You're so lucky to be in an area where there are garlic festivals. Too easy to pick yourself something nice.:)

Thank you everyone! That garlic festival in CT is a little more than an hours drive, and I have to get directions for the one Carolyn mentioned in NY to see how far that is. I work every other weekend and changing that is near impossible. That means I will have to sit down with a calendar to see if either one is on my weekend off. The only problem is that if I wait until then to get it the online sources will likely be sold out of the most popular ones.

The is a place called The Garlic Farm within 15 miles of me! Who knew, lol? Never heard of them until I found them while searching the internet for seed garlic. I emailed them for information. Can't wait to see what they have.

I tried getgarlic.com last year and was very pleased. Good sized heads with large cloves and excellent customer service too.

I never realized there were [U][I]so many[/I][/U] varieties of garlic. Has anybody ever tried any of the creole garlic strains?

The Garlic Farm grows one variety. I think it's German White, a good choice but Northern White is better imo.

Ireland Farms, the source I gave you on the other thread has been the best vendor at Saugerties, and also the CT Garlic Festival. They will not be at the CT GF this year and I'm quite sure it is because the date is so late that they have had to save garlic for that event for the lasy few years, and there is always a mad rush to their booth when the fest opens on saturday.

The reason the CT fest is held so late is that they want it after but not too close to the Bethlehem Fair, which is too bad. It's a fun event and there is always good large garlic cheap.

Garlic takes a year or two to acclimatize to your conditions. NY state conditions are close.

Growing large bulbs requires virus free stock, and good soil with frequent deep watering helps. 8" spacing minimum.

If you want to try something unusual, try ivansnewgarlics.com you might ask him specifically about large bulbs.

I've gotten good stock from Filaree Farm, Hood River, WeGrowGarlic

[QUOTE=swamper;581622]Garlic takes a year or two to acclimatize to your conditions.[/QUOTE]

Interesting. Can you expound on this statement. tx

Also check that you are getting hard neck varieties which grow well in the North. I think a lot of the unusual named ones may be soft neck which are not meant for cold climates. Here is PA we are told to plant them around the Columbus Day weekend to be harvested the next July. I have planted the end of September out of necessity because of travels. I mulch them with straw over the winter. Others will have to explain the soft neck garlic as I have never grown it because I understand it will not do well here.

Just pulled all my garlic yesterday. It was a mixture of some I had had for a few years and new Red German, White German and Musik I got at last year's Pocono Garlic Festival. One of the vendors was a young man, who had the largest bulbs I have ever seen of German White and Red. I had only seen that size in Musik. I bought a couple and have pulled the largest garlic ever despite less watering and feeding than usual. I plan to get more from this young man this year.

I grow creole garlic, it tastes great raw and gets very mellow when cooked. Perfect for raw in salsa.

It does ok for me, I think I just don't water & fertilize it enough. I never dug last year's out of my raised bed, I'm curious to see how it comes back. I've grown it from saved cloves I never bothered to cure (as in cut off the top, tossed in bags in a cupboard, replanted 6 months later, it grew fine). I don't know, seems like garlic!

[QUOTE=swamper;581622]

I've gotten good stock from Filaree Farm, Hood River, WeGrowGarlic[/QUOTE]

When was the last time you ordered through WeGrowGarlic? It appears that their website's last update was 2012,and their mailbox is either full,or not operational.

I really enjoy browsing all the different offerings...

[QUOTE=MarianneW;581783]I grow creole garlic, it tastes great raw and gets very mellow when cooked. Perfect for raw in salsa.

It does ok for me, I think I just don't water & fertilize it enough. I never dug last year's out of my raised bed, I'm curious to see how it comes back. I've grown it from saved cloves I never bothered to cure (as in cut off the top, tossed in bags in a cupboard, replanted 6 months later, it grew fine). I don't know, seems like garlic![/QUOTE]

Nice. I never really gave it much thought. Always like a small garlic patch, but moreso, interested in a different flav for the palate - as local grocery has the generic soft neck, but also elephant, however, seems dry and not very pungent. have a nice little tucked away spot for October planting.....

Well, as luck would have it, the 2 Garlic Festivals mentioned here are 2 weeks apart, and I work every other weekend, both of which are on my weekends to work. So, I placed an order with Filaree Farm as that seemed to be the name that came up as a recommended source the most frequently. It was a toss up between them and getgarlic.com. I still plan to get a few from my local garlic farm, also, where I can pick my heads of garlic out myself. Thank you all for your recommendations!

Well, I visited The Garlic Farm today, which is local, and was able to find several heads of seed garlic in the 2.75-3.00" range, which I was very happy with. The variety they grow is German White. At least that is what they grew this year. It might be the same year to year. I received an email from the owner, Gary, in response to my question in which he stated "this year’s seed is a very large, extra hardy German white.( this years harvest was one of the largest crops in 20 years ) We grow several strains of German white"... He did not elaborate on the strains, but the 2.75- 3" heads I found is more what I was looking for. At least for 12.00/lb, lol, which seems to be the going rate both locally and on the internet. Agway already has their seed garlic in they tell me, so I will look there and maybe by buying early I can find some nice large heads of Music and if I am lucky, maybe I will see some Northern White I can try at SWAMPER's recommendation. If I can get 3 inch heads locally, I see no reason to buy 2 inch heads over the internet, much less 1.75" heads. I might consider buying the 3" heads locally and selling them online for 15.00/lb. Think I could get it? :lol:

If I don' t get good sized garlic bulbs from this I should just give up. :) The smaller head is my largest head of garlic this year.

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I think you will be fine.

Worth