Growing Great Garlic

Presentation I did at Collierville Liberry today:


Growing Garlic in the Midsouth June 09, 2011

"My final, considered judgment is that the hardy bulb [garlic] blesses and ennobles everything it touches - with the exception of ice cream and pie." ~ Angelo Pellegrini

Introduction: Carl

The Collierville Victory Garden planted 31 varieties of garlic Nov 2010 and harvested June 2011. Results were normal to very large. We were able to grow hardnecks.

We learned a lot, including which varieties did not work so well. We demonstrated use of the garden 12 months with double cropping of summer peas.

There is precious little information on growing garlic from UT except this organic garlic experiment announcement: http://organics.tennessee.edu/projects/garlic.htm .

Everything you ever wanted to know about garlic can be found in this book Growing Great Garlic by Ron L. Engeland.

Online websites:
http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/overview.htm




For your life bucket list: Visit Gilroy CA, garlic capital of the US.

What is garlic:

Allium family onions, leeks, chives, shallots, scallions, ramp.

Hardneck (ophioscorodon) and softneck (southern) varieties.

One of the age old primary veggies. Tomatoes, potatoes, corn, peppers, etc came from the New World. The Mongol Hordes and Attila’s Huns carried them as a main food. The Eqyptian slaves ate them, leeks, etc.


History:

Orginated in central Asia in cold, dry, stony soil conditions. Easy to grow.

True garlics are the species Allium Sativum. There are two subspecies; Ophioscorodon , or hard-necked garlics and Sativum, or soft-necked garlics. The hard-necked garlics are the original garlics.
There are ten fairly distinct varietal groups of garlic: five hardneck varieties called Porcelain, Purple Stripe, Marbled Purple Stripe, Glazed Purple Stripe, and Rocambole; three varieties of weakly bolting hardnecks that often produce softnecks - Creole,Asiatic and Turban, plus two distinct softneck varietal groups; Artichoke and Silverskin.
A few of the kinds of garlic now in America came in with Polish, German and Italian immigrants over the centuries, but most of them came in all at once in 1989. As the Soviet Union was disintegrating in 1989, they suddenly invited the Americans in to collect the garlics. They went from village to village along the old Silk Road buying garlic from local markets and naming the cultivars after the town or village where they were purchased.
Garlic bulbs are very expensive online. Not a lot of stock available yet, except for the Southern softneck.
There is a strong demand for garlic in farmer’s markets, and the more exotic varieties sell quickly.

Varieties in the Victory Garden in 2010-11:
Inchelium Red, Italian Late, Red Tochliarvi
Tochliarvi, Chamiskuri, New York White
German White, Polish Hardneck, Hnat
Theradrone, Montana Carlos, Russian Giant
Simonetti, Red Janice, Metechi
Brown Tempest, Lotus, Lorz Italian
Bavarian Purple, Chinese Purple, German Extra Hardy
Hatali, Transylvania, Shang Dong
Belarus, Leningrad, Elephant (actually a leek)
Various softneck varieties from local grocery stores.

All garlics do not taste the same. Some cultivars are mild in taste, such as Chet's Italian Red and Red Toch (both Artichokes). Some are medium flavored like Inchelium Red (another Artichoke) or Burgundy (a Creole ) while others are very hot and strong, such as Metechi (a marbled Purple Stripe) or Chinese Purple (Asiatic).


What do you do with garlic:

Food: Eat bulbs and scapes.
Primary veggie. Cooking shows often start with sautéing garlic.
Preventitive medicine as food and asafoetida.
Vampire repellant.
Integrated pest management program



Parts of the plant:

Bulbs, cloves, sheath, leaves, scapes, roots, bubils.
http://charamongarden.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/garlic1.jpg
http://www.freshearthfarms.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Garlic-Scapes.jpg



Reproduction:

Cloves, seeds.


Horticultural Practices:

Plant in fall
Harvest late spring or early summer (when leaves say now)
Loose soil
pH slightly acidic
Not too much water

Growing garlic at home:

Buy some bulbs at the grocery.
Share with friends. That’s how I got started 23 varieties.
Plant in containers on your patio in rich loose soil.
Lightly mulch.
Don’t let dry out or stay wet.
Nitrogen, blood meal, bone meal (Miracle Gro works too)

Growing at home:
http://www.garlic-central.com/garlic-growing.html

From Nancy Seratt:
I've had good success with garlic and use those little seed pods to start more or just plant a clove leftover. Harvesting, cleaning, and storing is a smelly job but I have saved lots of money growing it. When I harvest, I put a batch in the food processor to chop; put a 1 tablespoon drop on a cookie sheet and freeze it; then store the frozen blobs in a zip lock baggie and have a premeasured amount ready to plop in a recipe.



The end…