WHAT?!?!? a post about garlic in the garlic forum? unheard of!

As always, I am currently using garlic from last year's harvest. It is a bit drier, but the so much easier to peel when they are a bit soft. I always grow way too much, but hope my 6 raised beds and 12 18" containers will be enough this year as I decided to scale down since the small market where I was able to sell as much as I cared to has closed. Farmer's Market here is as difficult and nearly as expensive as joining a country club, but I won't have all that much to sell this year.

Keeping fingers crossed that rust doesn't do the later varieties in as it did last year.

Sorry, Kristin, it won't happen again lol. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, that you don't get rust.

Well I guess I'll found out firsthand about my Music garlic.

Hoping it keeps well, because I plan on saving a few heads for planting in the fall.

Music is a Porcelain type and should keep well past planting time in October. I had one Rocambole type last year that did not keep long enough to plant out but that was more due to some neck rot issues I had from the wet growing season that caused poor curing and short storage.

Great! Looking forward to eating my own garlic for months and months.

I've noticed the recent trend of farmer's growing garlic greens especially at farmer's markets. I've been told that it's to give them an extra month or so of something to sell. Many just plant small cloves or rounds (from one year bulbils) in the very early spring and then they have a cheap to grow and easy to sell crop to tide people over until garlic scape season.

This is true. The garlic green is a very early season crop to sell at farmer's market. There are not a whole lot of cold weather vegetables to sell from local sources. If you use inexpensive softneck garlic as seeds, it makes a lot of economic sense. It may be even more profitable. One pound of garlic can be 10 to 12 heads. If you can only sell the garlic at $4 to $6 a pound, it is better to sell them at $4 a bundle and you save 2 to 3 month of growing and all the curing etc.

It is a different story if you can sell the heads of garlic at $12 a pound.

Here is my garlic It has been really wet but garlic seems to be doing well-just need some sun now.

Very nice! What variety are you growing?

No problem for me in keeping Music, Japanese, VietNamese Red, and the feral I collected from harvest until well past planting time. Both bulbs and what few bulbils I save. As always the key is the cure. Then I store at very close to room temperature in one corner of my kitchen. We shall see if that also works for the Turbans I am testing this year. If they are anything like the Japanese, they should pretty well make it, too. The feral actually still has plantable cloves on it right now. No bulb is completely good yet, but many of them still have fully plump cloves right along with the dried up ones. I intend to hold them out until after Memorial day and see if I can come up with about 2 dozen good cloves then for a late season plant of uncooled cloves just like last year.

Jack, I do not throw out dried up cloves, unless they are badly blemished. Run them through a coffee mill and you can end up with a real nice rich garlic powder. It seems to me that what I have made is also pretty mild, but then they have me on a pile of medicines that has pretty much done away with my sense of smell. The powder may need additional air drying, since the dried up cloves may not be so completely dried out as they seem. I haven't used any auxiliary heat for the drying, although that may speed up the process.

Music should keep well enough for just about any body until replanting time, and it is pretty hard to find another that, although not the first to emerge, would grow such impressive greens as quickly either. No question it grows the largest, and heaviest plants of any garlic I have grown.

maplegarden172, how deep do you turn your soil? Did you fertilize at planting? When did you plant the garlic last fall?

Look great.

interesting Dutch....It never even occurred to me to keep the dried up cloves, but I guess it really doesn't matter how they were dried when making powder. I'll give that a try this winter. I did buy an electric coffee grinder for < $15 at Target a few weeks ago and it sure makes it a lot easier and faster. I had been using a old pepper mill hand grinder. I set my dehydrator at 135d and the garlic slices take about 10-12 hours to completely dry. I stir them around about 1/2 way thru so they don't get hopelessly stuck to the fruit roll-up tray that came with my dehydrator.

Music does put up some impressive greenery but in my garden the German White surpasses it both in the size of the plants and bulbs. Some of the German White stems are over 1.5" this year. I am very much looking forward to seeing how the bulbs turn out.

