Garlic Questions

[Elaine de Saxe]

Photos of what might be 'Italian' garlic, just pulled this morning. I bought the planting material from an Italian woman at a market, so whether the variety originated in Italy or not, I don't know.

Anyway ... I planted out the individual bulbs in mid-March 2009 and they grew quickly (in relation to Elephant Garlic) to be ready to harvest now in mid-July.

I notice some bulblets on the stem - second and third pix - are these plantlets to be put in the ground now or do I need to wait until Autumn again?

I've mostly grown Elephant Garlic which is a different species and with some differences in its life cycle to the traditional garlic.

Any info will be very useful :-)

[Mark Thomson]

I rekon those that we planted came from an organic supply. But where in Australia there origin was I do not know. We will just have to pull our socks up and develop and grow our own Botique Brissy garlic that can be cultivated and shared amongst ourselves. If some of us have good material that performs well we should regrow it again and again. The best from the group could be taste tested and rated. then we go again for another year and improve our Botique Brissy garlic through a process of development. sort of like seed saving but bulb saving.... ? Imagin an event such as a "garlic get together and taste off" at the end of every season. A Stink Fest , ha ha.
I know in the plant world the word providence is given to a species who's origins are based on a regional area. Climate, soil, cultivation, have a roll in developing different providence strains... eg the diversity in garlic varieties. I know that some growers actually trial many providences of garlic before settling on one that grows well as a commercial crop for them ...
I would love to be able to grow this plant in volume because we eat absolutly heaps of it .....

[Donna]

Sounds great Mark, count me in - we go through heaps of garlic too! As I had a success with the elephant garlic, I am going to save some for replanting as it is good to get a milder garlic taste sometimes as well.

I will also keep my eyes open for different Australian true garlic throughout summer to trial this year. Fingers crossed that I get a bit more time to document exactly what I planted and put a few cloves of each in different locations so I can record the type of soil and sun that it received.

Pretty sure I have read somewhere that it takes about ten growing seasons for a plant to become climatically altered.

[Mark Thomson]

I always wondered how long this process of development would take.

Just think all those lost local providence plants that are already gone from europe since medevial times.....

[Donna]

It is really scary when reading both Seed Saving Handbook (Fanton's) and Digger's books (Clive Blazey) to realise just how much has been lost - it is about 90% *so far* with more being lost all the time. That is what inspired me to found a local seed network to save heirloom & heritage OP sees of locally adapted varieties (where possible).

While looking for the % quote from above, I did find this:
The Seed Savers Handbook - Michele & Jude Fanton
Generally, when putting a new variety in your garden, any individual that shows a natural ease of growth should be selected. In this way a new range of characteristics will develop and become features of the plant over the years. After a decade of observation and selection you will have your own strain of seeds to offer, suited to your own region.

[Elaine de Saxe]

Don't laugh! There are Garlic Festivals in the States and other places. Just Google 'garlic festival' and be amazed! At one of the festivals in the States among other garlic delights is garlic ice cream. The mind boggles :-O.

[Donna]

Looks like Gatton Research Station have developed a softneck garlic that is suited to hot climates - but it costs a lot for seed stock!

http://www.garlicfarmsales.com.au/c/1914/1/hot-climate-garlic-.html

http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/horticulture/5251.html

Glenlarge and Southern Glen are superior large-cloved varieties developed at Gatton Research Station, they are the highest yielding and have a light purpling of the outer skin. Southern Glen matures approximately 1 to 2 weeks before Glenlarge. The old medium and small purple varieties (probably of Taiwanese origin) are now rarely grown commercially because of their small clove size. Apart from South African White, which tends to produce a high percentage of small cloves, most other imported and southern strains have failed to produce bulbs. Giant Russian garlic, which is really a member of the leek family, is grown but the market potential appears to be limited.

Plant from mid-March to early April. Later plantings result in a reduction in bulb size. Garlic requires a cool growing season.
Around a 5 to 10 fold return on planting material weight can be expected under good crop management conditions.

[Addy]

I can't remember when I planted my garlic - actually, I think I'd left last year's crop in the soil, and they've sprouted and grown. They are flowering now. My question is - when do you harvest the bulbs? Do you wait till the leaves go brown, or soon after the flowers die off?

[Donna]

All the information I found suggested before 2/3 of the leaves had died and gone brown - not to wait until they all did. Some of mine had flowers and some the flowers had set seed before I harvested, I still have a couple in the ground that were planted later.

[Elaine de Saxe]

If they are flowering now, then I would harvest now. Anyway it's way too hot for garlic and you stand a good chance of losing the lot to rot in this humidity.

I harvest when the necks start to fall over maybe giving meaning to the term 'soft neck' - I'd never heard that one!

The Elephant Garlic doesn't fall over in the same way but it looks past its best, leaves getting lighter grey, just generally don't look as though they are thriving. The sooner you get them out of the ground in the hot weather the better as far as I am concerned. Let them dry out slowly in the shade and when dry, chop off tops or plait and trim roots and store in a cool dry place.

[Addy]

I dug up most of the garlic this AM, all single bulbs :(

[Elaine de Saxe]

That's all they were going to be this season. The single bulb thing seems to be an intermediate step for some varieties. Thinking that Garlic is a marginal crop in this part of Qld, any we get is a bonus. Now you can either eat them and order some of the warm climate stuff if it fits in with your budget or you can keep them to plant next season. And next season is just around the corner - can put them in the fridge for the hottest month and plant them early March. Keep them from drying out, perhaps wrapped in paper and left in the crisper in a bowl or something which doesn't exclude air but doesn't let them dry too much. Plant as usual.

I read about a guy on the Atherton who some years ago started planting Garlic for a commercial crop. Sounds a tad weird up in the tropics but it's high and cool and I don't know about how much rain but the soil is deep and fertile and it'd be less humid than here. Haven't kept up with what happened - believe I read about him in Grass Roots.

Early in my 'career' as a Garlic-grower, I had poor results - season, not knowing about the two or three step growing cycle of Elephant Garlic ... anyway, after some trial and a lot of error, eventually I can grow some fairly good Garlic which lasts the year and tastes OK. Not award-winning, but "it'll do".