Your favourite garlic varieties
 

I'm curious about the garlic varieties that do best for people in different places.
Which ones do you prefer, and why? Which are the earliest, or the hardiest, or biggest, or tastiest in your farm or garden?

I've been growing up garlic from bulbils for a few years, but got a windfall of seed garlic that was left over after helping to plant at the farm last fall. So I built a couple of new beds, and I have some new varieties. It's early season here, and there are some big differences in the different garlics.

This bed has two varieties in it: Argentina on the left, and Spanish Roja on the right. Argentina is the earliest of all and really vigorous. Spanish Roja came up quite a bit later. The cloves were a good size and these did well at the farm, but it's colder at my site I think.

This bed had garlic in it two years ago and peppers last year. I had to dig the bed completely and lay cardboard beneath because fireweed was creeping in from below. Planted here are Music which I grew up from bulbils, in the first two rows, and the rest are New York White - a softneck.
Wire and whatnot are to keep moose from walking through it.

The bed for my rounds was made last, and planted in really cold wet weather. I don't know if that's why there are so many misses. :?!?::( Not sure which end the rows start from but there are a few different varieties in here: Spanish Roja, Chesnok Red, Music and Persian Star. May have lost the SR and my last Chesnoks. I had a lot of Persian Star rounds and have a couple of patches of the smaller ones elsewhere in the garden that are up and doing fine.

and the bulbils
 

And of course the bulbils were really last. Most of these are Music this year, one of the small tubs is of Argentina from the couple of plants I had last summer (and did fantastic in spite of the crappy weather). The black pot is Kostyn's Red Russian, looking big! and the white pot, Susan Delafield. These came from Nicky's swap and were planted late winter, and are looking just as good as the others. :) The bulbils have only been up a week or so.

My favorite is, "Free" :)

I'm curious to what varieties others like to grow too. So far, Elephant garlic has grown pretty well for us.

Free and fresh. :yes: Garlic keeps really well in the kitchen here, I'm sure it would last the full year if I grow enough - this year, I may have enough. :lol:
But then, like tomatoes.. can you ever have too many varieties? :surprised:

I had some sulfur based fertilizer and used it on the garlic every time I fertilized.

I used a whole head in my salsa and the smell almost took me out and this is a person that can eat it raw.
I had to turn the evacuation fan on in the garage. :lol:


Worth

I have many varieties growing this year. I really don't know which is good right now, but pskem has been the strongest growing so far.

Big thick stems. It's produced scapes and has been the earliest one to do so.

Me and a cousin planted around 700 cloves last fall...
600 me
100 him
I planted Music,Bogatyr, Purple Italian, Early California, Late California...
He planted I have no idea...then gave them some kind of nitrate ammonia, or something which
killed most of his garlic, and part of my California's
Bogatyr and Music are huge my best garlic this year.

I've tried several hardnecks, but the one that consistently beats out everything else is one called German White which I bought directly from the farmer at a garlic festival about five years ago. It never lets me down, and is nice and hot and juicy.

I also bought Music seed stock at that same festival from a different farmer. After two good years, it started doing poorly and I eventually stopped re-planting.

I tried German Red and Spanish Roja, but they weren't happy here, so I gave them up after two years.

For last year I bought seed stock for Siberian and Metechi. I had a total crop failure with Metechi, and managed to harvest about 50% of the Siberian.

This year I'm growing Music from new stock and it's doing well. I also replanted most of the Siberian harvest, but germination was spotty. This might be it's last year.

German White, of course, is doing great -- 100% germination and big healthy stalks.

Music is definitely a good garlic for us, and I'm impressed with how quickly it grew up from bulbils - faster than I expected for sure.

But I must admit, I'm a sucker for the big vigorous plants like Argentina - the lead over the others is amazing. German White sounds like another porcelain worth looking out for!

I haven't tried any Marbled Purple Stripe here yet, except for the Kostyn's Red Russian bulbils that just sprouted, which I'm pretty excited about.:) Bogatyr and Pskem both sound excellent. The vigorous have the best chance in a short iffy season like ours... if they can take it.

In Purple Stripes, the Chesnok Red got a lot smaller last year than the bulb I started with the year before. It was cold and I picked a bad spot with more shade than they liked. The Chesnok have small cloves anyway and so the smaller bulbs had even tinier cloves... :( They're the last left in my larder because such a PIA to peel. :lol: Persian Star were pretty small too but the rounds did well so they're getting a foothold and looking worth the real estate... in a year or two, maybe. But so far, I'm still looking for purple stripey things that are big and burly. :roll:

I think there's lots of sulfur in the soil here so never heard of anyone adding sulfur in fertilizer... and the garlic and onions seem plenty strong. :yes: I'm all about the delicious raw garlic, use the rasp to liquify it into some EVOO, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper and the herb of your choice or some fine parmesan and heaven, thank you. :D

I wish I could grow real garlic here.:(
The creole is what I heard does the best of the hard necks.
I also read on line you couldn't grow good garlic from store bought cloves.
Hog wash I just did this year.
The trick is knowing when to pull it what size cloves to plant and when to plant it.
One 5 X1 2 bed is going to be devoted to garlic next year maybe two 5X12 beds.
Worth

Worth, I read I believe that the softnecks do better in the south.
Creole, maybe it's good?
Hopefully someone will chime in about varieties that do well without much winter too.

