Rosewood Garlic Source?

[Adam]

Anyone know of a reputable online garlic store that sells the Rosewood variety?

It is my favorite variety, and I just gotta have it.

Thanks in advance!

[TomNJ]

Yes, you can get it from Karen & Mike here: http://www.wegrowgarlic.com/catalog

Or from Bloosquall's Garlic Farm here: http://www.bloosquallsgarlicfarm.com...cvarieties.htm

Both are very reputable and great people.

I haven't grown Rosewood - what do you like most about it?

TomNJ

[Adam]

Hey, TomNJ, thanks for the reply. I was too impatient and did some major googling and found:

http://www.bloosquallsgarlicfarm.com/

Travis there got right back to me and will be shipping me 4 pounds for about $65 which includes shipping. He prefers Paypal and I got an account so all is peachy.

I just love Rosewood. Has never failed here in zone 6. Comes with about 4 nice big cloves per bulb, has a good thick reddish wrapper, and is hot as hell. Love that hot and spicy garlic! You should try it. Great stuff.

Happy gardening to ya!

[TomNJ]

Sounds good Adam! Travis is a great guy and straight shooter.

My current favorite varieties are Estonian Red and Russian Red, but I will add Rosewood to my list for next year. I prefer large bulbs with only 4-6 fat easy peeling cloves, which Rosewood seems to meet.

My replants never seem to do as well as my virgin plantings, but Russian Red is the first exception I have found to this problem. This year I grew purchased Russian Reds alongside my own from last year's crop and my own were equal to the purchased for once. Wish I could find more that do this. I have done similar side-by-side plantings with other varieties including German White, Spanish Roja, German Red, Romanian Red, Music, and Estonian Red, and my replants are always much smaller.

TomNJ

[tjg911]

gee rosewood sounds so good i'll order some when i place an order for garlic.

tom, i have not experienced your problem. as far as i can tell when i plant from my seed i get what the original was as far as size and taste. i have read and believe your garlic will change a bit due to you soil and weather so that may be why you experience this?

a few years back i had from a friend (jorge who belonged to the local farmer's csa) music from a local og farmer in my town and it was different than the music i was growing which i got from another og farmer 15 miles west of me (who is not all that good at record keeping so i wondered if the local farmer's music was the "real" music). so i have been growing music from 2 different sources from my own seed for a few years but i can't say there is much difference between the 2 if any. in fact i suspect the "music" from jorge was not music, it had a red wrapper but when i bought it from the local farmer it was a white wrapper and is each year i grow it. so i think that garlic from jorge was something other than music. this year is another test for taste and size and if there's no real difference i'm going to stop segregating these 2 musics and just grow it without regards as to which farmer's garlic i plant this fall.

tom

[TomNJ]

Hi Tom,

My first planting each year from purchased seed stock is sometimes equal to the purchased bulbs, and sometimes smaller. It's my second planting the following year from my own replants that usually disappoints.

First year plantings from purchased bulbs that come in equal to the seed stock are German White, Music, Estonian Red, and Russian Red. Those that come in smaller are German Red, Romanian Red, Kettle River Giant, Spanish Roja, Killarney Red, Brown Tempest, Carpathian, and Legacy.

Second year planting from my own replants all come in smaller than the seed stock, except for Russian Red.

This is strange as I have read that most garlics will gradually get larger from continuous replanting as the variety acclimates to your soil and climate, but I experience the opposite. It may be related to insufficient sunshine in my garlic beds, but that does not explain why some varieties grow as large as the seed stock.

I'll keep experimenting, but will concentrate future plantings on those varieties that are working best for me.

I've got almost 90% of my garlic harvested, cleaned, sized, and hanging. Just a few dozen plants left, which I will pull in the next couple of days. Started pulling onions last week, and just got my first ripe tomato today - a Kosovo (which you sent me). Next in line to ripen will be a Wes. 61 DTM - impressive!

TomNJ

[velikipop]

Tom,

Thanks for the link to bloosqualls. I've been trying to find several varieties for next year at a reasonable price and close to my neck of the woods. He responded immediately and I was impressed with his selection. I did order Rosewood to see what it will do in my patch.

As for the size of garlic, generally mine tend to be bigger, except for this year where I had some very small and dissapointing bulbs. I think the variation has something to do with soil quality or weather related.

Alex

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by TomNJ

Hi Tom,

My first planting each year from purchased seed stock is sometimes equal to the purchased bulbs, and sometimes smaller. It's my second planting the following year from my own replants that usually disappoints.

First year plantings from purchased bulbs that come in equal to the seed stock are German White, Music, Estonian Red, and Russian Red. Those that come in smaller are German Red, Romanian Red, Kettle River Giant, Spanish Roja, Killarney Red, Brown Tempest, Carpathian, and Legacy.

