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Old October 10, 2015   #46
svalli
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My favorite is an unknown originally Russian variety, which I got from a colleague's father-in-law. It may be an porcelain hardneck, since it has usually only four large cloves. It is a good producer this far north and stores well. Taste is quite strong, but not too pungent for eating raw.

I got my garlic bed in our field ready today and planted 36 Elephant Garlic and 120 of the Russian garlic cloves. Then it got too dark to plant anything and we had to head back home. I'll go back next weekend to plant rest of the cloves.

I have some tiny bulbs, which I grew from previous season's bulbils and some bigger bulbils which grew in the stems of the softnecks this summer. I will plant those tomorrow in a raised bed here in our city yard, because those are too small to plant to the field.
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Old October 10, 2015   #47
Ricky Shaw
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A terrific thread! You're a guru of garlic and the pictures are a festival for the eyes.
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Old October 11, 2015   #48
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I am not a guru at all. I have only experience from two successful garlic growing seasons. I just have a habit of getting obsessed with some plant species and start reading everything I can find about the subject. I really recommend Ted Jordan Meredith's book The Complete Book of Garlic. I spent last winter reading the book and dreaming about the cloves buried in the snow covered field.

I wish I had learned years ago how easy it is to grow garlic. My earlier trials were totally wrong, since I tried planting store bought cloves spring time and without vernalization. Those produced just small rounds.

Now I am trying to find the best garlic varieties for growing in our climate. I could just be happy growing one hardneck variety, but it would not satisfy my obsessive nature.

Sari
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Old October 11, 2015   #49
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Old sage or not, you made the subject interesting, I was encouraged to learn three times as much as I knew about garlic before this thread. I didn't know softneck and hardneck, from redneck. Now I do.

I'm thinking on my softneck I will bend them over when a quarter or a third of the leaves have browned, and not wait till half or more. The top wrappers get so dry in just a couple of months in this arid high plains climate.

I've just been storing mine in the cool basement pantry. Do you put yours in the fridge after harvest and drying?

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Old October 11, 2015   #50
PhilaGardener
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I believe that if you store your garlic in the fridge, it will trigger sprouting.
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Old October 11, 2015   #51
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I don't believe you want to bend the tops over like onions. Rather I believe you want to dig up the bulbs when there are around 5 dried leaves on the bottom of the plants with the upper leaves still green. YMMV

http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/
Log in here then go to the "Garlic Information Center" tab

You can also make arrangements for purchases here. I am not connected to this site in any way. But I have purchased "seed" cloves here and was very satisfied.

Len
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Old October 12, 2015   #52
svalli
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The garlic, which we consume, is kept in room temperature. Previous season's garlic was still edible, but not juicy anymore, when we harvested the new crop.

PhilaGardener is correct about the sprouting triggered by refrigeration. The spring planted garlic is usually vernalized in the refrigerator. Last year I got some cloves for planting from clearance at a garden center in end of November. It was too late for planting them, so I kept them in the refrigerator till March. Then I planted the cloves in pots and put in my unheated greenhouse and planted in ground in end of May, when the ground had thawed.

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