12 different types, 27 heads, and 220 cloves of GARLIC were planted yesterday! We were worried that we may have missed window of opportunity to plant it, but luckily it was a beautiful 50 degree day yesterday. Supposedly, garlic is a very easy plant to grow. As long as you plant it before the ground freezes in the Winter, it will start to grow through the cold months and be ready for harvest in late Spring. It prefers loose, organic soil; however, it can grow in a variety of soils and pH levels. Garlic plants are usually very hardy, and are not attacked by many pests or diseases. Garlic plants are said to repel rabbits and moles. I wish it could help with repelling deer, but I will take what I can get! :)
We planted our garlic in a mixture of soil and compost. We punched 3 rows of holes about 8" apart and dropped 1 clove in each hole, root side down and pointy end up. They were covered with about 4" of compost and we plan to get enough straw to make another 6" buffer for the garlic against the elements.
We are growing both softneck and hardneck varieties of garlic. Almost all supermarket garlic is a softneck variety. This is because softneck garlic is easier to grow and plant mechanically and also keeps for longer than hardneck. garlic. Softnecks are recognised by the white papery skin and an abundance of cloves, often forming several layers around the central core. Hardneck garlics have fewer, larger cloves then the softnecks. They also have less of an outer bulb wrapper, sometimes none at all. This makes them more sensitive and reduces their shelf life.
 |
| Bags of Garlic |
Each of the garlic cloves has its own unique color and flavor. Some are spicy and hot while others are mild flavored. We planted the following types of garlic:
- Persian Star
- Georgian Fire
- Georgian Crystal
- Broadleaf Czech
- Chesnok Red
- Music
- German Extra Hardy
- Siberian
- Lorz Italian
- Bogatyr
- Elephant
- Erik's German White
I can't wait to see how the garlic does!
ReplyDelete