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Any garlic lovers/growers out there?
Myself, I've planted about 1200 (mix of music and some mixed Roco's), but my aged neighbour would like to plant some Russian red or similarly red variety in his garden this year.
If you're within spitting distance of Beaverton --Let me know.
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i like garlic, but you are the master. I will plant about 100 next month. I don't even know the type of garlic I plant. I been using the same stock for 5 years now. What a difference between fresh garlic and store bought. I will take a bunch and chop it up and put a little water with the finely chopped garlic and put in ice cube trays and freeze, then once frozen put in Ziploc bag to put in with whatever I'm cooking
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I love garlic. I was buying imported garlic because it was so cheap. The stuff is tasteless. I bought some fresh Ontario garlic and couldn’t believe the flavour. I decided to grow some myself last fall. Purple stripe I think it was called. It seemed to winter well and came up nicely in the spring. I’m not sure why but they came out small ?
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Good news: That Garlic looks fantastic. Very healthy cloves. Nothing wrong with those.....Well done!
Not so good news: The type of garlic you've chosen, is a "numerous clove" type of garlic which means lots of small cloves. (PITA to peel) The rule of thumb when it comes to garlic, is to plant the largest and healthiest cloves you've got, as the new head will produce a head with the same size cloves as planted.
If you can get you hands on some medium to large "Music" garlic (which is the most popular home garden garlic in Ontario)...you'll see a huge difference in the size, as Music (Porcelain type) usually has 4-5 cloves per head vs 7-10 on the purple stripe. Lots of info on hardneck garlic available online.
Shouldn't be too difficult to get yourself a few heads of Music to plant. Lots of it available. Check Keyjeyjee. Plant the best cloves and eat the rest....so buy a few extras. (Don't look at head size when buying....look at clove size!)
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you plant yours a lot deeper than I plant mine, mine are maybe 1.5 to 2 at the most. I plant mine in mid-November and cover with leaves. I take the leaves off mid-March or so as soon as the leaves are not frozen any more. I also take the biggest for replanting. I will plant 100 and keep about 23 for the replant as mine usually have 4 to 6 cloves. Don't forget to cut the sprags off once they have one curl and use them like normal garlic, they sell them around here.
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Chevy, You seem to have some nice garlic already, so I wouldn't do too much to the soil. Difficult to say what to do, as we all have different NPK ratios in our soil.
Best thing is to loosen the soil up before planting if possible, and if you feel the need....incorporate a little composted manure.
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When do you guys harvest the scapes ? Or what do you look for to determine it’s time to harvest? Washout, I’ve been turning the soil up every couple of weeks now and added some composted manure.
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I work in cow compost and as mentioned as looser the dirt the better and as mentioned weeding is important. I didn't really know the name of the scapes, my rule of thumb is once there is one circle it's time to cut them. you can freeze them as well. I was told that you cut them, so the bulbs get bigger. For timing to cut them I would think in June as I dig them up in mid july typically
Garlic