I now have scapes on all of my garlic types except Persian Star (Samarkand) and Chesnok Red (Shvelisi). I don't think any will be ready to harvest this weekend but maybe mid next week I can taste a few on a pizza or some stirfry.

Jack, You may want to clip the dried up cloves and give the sections a run through the dehydrator. I find that no matter how dry they seem to be, they still cake up and crust up after being run through the coffee mill, and seem to require additional drying time after they are ground. I also find that some electric coffee mills work better than others, too. I prefer a type with a slanted floor, the flatter one I had simply plugged up.

The Music greens are massive. I'm confident some are over 2' tall. I'm hoping those bulbs plump up nicely. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's harvest.

Jack, I saw a picture of this pizza that had blue cheese, sliced potatoes, walnuts and whole grilled scapes all over the top of it. While the blue cheese doesn't appeal to me, it looked delicious!

German White and Music are very similar almost like different versions of a single variety. I have no complaint with the Music I have. The leaves were straight up this morning after the complete drenching and heavy dews of the last couple of days. They are definitely well a head of prior years, but I do not see any scapes in any of my garlics just yet.

The sun is up and the sky is clear but the trees are still dripping
showers when the breeze stirs the branches. Straight up and with the tips right at
waist high with a lot of leaves. Reminds me of the Iowa corn fields back home after a thunderstorm in July. Too wet to work yet; so the weeds are getting a good head start.

Chris, there used to be a pizzeria manager (now retired) around here who would do a white sauce (Florentine, I think it is called) pizza topped with fresh button mushrooms and abundant crushed garlic. Absolutely delicious. No reason scapes and potatoes would not work beautifully. Anaheim and/or jalapeno peppers would probably also go real well. For me you can also toss in the black olives. Once you add the meat, that is the type Pizza Pie you build in a real, honest to goodness pie plate. Our Pizza Jack used to make his Florentines on a thin crust, though; so less may be more in that case. I make my personal pizzas on soft shell tacos that are crisped in the fry pan; so one obviously needs to match one's crust to ones contents.

BTW My Music foliage is very nearly waist high and I stand right at 6'. Jack's German Whites are even bigger. This really looks like a Garlic Year over real wide areas for sure, for sure.

I'm a HUGE fan of pizza. That sounds incredible. I love homemade pizza, so I'll definitely be making some that includes scapes.

We were without sun for 5 or 6 days last week, then when the sun came out the garlic greens started drooping. That was on Sunday and a bunch are still drooping. Wondering if they will perk back up.

I am lazy and usually just get the Poppa Murphy's take-n-bake pizza which are actually pretty good. I live to far out in the sticks. No pizza delivery even comes close to my area. I like the PM Chicken and Artichoke with white sauce and roasted garlic added. I think next week I will get one sane the roasted garlic and substitute scapes.

These pictures were taken 11 days ago (May 1). The German white is the first 5 rows on the far end and the Music are in the next 5 rows. Hard to tell from the picture the size difference in height but there is a considerable difference in stem diameter which I think is a good indicator of potential bulb size. I have grown the GW 2 years longer than the Music so it may be that the GW has just been acclimated more to my garden. The seed source for both were from the same grower at a local farmers market. Dutch is right that the two are very similar in all respects.

The second picture gives a better close up of the German White in a smaller bed. Music and GW are definitely the largest in my garden with Estonia Red close behind. Some of the ER have had yellow tips on most of the leaves all season but none of the other types have had that. I don't have a close up of my other garlic bed but you can see it in the background in the third picture. The Estonia Red is the 3 rows on the far right.

BTW the Bay Meadows broccoli in the back bed in the third picture is now heading up. I am very impressed with this new to me variety so far.

Garden pictures · More Info

Garden pictures · More Info

Garden pictures · More Info

Aside from the dough, I think you'll have all the ingredients you need to make a pizza! The best way to go(if you're not making your own dough) is to buy the dough from a pizzeria. Supermarkets sell dough, but the pizzeria dough is much better. It doesn't take long, Jack. If you're feeling ambitious one night, give it a try...it's well worth it. I do recommend a pizza stone for the oven though. Cheap and worthwhile investment.

