Garlic for 2024, one new variety this year

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pepperhead212

pepperhead212

Executive Chef
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Nov 21, 2018
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Woodbury, NJ
I just got the garlic seed I ordered way back - one lb of Music, and one new variety (to me) - Bogotyr. The Bogotyr sort of looks like the Metechi I frequently grow - smaller than most hardnecks, yet it supposedly stores better. I'll find out my first try. I counted the cloves, and there were approximately 80 bogotyr, and 50 music, with only a few very small looking ones (though there might be more inside. I also counted my Estonian Reds and Georgian Fires I labeled as "planters", because they are humongous - a couple only have 2 or 3 cloves, the rest 4, a few GF with 5. But all very large heads. I have 35-40 cloves of each of those. My gardening friend, that I got hooked on gardening in her new place, hasn't tried garlic, but she might want to try some, as I know she uses almost as much as I do! I'll have to discuss it with her - it's only about 2 weeks until time to plant!
 
Just started getting my garlic bed ready. Haven't received my order yet. Im planting in 2 different locations of the garden. German White has been the most predictable variety for me, so Im sticking with that. I have done Music, Montana and a few others in the past. Im just trying to get make sure I have the drainage thing completely under control before I start growing other varieties again. Im looking forward to planting them.
 
Our garlic will be going in later this week.
I'm afraid we don't plant the named varieties, ordered from specialty growers. We just get hard neck garlic from the bulk bins at the grocery and plunk it in the ground after breaking the head into cloves. We get a large harvest, and after the first year we learned to plant about half the amount. We love garlic and eat a lot of it, but there is a limit!
 
Certainly I garden ... and I cook too!

We sprout, grow herbs and flowers, and all in sweet little pots in our New York city porch or the kitchen windowsill.

I definitely cook with garlic. I have only seen one kind in the store. Does that make me a bad person?
 
No offence meant by that post, @HeyItsSara. What kind of garlic do you find there? I assume it's a softneck, with a bunch of cloves in each head. Besides the fact that I use so much, and the fact that the price went up a lot (like most things), I am just too impatient to be peeling 20-40 cloves in those heads - the hardnecks I grow have 4-6 cloves in large heads, and some with cloves supplying a tb or more of minced garlic! Much better than those small cloves when making things with large amounts of garlic. There are also considerable variations in flavor, as well as storage time, and some of the garlic burns my eyes more than bad onions! Storage and size are the things I pay most attention to, as all taste good!
 
It's only labeled GARLIC. Sometimes I treat myself to the already-peeled kind in a tub. Also called garlic without any other designations. That's why I had no idea there were different kinds.
 
We'll be growing the same kind we've grown for the past 10 years. It's called russian red, but some have questioned that name. It has 3-5 cloves, large. Hardneck. We grew more this year than last.
garlic-002.jpg

We plant in Oct-Nov and harvest in July. Once planted there isn't much maintenance but they don't like weeds.
 
And if you look closely, "elephant garlic" is actually a different species - same as leeks! I remember when that first came on the market long ago, I would have loved to grow something with such huge cloves - problem was, it was so mild , and just didn't have the flavor of real garlic.
 
Today I got that bed ready for the garlic, and I cut 10 strips of fabric, 3½" wide, to put in the bed, 1" apart, I'll have room for 216 cloves. Not sure if I'll use all those Bogatyr cloves - I'll separate everything Wednesday night, and if any are too small, add more from the last year's garlic.
 
pepperhead212 said:
Today I got that bed ready for the garlic, and I cut 10 strips of fabric, 3½" wide, to put in the bed, 1" apart, I'll have room for 216 cloves. Not sure if I'll use all those Bogatyr cloves - I'll separate everything Wednesday night, and if any are too small, add more from the last year's garlic.
Click to expand...
Do you mulch, in addition to the fabric ?
 
@larry_stewart we also use landscape fabric and we put holes in it, 8 inches staggered rows, then mulch. Some years we use straw for mulch, some years leaves (either whole or chopped).

If anyone is peeling large amounts of garlic this year for the first time. Some hints. Boil 3 qts of water, drop in a quart of garlic cloves (not bulbs), leave them in for 1-2 minutes, plunge into cold water in the sink.
The peels will squeeze off, holding the clove towards the pointy tip, squeeze and when it lets go of the root end, the peel comes right off. Do this for all of them. Work from the sink full of cold water or the acid in the garlic will peel your hands in the next few days. (which is very drying and irritating) People that have worked from a strainer, out of the water have noticed what it does to their skin.
I put the peeled cloves in the food processor and mince, then bagged in small zip lock bags pressed flat to stack, then freeze.
 
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