Second year planting from my own replants all come in smaller than the seed stock, except for Russian Red.

This is strange as I have read that most garlics will gradually get larger from continuous replanting as the variety acclimates to your soil and climate, but I experience the opposite. It may be related to insufficient sunshine in my garlic beds, but that does not explain why some varieties grow as large as the seed stock.

I'll keep experimenting, but will concentrate future plantings on those varieties that are working best for me.

I've got almost 90% of my garlic harvested, cleaned, sized, and hanging. Just a few dozen plants left, which I will pull in the next couple of days. Started pulling onions last week, and just got my first ripe tomato today - a Kosovo (which you sent me). Next in line to ripen will be a Wes. 61 DTM - impressive!

TomNJ

i have to be honest and say i don't measure or record results so i can only say i don't think i experience this in any subsequent season with any of the 6 or 7 varieties i have grown over several years on an ongoing basis. now the only one that i might say disappoints is german red. it always seems smaller than i expected but that might just be that german white and my 2 "different" music are so big. that said, german red is probably the same each year, just smaller than i expected due to the relative size of those other 2, music tends to be really really large.

i harvested my hardnecks a bit early except for korean red which was ready to be dug when i dug it. this might be of interest to all here. the others had really hard stalk bases unlike usual when they are a bit older and not rock hard. i jumped the gun by about 10 days simply because it had been so hot and dry and the up coming forecast was for lots of rainy days over the next week. i think it was good to dig when i did since it has rained a lot and often. i've read to refrain watering the last 2 weeks but rain is unstoppable. so i dug. none of them had burst wrappers and were very nicely sized! i doubt there could have been much bulb growth had i waited another 10 days. and the biggest benefit is clean dry bulbs vs damp soil encrusted bulbs (almost muddy last year) after a period of rainy days that won't allow the soil to dry out!

this season i watered very seldom, maybe twice at the most. the rain we had was adequate but from late may we virtually no rain. june was really hot and humid with virtually no rain, july was texas heat and humidity with no rain at all. my garlic had virtually no water from late may to when i dug them at the end of the 1st week in july which covers the bulbing stage and they all look great size wise. i was told not to water garlic by a farmer because garlic originated in the siberian steppes and it seldom rains there. despite the advice to water 1" a week like onions, 2008 and now 2010 shows that lack of water does not seem to hurt my garlic. i plant 4" deep and mulch with 5-6" of shredded leaves at planting. when i remove the shredded leaves in the spring i leave 2" on the bed.

perhaps the main reason i dug early was to avoid rain. last year my garlic was in a very damp bed due to rain and it was a mess getting the wet soil off the bulbs without damaging the paper wrappers and out of the roots was very tough. in past years when it was not as wet as last season i was able to shake the soil out of the roots and the bulbs were dry. last year it took about 2 1/2 or 3 hours to dig and clean the garlic vs as when it is dry like this year i dug and cleaned them off them in just 40 minutes! this year all i had to do was shake most plants to dislodge the soil. many had very hard packed soil in the roots but it just took a few seconds to get it to fall away.

so all in all i think it is better to dig a bit early when it's been very dry like this year vs getting another 10 days of growth and have very damp soil to deal with as i certainly would have had this year by waiting those 10 days. i don't wash bulbs because while that would be a huge difference in cleaning wet soil off the bulbs i have read to keep them dry.

those are impressive dtm for kosovo and wes. are both new to you? i think i sent you seeds for both and this is the 1st year growing them for you. i picked the 1st tomatoes of the season yesterday. i ate the 1st sun golds and as usual they (3) were not sweet and mealy. for some reason my 1st sun golds stink but in a few days they are great. i picked 1 spudakee and 1 linnie's oxheart both need a few days to fully ripen but with all the rain i did not want to leave them and chance splitting or slug damage. it's exciting to have 2 tomatoes on the kitchen table!

i'm about to order russian red, estonia red, spanish roja, killarney red based upon your recommendations and an artichoke variety yet to be determined.

tom

[mjc]

I'm going to be pulling garlic soon...I planted 4 cloves of Rosewood, so I'll see how they do.

For me, yes, the second year is usually 'down', too...but from the third and following size gradually increases. I haven't kept any beyond 4 yrs, lately, but am planning on it.

[TomNJ]

Yes Tom, Kosovo and Wes are both new for me and both from your seed. So far I am impressed!

TomNJ

[tjg911]

wait 'til you taste them!

back to rosewood.... i ordered some today for fall planting.

tom

[mmcd75]

After reading about Bloomsquall Garlic Farm here I went ahead and placed an order. I have never grown garlic before so I emailed them and asked for suggestions for my area. They were really helpful and I ended up getting 2 pounds. They arrive less than a week later. This is a great company.