My first try with Garlic...

gssgarden · June 6, 2008

How'd I do? Georgian Fire from SSE. They were tied together in two clumps and hung in my garage. 4-6 weeks right?
I think this was the easiest thing I've grown. Put it in the ground, water, snip, and dig. So easy, even an idiot like me can grow it.

Greg

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jhp · June 6, 2008

I agree! So easy and also so good. I really love the taste of home grown garlic. I also love things that you plant in the fall and then bam, there it is in the spring!

Don't forget to save some to replant this fall.

Jen

OmahaJB · June 21, 2008

It's been an easy crop for me as well. My first time growing garlic. Planted last fall and in the spring had some nice 'stalks' come up. Really thick stalks on the larger varieties. Mine are still in the ground here in zone 5. I believe harvest-time will be towards the end of July if I'm remembering correctly.

I need to read up on it again though. There is something that's growing that I'm pretty sure holds garlic seed(?). There are a few of those 'pods' of decent size. I know there's something called a scape but I doubt that's what that is. As I said, I need to read up on it today!

Happy with what I see growing above ground, and looking forward in seeing how big the garlic ends up being.

Greg, were you happy with the amount of garlic SSE sent to you? I doubt I'll have to buy any in the fall since I can save some of what I'm growing now to plant, but in case I do I'm interested in knowing how generous they are with their orders. Hopefully someone will answer your question regarding how long to hang them in your garage. I'm curious about that too.

Jeff

neoguy · June 21, 2008

Jeff,

The flower top is called a scape and they should get pinched off if you want a larger head of cloves. I pinch mine as they begin to curl. I'm in northeast Ohio, I normally harvest around the 4th of July.

neoguy · June 21, 2008

By the way, scapes are edible when young and tender. Many farmers markets sell them. Be sure to remove the flowering top part, chop the rest and use in a stir fry. I made a pesto last week. There are many recipes on line if do a Google search.

Greg, your garlic looks great, sorry for the hijack.

OmahaJB · June 21, 2008

Thanks for the info, neoguy. The scapes are very long now so I can see I should have broken them off weeks ago. I'm learning as I go with this year's garden.

neoguy · June 21, 2008

Jeff,

Don't worry about the size of the heads, we all live and learn. The important thing to appreciate is the flavor of the garlic you grow, regardless of size, is superior to what you buy in a grocery store, IMHO.

henry · June 25, 2008

A month is plenty of time for drying unless it is cold and damp where you are.

Henry

gssgarden · June 27, 2008

The SSE sent a instruction sheet with it with everything you need to do. VERY helpful for us first timers. And very simple too. They are hanging in the garage and should be ready by mid-July. They recomend 4-6 weeks. Looking foward to them.
Omaha, they sent three bulbs with just a few cloves per bulb. I was very late to order so this was all they had left. I didn't care as long as I got them. Plus, I love hot garlic, my wife doesn't but

I'm going to try three different ones next year. Just have to do some research about them.

Greg

OmahaJB · July 6, 2008

Greg,

Just noticed your post, which was good timing since I harvested a few bulbs yesterday and wanted to make sure I knew how long to dry them. I'll go with 4 weeks. I harvested what I believe are the softnecks, Inchelium & French. The others I believe are hardnecks, but don't quote me on that - Music, Russian & Yugoslavian. They don't seem to be in a hurry to have their leaves turn brown. I'm guessing two more weeks for them. All of those have VERY thick stalks so I'm guessing the bulbs will be large.

I've never been much of a garlic eater but will have to experiment a bit. Saw a chef on PBS yesterday after I got home from working in the garden. As luck would have it he showed how to chop up garlic, something I did not know or had ever done. He had a wide knife that he turned sideways so it was flat against the clove. Smashed the clove, then chopped the pieces moving the knife from top to bottom, then side to side which basically diced the garlic into tiny pieces. In this case he put it into Extra Virgin olive oil which was heating on the stove. Then dropped shrimp into the oil & garlic in the pan. He added a bunch of stuff afterwards. Gave me some ideas for the future. And like I said, I didn't know exactly how to use garlic as far as breaking it down to size. I thought maybe it was grated or something.

4 of those 5 cloves are drying at my mother's house. She said she would tie them up to dry. I brought the smallest one back here to my apartment and it has a real nice smell, for garlic of course. I wouldn't want to wear it as a cologne.

It's nice to be able to harvest something since I planted everything else but potatoes out so late.

Jeff

bbb123 · July 8, 2008

Here is a picture of my first attempt at garlic. Dug it up today was pretty easy to grow I will mulch it good next year little to much weeding. Planted Oct. last year. It was about 1/2 pound of small cloves I planted.

OmahaJB · July 8, 2008

Looks good 'bbb123'. It is amazing to me that one little clove can grow into a large bulb of several cloves. When I harvested a few bulbs last weekend a couple of those were real nice sized, and they were the two smallest varieties of the ones I started last fall. Saturday I'll be looking to see if the other 3 varieties are ready.

Just curious, does anyone here use their garlic when they first harvest it? Or is it definitely necessary to wait until it's been drying for 4 weeks? The reason I ask is I brought the smallest clove home with me to dry and eventually use, and I'll probably use it this weekend.

henry · July 8, 2008

You can use garlic as soon as you dig it, it will be a bit milder the when it is fully dry but it is very nice fresh.

