Anyone want to share their experience with garlic? We're separating cloves and re-planting now. It seems to work better doing this in the fall rather than spring. We're self-sufficient in garlic but would like to do better and take more to market next year.

Our current strain is a "generic" small white variety that we started from supermarket produce dept. cloves. It has good flavor, but doesn't get very big. Which varieties have you all tried, which do you like? We've planted elephant garlic before, but it was too mild for us, and we've tried exotic kinds from seed companies that didn't do too well. What kinds of soil amendments (and when) might improve the crop?

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001

Answers

This is my first year at garlic. A friend split a Territorial order with me...an assortment of 5 kinds: both soft neck and hard neck. I'll let you know which ones work best when we harvest next summer.

I planted in worked beds, in parallel rows in a couple of different locations. I think I have ~100 feet or so. I split the cloves and plnated fairly shallowly...1-2" and with the cloves 4-6" apart. I dusted with a light leaf mulch (just big leaves, really) a couple of days ago.

I did the planting about mid-October. A few days ago, I disturbed a clove accidentally and found that it had roots in all directions, about 2' long already. Garlic supposedly does well around here and the best planting time is mid-October, or early November. Harvest should be in July.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001

David, the only thing I know about garlic is that once I got it started, I couldn't kill it. Well, I finally killed it but I wasn't trying to. For some reason it was growing in my yard and even though I tried to miss it, every time the mower would get close to it, it would veer over and chop it up. I dug some of it up and just kinda stuffed it in the flower bed and it grew. I'm sure, since you want to sell it that you want to maximize your yield and stuffing it in the ground probably won't help you. One site that might be helpful would be http://www.dirtdoctor.com. Someday I'll find my instructions for making links again until then you'll have to cut and paste. Boy, sure wish I knew something that would help.

Wildman

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001