The one I have called 'Argentina' came from a friend who got it in Nova Scotia. I tried searching online but couldn't find information about it. But I did find that Argentina the country is one of the world's biggest producers of garlic, all kinds afaict.:surprised:
Not sure if they have more winter than you do, I'd be surprised.

Bower artichoke is all I have tried to grow.
Elephant should do well but it isn't a true garlic.
Argentina is a big long country with many climates and altitudes suitable for anything.
Worth

It depends on what you are looking for in garlic; taste, size, or longevity. Here in the PNW Russian Red grows best. My favorites are rocamboles because they have great taste, not really hot, but wonderful for roasting. German Hardy, Polish and Korean Red always produce really wonderful heads and keep well into January. If you can get Kettle River Giant it will last well into the spring and , of course, you have to grow Yugoslavian and Spanish Roja.

Check out some of the resources on the web to see what is available and what does well in your zone.

Alex

It looks like Germany Hardy, German Extra Hardy, and German White are the same. :)
[URL]http://www.rickertville.com/garlic-varieties.html[/URL]
Note to Worth: this one mentions Florida and South Texas as hard places to grow certain vars.
Kettle River Giant is one of the artichoke types and can be grown further south according to:
[URL]https://www.mmmgarlic.com/types-of-garlic/kettle-river-giant-garlic/[/URL]
They look big!! Grow these and make us all jealous. ;)
Our New York White btw is also a softneck and quite a decent garlic to grow, but not as big as the Kettle Creek!

Spanish Roja is the only rocambole I've tried yet... delicious and really nice. It did well at the farm, so I hope it's just a little later here.

There's another rocambole, recommended for northern situations called Italian Purple or Purple Italian - there's also a softneck by that name so wondering if PMCGrady has the rocambole or the softneck? Let us know how they do pmc.

My thought, as with tomatoes, is to try out as many as feasible, and find which ones can tolerate my situation. Thick with white frost this morning.... shockin.

I grow Inchelium Red garlic its an artichoke variety and my favorite of the varieties that I have grown... I do grow a hard neck German Extra Hardy I grew about 15 varieties and picked the one that did the best and it happened to be the earliest as well so now my main crop is inchelium Red and I grow a few hard neck because people at the farmers market want to try a hard neck...

This article talks about a few others that do well in TX - [URL]http://www.texasgardener.com/pastissues/sepoct07/Garlic.html[/URL]

I'm learning. Right now I have all hardnecks in the ground. Chesnok Red, German Red, Polish Jen, and Music. Chesnok Red will always stay. I love cooking with it. Amazing garlic soup. Of the other 3, I'm not sure which will stay. But, I have a list of more to try next planting. Interesting Creoles.

A few years ago I ordered a great many varieties from Boundary , I grew them to find a favourite and we had a tasting at my community garden. They were all hardnecks, I seem to remember that the clear winner here was Red Russian and we had two distinct different types. The newly purchased one and my own one that started off as commercial Red Russian that has adapted over many years to my area. After all the different ones I decided I liked my own Red Russian the best and that is all I grow now.

Starting off with a disclaimer - never met a garlic that I did NOT like. That said, I prefer the large bulbs/large cloves because of the ease of peeling (arthritic hands). Every year I still grow a few "new to me" varieties but always Fish Lake, Northern Quebec, Leningrad, Red Russian.

My grow-outs of rounds and bulbils are out of control - I had them too crowded (can't waste any now) in too small a space (all that was available) and then the darn crows/ravens pulled the labels out just for fun. I did have a map, of course, but now I cannot really distinguish the rows. Guess we will just go with what grows best and biggest and call it Prince George Special.

Am so glad when Henry pops in with advice as I get the new varieties from him. Nice to have a local mentor who is familiar with our climate and growing conditions.

I can jump onboard of that disclaimer too. :love:
Funny about the ravens, I had some panic this spring when I found my garlic mulch (grass clippings this time) was being torn up by some animal, which turned out to be my black beauties. I thought they may have been digging for the bit of bone meal but it turned out there were lots of worms and carpenters under the mulch so they weren't meaning to dig. :twisted: They did actually dig some of the horseradish I planted, but thankfully there are a good dozen little shoots still coming up.
When we got new stock for the farm a couple years ago we also tried Leningrad and Northern Quebec. The Leningrad didn't do well either here or at the farm so they stopped growing it, and the four I grew out last year from my one bulb were not worth replanting.
Northern Quebec is amazing! Beautiful big plant and hefty cloves. Still being grown at the farm, but there weren't any left over last fall for me to poach. :lol:
These were seed garlics bought from Nova Scotia, so perhaps Henry's strain of Leningrad is a better one. The Kostyn's Red Russian bulbils I got in the swap must have been from his stock originally. It'll be my first Red Russian type, so excited. :D
I'm hoping Henry will pop in at some point and tell us about his own favourites and/or the exciting new ones he has on trial.8-)