Looks like I need to add German White to the list!

I just might make a home made pizza one of these days, I have made them before. I think I do have a pizza stone somewhere but I have no idea where it could be. Not many independent/family owned pizzerias around these parts to buy dough like there are in the NY area. Around here most are Pizza Hut, Poppa Johns, Pizza Street, Little Caesars, Dominos, etc.

I just looked at the Papa Murphy's store locator website and it appears there are no locations in the north east. What they do is make the pizza for you according to what crust you want and what toppings but they don't cook it. You take it home and bake it yourself @425d so it's almost like homemade :).

Oh that's cool! Well I suppose you could always ask for a plain one and then add your own toppings and sauce.

LoneJack, garlic looks really nice.

Heres a picture of some of mine from last weekend May 13 and I live in South Western Ontario. Sorry cant get pictures to work they are too big

Garlic harvest started Wednesday for me. Pulled out 8 dozen of the earliest--German Red and Early Italian Purple. Looks to be a good year and a third of the Purple are very large (3-3-1/2 diameter across the base.) Still have 15 dozen to go of Korean Red, German Extra Hardy and Music which will take at least a couple more weeks before they are ready to pull, I'm guessing.

No pics??? lol Let's see those monsters!

Also, where are you? Still have about 7 weeks until harvest here :-/

Red, wanna start a new thread for this? Looks like we might be getting some harvest pics soon!

I live in the farthest West part of the US (that would be coastal Northern California.) We had enough chill for the hardnecks this year, but not enough to put the softnecks into dormancy so they are extra early. If I could simply post a picture here without having to go elsewhere to download then post I certainly would. As it is, it seems like too much effort for a site that has devolved into such a chaotic mess at the hands of one person who obviously does not care to go along with the program here. I do have a million and one of garlic photos from past years on my fb account, but that seems like too much trouble as well. And we were told not to brag by the tyrant who has taken over.

lol Kristin - how about a new thread for bragging only, would love to see pics of your crop - mines not even planted yet, been an exceptionally mild Autumn and pleased I've held off, it's not stopped raining for a fortnight so anything I might have planted would have likely rotted.

Thanks but no thanks. It would only be feeding the toll. Without moderation we are all subject to the excess of others who do not play by the same rules.

Kristin, If you haven't already found it the homegrown goodness allium forum might be more to your liking. some good threads more in the vein of garden web before the change to houzz. I still come here because there are still some valued contributors whose posts are worthwhile reading but am way off topic now so will shut up - can't pm you....

Scapes are starting to come up!

Hey is it normal for the garlic foliage to become more fragile at this point? Some of mine have split and easily broke off.

My garlic foliage is looking a little sad too. I think it has been a long season for them. They should be ready in a few weeks.

I got scapes. When do you cut them on Music? I think they just make a shephard's hook?

I read you can pull them rather than cut. Has anyone tried this?

Chris, I think we can keep the same thread. The season will be over in a few weeks. Most of the waiting for us is about over.

One question. Some garlic look very tall and thin, and some are fat and wide. Even with the same variety. What caused the difference? Would I get bigger heads with the fat and wide plants?

Peter, your garlic looks great, why do you say they look sad?

I heard some folks make a tiny cut at the base and cut off the scape. Then They pull the scapes from the top. This is just so much work. I do not think garlic farmers do that. I think as long as you cut off the umbel, the top garlic growth is over.

I pulled up two rotted ones, the pic is the best ones. Many of them have a lot of leaf damage. All in all they are not terrible but I am worried about rot. I had a lot last year. When are the bulbs typically ready from scape harvest?

I think next year I should build them a raised bed, if I can find somewhere to put it.

The garlic rotting is always puzzling. I foung rotting with my garlic, both soft and hardneck varieties, garlic chives, green onion in large pot with potting mix, even the wild garlic in uncultivated areas. So not sure if raised bed helps if large nursery pot would not escape the rotting. I think it has to do with the wet and cold soil.

Some of my garlic struggled in early May, but I have seen very robust growth over the past week when soil warms up. I has not watered my garlic beds and they are not mulched. The soil is moist.

