Garlic

[tortoise]

My SO was reading the news and told me the price of garlic will be going up 300%?!

I bought an extra big jar of minced garlic today. Thinking about adding some into the garden this year too.

 

[FarmerDenise]

We've been growing all our garlic for years. It is definitely worth it.
Plant the bigger ones for better results.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Here is a question on planting garlic. A friend of ours gave us a few cloves of Elephant Garlic(which I learned is not actually garlic) and I want to plant it, but I was told you only plant garlic in fall.

Will the cloves go bad sitting in the house?(I didn't think so, but thought I'd ask anyway)

Should I wait until fall to plant them?

 

[patandchickens]

By all means plant some, tortoise, it is incredibly easy to grow and FAR FAR better than that stuff you're buying in jars, and you will quite literally never spend a cent on it again once you're growing it (plant enough for what you use plus enough to replant for the next year).

If you start having trouble getting your own crop to last through the full year, freeze or pickle the remainders once it it gets ready to be sprouty, then you will definitely have it til the following crop is ready.

It is best to plant garlic in fall (at least in the north, dunno bout elsewhere) but you can plant it in the spring and still get SOMEthing out of it, especially if you plant larger rather than smaller cloves.

Wolf-Kim, you may or may not be able to get elephant garlic to store until fall -- I would suggest planting at least *some* of it right now, or keep a close eye on it and if it starts to get sprouty then plant it then.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[rebecca100]

I just planted my elephant garlic. The paper I got with it said it was okay to plant in the spring, but you needed to wait until the next year for it to form cloves if you are up north. In the south it would the first year. I want to get some real garlic. I had some at our old place that was given to me, but when we moved I think the horses stomped it to death in what was the old garden. I couldn't find it last year anyway.

 

[k0xxx]

We recently purchase a five pound bag of granulated garlic from a company that sells meat processing and sausage making supplies. They have a nice variety of spices in bulk. We are vacuum sealing the spices for longer storage.

The 5 pound bag of granulated garlic is $14.95. Their garlic powder, in the same size bag, is $12.95. We also purchased ground cinnamon for $12.95 in 5 pound bags.

These are the cheapest prices that we have found so far. The company is named Mid-Western .

 

[rebecca100]

Did the article say why the prices were going to go up?

 

[Aidenbaby]

This is funny because I just transplanted my garlic. I'm wondering something though. I've had this garlic planted for quite some time (I never really knew when to harvest) and the bulbs I transplanted were quite tiny. Am I doing something seriously wrong? When do I harvest?

 

[valmom]

I tried putting in garlic that had sprouted on the counter last spring. I think it got lost under the mutant kale that was the only thing besides beans that grew last year. I didn't see any garlic at all last year. Can you plant store bought garlic?

 

[patandchickens]

Generally storebought garlic can be planted, but I won't swear that it is *never* treated with a sprouting inhibitor, so if it fails that might be a reason. In future it would be worth sourcing some better garlic, though -- better-tasting varieties, or ones better suited to your growing area. Just cuz somehting is well suited to growing giant plantations of in China, or even in California, does not mean it is the best garlic variety you can grow yourself...

Aidenbaby, I've never started garlic indoors so I don't knw about transplanting, but in general: on the one hand, it does take a while for garlic to start enlarging its clvoes/bulbs, but on the other hand it is also a moderately heavy feeder and I wonder whether it may not have had quite the nutrients (or light) that it wanted, in your pots? Just carry on and see what happens, but if the final heads of garlic are not the size you want, that may be the reason. The time to harvest garlic is after the bottom few leaves have started to yellow off -- with hardneck garlic, it will usually try to flower just before this time, you can cut the flower scape off so the plant doesn't waste its energy, then wait for the lower few leaves to die back. Some garlics will never try to flower, though, so do not get too hung up on that part of it. If you wait too long to harvest, when too many of the leaves have browned, the bulb will have started to split apart into separate cloves and it will not keep for as long in your house (might consider freezing or pickling).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat