If you grow garlic, how do you know which type to plant?

[melissel]

I need to get some garlic in the ground pretty quickly, so I'm doing some research. There are SO MANY varieties! How do I know what I should plant? I'm looking for your basic garlic flavor, I want an heirloom variety, and I know I need to plant a hardneck type (I'm in zone 6A). Is there a general recommendation? Can anyone recommend an online source for bulbs? (We have no local sources of heirloom seeds/bulbs that I know of.)

 

TIA!

[kalanamak]

I'll google around and see if I can get some reviews. I love the Korean Red, and it does well up here.

[kalanamak]

I get them locally or here:

 

https://www.territorialseed.com/

 

they have reviews.

[MomsintheGarden]

Kalanamak has chosen wisely for her region - Territorial is a great company to order from for growing in the PNW.

 

We live in the mid-Atlantic, and the garlic I ordered from Territorial did not survive our 6B/7A freeze...thaw...repeat northern Shenandoah Valley winter. We have had great success growing the softneck type garlic from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. The hardneck types did not do as well in our climate. I know that's the opposite of what the catalogs say, but that's what happened in our garden.

 

I planted garlic from SESE about 4 years ago, and haven't bought garlic since. I take the best outer cloves from last year's crop and plant them in November sometime after the first hard freeze (at least 4+ hours of 28 degrees F) but before Thanksgiving. I space the cloves 6" apart in a well-dug, well-manured bed. I gently push each clove into the soil - pointy side up - until its top is 1" below the soil. Then I put 4-6" of hay on top.

 

The garlic will be up over the mulch in March. Sometimes we need to help it just a bit by separating the mulch over the cloves. This is easy to do because they are planted in a grid pattern. We dig the garlic by the end of June when it is dry. Don't let it get rained on too much at harvesting time. If you let it get too wet or wait longer around here the bulbs start to split.

[melissel]

MomsintheGarden and kalanamak, I forgot to say thank you for your advice, that was exactly what I needed! I just ordered some Spanish Roja to start with. I waited a bit too long, I think (had a hard time finding any stock), but based on what I've read, I should still be OK planting now. We've been having fairly mild weather here (central NJ) but have had at least one freeze already. I'm excited and hope it works for us :D

 

Thanks!

[MomsintheGarden]

MomsintheGarden and kalanamak, I forgot to say thank you for your advice, that was exactly what I needed! I just ordered some Spanish Roja to start with. I waited a bit too long, I think (had a hard time finding any stock), but based on what I've read, I should still be OK planting now. We've been having fairly mild weather here (central NJ) but have had at least one freeze already. I'm excited and hope it works for us :D

 

Thanks!

You're welcome! I'm impressed that you were able to find some planting stock at this time of the year. You should probably be ok with planting now. The goal with planting garlic in the fall is to plant early enough so the bulbs establish roots, but late enough so they do not develop leaves. You want to get them into the ground after the weather chills but before the ground freezes. That's in mid-December in the mid-Atlantic.

 

Make sure you mulch so the frosts don't heave the bulbs out of the soil.

 

I hope you get a good crop! Remember to harvest in late spring/early summer, before the bulbs split. Split bulbs don't store well.

 

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