I have not been growing garlic that long. Someone here, sorry I already forgot? Gave me some hardnecks from Wisconsin. He was growing them for 20 years. They are huge, stored well for hardnecks. I also grow Killarney Red. A Rocambole. In another spot I have softnecks and grow Idaho Silver. I like all three of these and continue to grow them. Here is the Wisconsin Heirloom. On the right are two Killarney Red. Shorter, more leaves, and fan like structure.
I have three small beds. Wish I had more room in my suburban postage stamp of a lot!
[URL="http://s128.photobucket.com/user/whitenoise_photo/media/001_15.jpg.html"][IMG]http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p181/whitenoise_photo/001_15.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Ditto on the garlic disclaimer... provided that they are winter hardy in my climate & produce large bulbs.

Bogatyr and Ron's Single Center are two of the strongest flavored. Carpati was in that category also, but my stock was destroyed by aster yellows in 2012, and I have yet to replace it.:(

Vic's, Special Idaho, Old Homestead, German Extra Hardy, Jurjevich, Persian Star, and Pskem are some of the most dependable. They produce large bulbs and/or large cloves. I tried Music once, and it did poorly, so I gave up on it... but it was in a poorly drained location that year (I was still learning proper garlic culture) so I may need to give it another try.

35 varieties in the ground at present, and after several bad years, this may be the last try for some of them if they don't size up. Everything is a little behind this year due to weather (no scapes yet) but they all look healthy, so this should be a good year.

In the best years, artichoke varieties will out-perform the hardnecks; but their winter hardiness is "iffy" here, and they are much more sensitive to excess soil moisture. Last year was a very wet Spring, and some of the artichokes produced only rounds, or very small bulbs - with numerous stem cloves. I planted a lot of those cloves, in the hope that bulbs grown from them may leave behind any soil-borne diseases, and lead to larger bulbs.

Interesting about German Extra Hardy & German White being possibly the same; I grow both, so I'll be observing them closely for any differences.

Chances are, Drew, that the vigorous garlic from Wisconsin is Martin's Heirloom... he posts on this board, so you may get an answer from him.

[QUOTE=Worth1;564669]I wish I could grow real garlic here.:(
The creole is what I heard does the best of the hard necks.
I also read on line you couldn't grow good garlic from store bought cloves.
Hog wash I just did this year.
The trick is knowing when to pull it what size cloves to plant and when to plant it.
One 5 X1 2 bed is going to be devoted to garlic next year maybe two 5X12 beds.
Worth[/QUOTE]

Have you tried buying some stock from Yong Farms? They're in AZ and so the garlic is adapted to warm,southern environment. Although,they are at a slight altitude so cooler than you would expect.

[QUOTE=Tracydr;565416]Have you tried buying some stock from Yong Farms? They're in AZ and so the garlic is adapted to warm,southern environment. Although,they are at a slight altitude so cooler than you would expect.[/QUOTE]

Now I haven't.
I have been all over Arizona many times.
And seen the goof balls from New Orleans I worked with not bring a coat to Flag Staff. :))

Worth

That Killarney Red is beautiful. I've read that it's a great variety for cool and wet situations. Guess that's us. :twisted:

[QUOTE=bower;565436]That Killarney Red is beautiful. I've read that it's a great variety for cool and wet situations. Guess that's us. :twisted:[/QUOTE]

Yes, and the Idaho Silver softneck does well here too. It's a big bulb for softneck, Has excellent shelf life too. I consume the hardneck first, since the soft lasts longer, here is a braid from last year's harvest of Idaho Silver.
[URL="http://s128.photobucket.com/user/whitenoise_photo/media/001_8.jpg.html"][IMG]http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p181/whitenoise_photo/001_8.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Here is the Wisconsin heirloom cloves.
[URL="http://s128.photobucket.com/user/whitenoise_photo/media/003_5.jpg.html"][IMG]http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p181/whitenoise_photo/003_5.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Thanks all for listing your favorites. I will definitely have to try some! The ones I have work well, all the same fun trying new ones. I never grew a porcelain, so I have to do that! Just a note, the photo of the plants is from saved seed. Such as what is pictured above. I planted those bad boys!

Drew
I was the source of your " Wisc." garlic. I live in central Illinois and have been growing it for 30 years. It is an unknown variety to me. A good fist sized bulb that stores well for many months with that good strong garlic taste.

One chef I sell to takes all the scapes the crop produces. What he does with them is beyond me. I dropped off a good 30 plus lbs. yesterday, with more to come. After a long drive the car still reeks with a strong garlic odor.

The longer you plant that variety the better it gets. It's virtually foolproof.