Henry

outsiders71 · July 8, 2008

Bah, I'm still waiting for my garlic to finish. I just finished pinching off the flower scapes, and as people mentioned they are very good fried and cooked up in foods. I've heard that leaving the scapes on reduces the bulb size, but to me you can use the scapes as cloves so you can't really lose.

tjg911 · July 9, 2008

"pinch" bothers me, these are not suckers on tomatoes (which i used to cut with a knife now i do not) scapes are hard and need to be cut with a knife - you want a clean cut at an angle so water runs off. cut at 1 full curl and i do it early in the day on a day that is sunny so the cut will dry and scab over.

i cure my garlic 4 or 5 weeks. if i cut the stalk and it is moist i let them sit another week or 2.

i think garlic is way too mild after curing and it takes a few weeks for it to flavor up. initially last year i was disappointed but found they tasted much better after a few weeks.

tom

June 6, 2008	#1
gssgarden Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: N.C. Posts: 1,820	My first try with Garlic... How'd I do? Georgian Fire from SSE. They were tied together in two clumps and hung in my garage. 4-6 weeks right? I think this was the easiest thing I've grown. Put it in the ground, water, snip, and dig. So easy, even an idiot like me can grow it. Greg 008.jpg 009.jpg

June 25, 2008	#8
henry Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Midway B.C. Canada Posts: 311	A month is plenty of time for drying unless it is cold and damp where you are. Henry __________________ Henry

July 8, 2008	#13
henry Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Midway B.C. Canada Posts: 311	You can use garlic as soon as you dig it, it will be a bit milder the when it is fully dry but it is very nice fresh. Henry __________________ Henry

June 6, 2008	#2
jhp Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Danbury, CT Posts: 464	I agree! So easy and also so good. I really love the taste of home grown garlic. I also love things that you plant in the fall and then bam, there it is in the spring! Don't forget to save some to replant this fall. Jen

June 21, 2008	#3
OmahaJB Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Toledo, OH Posts: 1,821	It's been an easy crop for me as well. My first time growing garlic. Planted last fall and in the spring had some nice 'stalks' come up. Really thick stalks on the larger varieties. Mine are still in the ground here in zone 5. I believe harvest-time will be towards the end of July if I'm remembering correctly. I need to read up on it again though. There is something that's growing that I'm pretty sure holds garlic seed(?). There are a few of those 'pods' of decent size. I know there's something called a scape but I doubt that's what that is. As I said, I need to read up on it today! Happy with what I see growing above ground, and looking forward in seeing how big the garlic ends up being. Greg, were you happy with the amount of garlic SSE sent to you? I doubt I'll have to buy any in the fall since I can save some of what I'm growing now to plant, but in case I do I'm interested in knowing how generous they are with their orders. Hopefully someone will answer your question regarding how long to hang them in your garage. I'm curious about that too. Jeff

June 21, 2008	#4
neoguy Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2007 Location: NE Ohio Posts: 610	Jeff, The flower top is called a scape and they should get pinched off if you want a larger head of cloves. I pinch mine as they begin to curl. I'm in northeast Ohio, I normally harvest around the 4th of July.

June 27, 2008	#9
gssgarden Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: N.C. Posts: 1,820	The SSE sent a instruction sheet with it with everything you need to do. VERY helpful for us first timers. And very simple too. They are hanging in the garage and should be ready by mid-July. They recomend 4-6 weeks. Looking foward to them. Omaha, they sent three bulbs with just a few cloves per bulb. I was very late to order so this was all they had left. I didn't care as long as I got them. Plus, I love hot garlic, my wife doesn't but I'm going to try three different ones next year. Just have to do some research about them. Greg

July 6, 2008	#10
OmahaJB Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Toledo, OH Posts: 1,821	Greg, Just noticed your post, which was good timing since I harvested a few bulbs yesterday and wanted to make sure I knew how long to dry them. I'll go with 4 weeks. I harvested what I believe are the softnecks, Inchelium & French. The others I believe are hardnecks, but don't quote me on that - Music, Russian & Yugoslavian. They don't seem to be in a hurry to have their leaves turn brown. I'm guessing two more weeks for them. All of those have VERY thick stalks so I'm guessing the bulbs will be large. I've never been much of a garlic eater but will have to experiment a bit. Saw a chef on PBS yesterday after I got home from working in the garden. As luck would have it he showed how to chop up garlic, something I did not know or had ever done. He had a wide knife that he turned sideways so it was flat against the clove. Smashed the clove, then chopped the pieces moving the knife from top to bottom, then side to side which basically diced the garlic into tiny pieces. In this case he put it into Extra Virgin olive oil which was heating on the stove. Then dropped shrimp into the oil & garlic in the pan. He added a bunch of stuff afterwards. Gave me some ideas for the future. And like I said, I didn't know exactly how to use garlic as far as breaking it down to size. I thought maybe it was grated or something. 4 of those 5 cloves are drying at my mother's house. She said she would tie them up to dry. I brought the smallest one back here to my apartment and it has a real nice smell, for garlic of course. I wouldn't want to wear it as a cologne. It's nice to be able to harvest something since I planted everything else but potatoes out so late. Jeff

July 8, 2008	#14
outsiders71 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ohio Posts: 150	Bah, I'm still waiting for my garlic to finish. I just finished pinching off the flower scapes, and as people mentioned they are very good fried and cooked up in foods. I've heard that leaving the scapes on reduces the bulb size, but to me you can use the scapes as cloves so you can't really lose.

July 9, 2008	#15
tjg911 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: zone 5b northwest connecticut Posts: 2,570	"pinch" bothers me, these are not suckers on tomatoes (which i used to cut with a knife now i do not) scapes are hard and need to be cut with a knife - you want a clean cut at an angle so water runs off. cut at 1 full curl and i do it early in the day on a day that is sunny so the cut will dry and scab over. i cure my garlic 4 or 5 weeks. if i cut the stalk and it is moist i let them sit another week or 2. i think garlic is way too mild after curing and it takes a few weeks for it to flavor up. initially last year i was disappointed but found they tasted much better after a few weeks. tom