[svalli]

I am planning to go plant garlic tomorrow. It is a bit later than last year since after a crappy summer we had warmer than normal fall until this week, when got first frosts, which were actually really hard frosts.

I am going to plant mainly hardnecks now, since in our climate the softnecks do that partial bolting thing. I spent quite much money to get new hardneck varieties and elephant garlic. I did not find any elephant garlic vendors in Finland so, I ordered the seed cloves from The Garlic Farm, which is on the Isle of Wight in UK. I will also plant some of my own hardneck harvest and maybe one softneck which did not bolt so much. I may leave Spanish Morado, which is a hardneck, for spring planting, because it seemed to produce bigger and more even quality heads when planted during spring.

That stem bending thing before harvest is recommended for softneck garlic. Harnecks may be difficult to bend. I harvested my garlic when half of the leaves or about 5-6 of them are still green. Number of green leaves indicate number of intact bulb wrappers.

Usually only some of the wild garlic varieties produce viable true seed, so I wonder, if Charlie's garlic is a true garlic or are the seeds the bulbils, which grow in the flowering stalk?

Sari