![]() Hard-neck varieties grow with a strong central stalk, around which is a single ring of cloves, usually quite large and fat. Their flavors and spiciness are varied, and soft-neck garlic rarely sends up a stiff central stalk, so it can be made into beautiful garlic braids. Most soft-neck varieties make large bulbs which, when properly cured and stored, can be stored for many months. Soft-neck garlic grows a ring of large cloves around the perimeter of the bulb, plus another one or two rings of smaller cloves in the center. We offer varieties in the two major categories, soft-neck and hard-neck. The varieties that developed in different areas express the terroir of their locale, greatly influencing the local cuisines. ![]() Garlic has been cultivated since very ancient times. By planting the largest cloves, you’ll be rewarded with a harvest of big, juicy bulbs. Seed garlic bulbs are specifically chosen for planting because they are the healthiest bulbs with the largest cloves, and they are intact. It's from my third season growing garlic, and the end of the video shows our garlic drying rack.It’s time to buy your ‘seed’ garlic, which you should store in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place until planting time, from mid-October to mid-November. Here's a video about growing and harvesting garlic in chilly Zone 5. Info about harvesting the garlic can be found in the Garlic Harvest post. Hopefully next year will be as successful as this year. Garlic does take a bit of time from planting to harvest but it's well worth the wait. We've already ordered next year's garlic from High Mowing Seeds, this time choosing another softneck variety, "Inchellium Red". Garlic needs to be kept consistently watered but it rained quite a bit from April through July so watering wasn't necessary. The garlic was kept mulched and well weeded. Any other nutrients the garlic needed came from the soil itself. Next year we'll work the granular fertilizer into the soil before planting the garlic. The liquid fertilizer worked well once the garlic started growing because it doesn't need to be scratched into the soil which might disturb the roots of the garlic. When the plants started to sprout the following April, they were fed early on with one application of Fox Farm's All Purpose fertilzer and thereafter with weak solutions of Fox Farm's Big Bloom liquid fertilizer every 2-3 weeks. We weren't aware garlic was such a heavy feeder and didn't add any fertilizer when the cloves were planted. One pound of seed garlic filled one and a half 4' x 8' beds. The garlic plants didn't break ground until early April and were harvested at the end of July. If you added a very thick layer of straw or hay it's a good idea to remove (or at least loosen) some of the mulch once the garlic shoots break ground in the spring. Once planted, the garlic was covered in straw mulch and it snowed within a few weeks which provided even more insulation. The cloves were planted 2" deep spaced 6" apart with a row spacing of 20", which is a fairly wide spacing ratio. Planting times for garlic depend on your location - our garlic cloves get planted anywhere from late October to early November. Garlic prefers full sun and well-drained soil, lots of organic matter, and a PH of around 6.5 to 7.0 (ours is around 6.8 as per a soil test). Seed garlic isn't cheap ($23.70/pound) but once you have your first harvest, you can keep a few of the best bulbs for planting so there's no need to buy any more seed garlic the following year unless you want to try different varieties.The garlic we chose is a softneck variety called "Nootka Rose" that came from High Mowing Seeds. This was our first year growing garlic and the garlic was easy to grow, wasn't bothered by any pests or diseases and even though the seed garlic was a bit expensive upfront, the return justified the initial cost.
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