With the rotting so common, I do not think it is any kind of disease. I grow 1,500 garlic, so I can afford some losses. I will just harvest the good ones and plant them again next year. The soil will get better and better and my garlic stock will adapt better to my climate. They should get better each year.

This full sun garlic looks a lot sadder. Lots of yellow/brown.

You can cut scapes anytime from when they are a couple of inches long up until the curl starts to straighten out. Too early and you chance the plant sending up a second scape, but you just cut that off too. Too late and the plant has already started to divert energy to the start of blossoming and bulbils, decreasing bulb size, the later the cut the greater that effect. So I would say better to err on too early than too late. Also the younger the scapes the tenderer they are for eating, if being smaller.

My Music has some plants 4' tall and they are just now starting to scape. Truly giant garlic and much bigger than any other variety I am growing. Sounds a little like bragging doesn't it? Well I suppose it is. If I get 3" and bigger bulbs out of this stand I will be bragging about it! Count on it! The rest of my varieties look pretty good, but not outstanding. One rotted out completely after coming up very well at the start of spring.

I seem to have picked a case of slow developing pneumonia last April which blew up last week. I am now on a massive set of antiboitics which seem to being having some effect. Unfortunately I am still a bit too weak to do much gardening at this point; so I am developing a real healthy stand of unwanted plant life. Oh well, asi es la vida.

All of my alliums are scaping, EXCEPT my garlic! Shallots, onions....not garlic though. Not the regular nor my elephant garlic. Wonder what gives. Maybe it's still too early here.

True Garlic and probably elephants are always the last of my alliums to scape. Not to worry. Elephant garlic often doesn't scape the first year.

Of course if you are growing softneck gatlics, you probably won't get any scapes anyway. :-)

Is it time to cut the scapes? It's Music. Some are looking ragged and I want them to devote the energy to bulbing...

Wow sorry Dutch, I hope you feel better!

Hey pete, chop chop! The sooner you can identify them as scapes the sooner they can be pruned, and the sooner you divert energy to making bulbs. I make several pruning passes on my garlics. The youngest scapes I take go right into my mouth in the garden, the whole thing is quite edible at the earliest stages. I do not think you can be too early to prune the scape stem back to where it emerges from the top leaves. At the worst the plant may try to send a second scape which you also prune out of course, but that will be pretty rare.

Thanks for the wishes. I am doing much better thanks to some heavy antibiotics, but still pretty weak, if much improved in so short a time.

I think it is about time to open a new thread for harvest pictures. My internet link is real slow; so I suggest that we try to keep our bragging pictures down in size a bit. FWIW I resize mine to 480x640 which may be a bit smaller than necessary. For those who haven't yet used it, the photo icon below allows one to Browse directly to one's home PC desktop or what ever folder one uses to hold the images and to upload them directly from there. The uploaded image goes to whereever the cursor is placed in the message being written, and is loaded to the size it was on your PC. Some folks seem to have tried to post images too large; so there may be a houzz limit on upload size. I haven't hit it myself so I haven't found it necessary to look it up. If one needs to resize a jpg or whatever image format (jpg or png are probably best) that can be done using a very dependable freeware named IrfanView. Just note that the more photos a thread has the slower it loads and settles down to keep the message text box from jumping around. :-)

Once I get my tulips dug this week, they will be my first harvest photos; so if others have not beat me to it, I will start a new thread then. Personally I think bragging pictures should be quite permissible... We may actually need a couple of threads before this crop is all in. I want to see everybody's best foot or most interesting one put forward. This is an interesting crowd from all over and this should be fun.

Yeah I cut the majority of mine. Looks great, enjoy!

I pulled up another rotting one. I am pretty confident it is white rot. It is white fluffy mold with black sclerotia, just like the pictures. Hopefully like last year it only affects the garlic, and I am still able to harvest a good amount.

I am definitely going with a raised bed for my garlic next year.

Yes, let's start a new one. Look forward to the harvest.

This thread has been continued here: Garlic Season 2016 Update II