dock, ship to San Diego, truck to Tucson, and me spending 3.oo for a gallon of gas to go to the gro store. It seems impossible. 8)

I don't understand. Garlic has to be the easiest crop to grow yourself, and in the space 1 tomato plant takes up, you'll harvest more than you and a family of 4 could eat in a year!. Buy it once, and grow it for life.

Bark-explain that to me please-I have never grown garlic-If I had 2 or 3 containers, large 25 gallon ones, how much garlic could I grow? When would I plant it (remember, I am in the desert Southwest in zone 8. My wife and I eat a lot of garlic.

mdvpc, I'm in Tucson, Az. and plant garlic in nov. each year and harvest at the end of may or early june when the lower leaves start to die, about 6inches apart in rich garden soil with heavy mulch to keep ground cool and even moisture while growing. I don't fertilize except to prepare the bed with composted manure and bone meal prior to planting. 8)

Tuk-I was in Tucson for 2 days last week. The weather was beautiful! Problem is, I grow only in containers, and Bark's comment was that for the space of one tomato plant, you could grow enough garlic for a family. I guess I will research this over the holiday.

[quote=barkeater;79470] ... in the space 1 tomato plant takes up, you'll harvest more than you and a family of 4 could eat in a year![/quote]

No way! I couldn't disagree more. Ultimately I s'pose, it depends on how much that family of four likes (and likes to use) garlic. Garlic planted in the space that one tomato plant takes up, will last but a month or less at my place. Way less, if you consider what I put aside to use as seed stock for the following growing season.

The Mrs and I love the stuff. If a recipe calls for two cloves of garlic, at least an entire head will go in. (And I'll bet a LOT of folks who grow their own garlic do something similar.) Sometimes we prepare a dinner based on how much garlic we have at the moment.

[quote=barkeater;79470] Garlic has to be the easiest crop to grow yourself ... [/quote]

It's easy, IF you keep the bed weeded. Garlic doesn't like competing with weeds for garden space. So the 'hard' part is the tedious task of pulling little weedlets out that have popped up thru the mulch since the LAST time the bed was weeded. So, YES you can stick a garlic clove in the ground and it'll surely sprout and eventually bear fruit ... but boy can garlic be high-maintenance with the weeding.

J

I've never been able to get the individual cloves in a head to a very large stage, either. We are fairly heavy users, so a year's worth for our family of two would take up a fair amount of space.

I planted 105 cloves in a 3'x9' bed. And, another 23 cloves in a 2'x3' bed.

mdvpc, we have been having one of the mildest falls since I've been here (25yrs) and enjoying every minute of it... lol.
Like soilsniffer (great name) and Ruth_10 said, my family can use that much in a month also. We use heads of garlic not cloves for fresh salsas and cooking alike. For some reason the last couple of years garlic heads can be found around here for 10cents and up. We are in Las Cruces this weekend visiting the grandkids and I bought some here at a farmers market for 25cents a head. This way we get to try different varieties and only grow the varieties we like the best. 8)

Tik-Well, its Saturday, and its snowing here in El Paso, probably in Cruces also.

I ordered some garlic from an organic source-going to germinate it in my greenhouse in 5 large containers-then put it out of the greenhouse and see what happens.

been raining off and on all day here in Cruces and almost cold enough, but no snow in town. I'm going back to Tucson tomorrow and thaw out....Brrrrrrrr! It is unsually warm for us and have been delaying my garlic planting this year, but won't be long before I put it in. I didn't make it to Rudy's this trip, I love the BBQ sauce with the horseradish in it. State Line is where my son and dil used to take us till I tasted Rudy's.. lol..8)

garlic
 

Ive growen garlic in 5 gallon buckets with a tomato plant as a compaion plant and it did fine,not a huge head but a decent size one.We love garlic 2 planted 12 varieties this year,looking for the best variety for salsa and hot sause for my son,we hear it's not what we're growing but o well,next year!!!!!;)

Tuk-Rudy's is good barbecue -just opened in El Paso-are you talking about going to the one on I-10 here in El Paso?

Yeah! I didn't know there was others. My son has to go to El Paso every week or two and when I'm there I go and sample the different places to eat lunch! Been bringing a couple quarts of Rudy's home each time. I haven't been able to get it right here at home, but a project in the works. We came home to Tucson sunday morning and there was snow on the ground in Cruces, but my tomatoes are still going here in Tucson. It was about 34degrees here this morning and supposed to get warmer this next week.8)

Rudys is a chain, is big in Austin, etc. I heard Cruces didnt get much snow.

your right, hardly any, when we left sunday morning there was about an inch that fell in the wee hours of the morning and disappeared by 0900hrs. My son lives in the foothills on the east side of town and the elevation is a bit higher than the city itself.
My tomato vines were in great shape when we got home sunday, but sunday night it was right at 32 and the top of some plants look a bit burned now, but this week its supposed to be back in the 70's day and 50's night. Bonnie Best and Green Zebra both are loaded with green tomatoes.8)

If you guys don't quit talking about that great BBQ you'll have to send all of us some:twisted: . Nothing like some good BBQ in the middle of winter up north!!!

BOY did this thread get hijacked.