Garlic 2021

[JRinPA]

Just got my garlic in the ground the other day when it was warm and windy. It was about this time last year, early December, when I got it in. Looks like I picked around July 14 or so, this year. So it will probably be late like that again. I used two of my regular comm garden rows, planted through the holes in the black woven mulch. Lots of space - they are double rows with about 18" between them and then 9-12" hole spacing.

[zeedman]

Mid-July is roughly when my garlic is ready too, plus or minus 7-10 days. The Spring/Summer weather seems to be a greater influence than when it was planted. One year I was planting so late that the ground had frozen; I was drilling holes with a cordless drill to plant, and filling in the hole afterward with warm potting soil. The garlic grew normally the next year.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

"One year I was planting so late that the ground had frozen"

Was it so much late, or just early freezy weather? The latest I ever planted was 1st week in December (2010), which did result in a good crop.

I recall four or five years ago, it froze so hard in early November, and even though rototilled the beds, there were 2 inch/5.08 cm wide sections of soil adjacent to the sides of the boxes.

I ended up pounding a 1 inch/2.54 cm pipe into the ground with a thor hammer to make the holes...over three freakin' hundred of them; now THAT was a job! Didn't affect the yield.

The Gotch

[bower]

We planted garlic late at the farm a couple of times. Maybe the latest was early december. But we picked a day when the ground wasn't frozen. Our fingers were sure frozen though after a few 100 foot rows! Not a pleasant experience, and it didn't produce the greatest yield either. We all shifted our planting window to October after that.
But for sure it's fair to say, never too late to get the garlic in.

[svalli]

We planted garlic late at the farm a couple of times. Maybe the latest was early december. But we picked a day when the ground wasn't frozen. Our fingers were sure frozen though after a few 100 foot rows! Not a pleasant experience, and it didn't produce the greatest yield either. We all shifted our planting window to October after that.
But for sure it's fair to say, never too late to get the garlic in.

I do also plant mine in October, since one year I did not get them in until November, when surface of the ground was already frozen. After rototilling the bed was full of frozen lumps of soil. My fingers were numb from the cold and it got also dark so early that I needed a flashlight to finish the job.

I cannot say how that late planting affected the harvest, because what happened during winter may have been culprit of that being my worst season. After cold November, December that year was relatively warm and rainy followed by deep freeze in January with -20°C for two weeks with no snow cover. After that season I have made sure that I plant early and mulch the garlic beds with leaves or hay before winter.

Sari

[zeedman]

"Was it so much late, or just early freezy weather? The latest I ever planted was 1st week in December (2010), which did result in a good crop."

It was late November or early December. All I remember is the soil being frozen 3" down, and drilling almost perfectly cylindrical holes with a wood auger bit. The soil chunks were too hard to pack down, so I covered the cloves with the warm bagged soil I had brought with me, then packed the soil chips in as best I could. The garlic was normal the next year, but bugs had gotten in through the loose soil (where the frozen chips had been) and I found nests under several of the bulbs.

[rxkeith]

i was late planting my garlic this year when i did in november. the weather was decent though, and we had a late for us frost.
october is usually the month i plant, but keep an eye on the weather. september it rains, and its too wet. november, you are taking
a chance. one cold stretch can dump several inches of snow on the ground, and it stays there until march or april.
december, forgedditaboutit. i am not going to shovel a foot or more of snow off the ground to plant anything. here, it is better to plant
early vs later on account of the weather. if september wasn't often so wet, i would plant then. it wouldn't be warm enough long enough
for the garlic to sprout. i think.


keith

[JRinPA]

I shoot for early - mid November, but I'm busy then. Last December when I planted, the ground was a little harder, but we don't usually have much in the way of frozen ground until January. Last year I think it was done by flashlight, too, so was some nippy digging. Last week it was easy. Not frozen at all and they are well worked raised rows. No digging, just chopping it a bit with the trowel, pulling the dirt to the side, and pushing a garlic down. The longer row had corn and cole crops in spring, then butternut afterward. I cleaned up the squash vines, pulled the remaining corn stalk rootballs, unpinned one side and folded back the cover, added some compost, relaid the cover, and planted a bulb through each hole. The problem was it is only 54 holes or so. The next row was sweet peppers, about 30 more holes, so I pulled those rootballs and just planted through before it got dark. I guess 80+ is enough. It is about the same as last year.

It feels weird using a proper garden row for loosely spaced garlic, but I can plan something to go in there in early mid-July. Or, maybe it will be earlier, depending on weather. When I was planting early Nov, I'd usually see green sprouts through the mulch at the end of February. Last year I don't believe they came through until mid-March.

I may plant some more yet, but I don't really want to use any more of my good garlic. When I planted 150+ it seemed like a waste, but now I feel like I'm running out. I have sprouted bulbils from 18 mo ago. I have sprouted cloves from 18 mo ago. I may have some bulbils from this year. I ought to plant some of each and see what happens.

[svalli]

We do still have a lot garlic left from last harvest. I went through all of the bags with different varieties in them and removed dried ones. There is about 4 kg of usable bulbs and cloves.

PSX_20220330_213928.jpg

Yesterday I sliced quite many large Porcelain variety cloves, which had started to shrink, but were still OK and put those to dehydrator at 45°C overnight. We had interesting "aromatherapy" in the house during night. In the morning there was no smell anymore and the slices were dried to crispy.

PSX_20220330_213838.jpg

I may have to dehydrate more of the remaining garlic, because there is still way too much for us to eat raw or use in cooking.

Sari

[JRinPA]

Sari, did any of yours have green sprouts in the center when you sliced them?

[pepperhead212]

I am getting small green sprouts in mine now, but it doesn't seem to affect the flavor of most things with garlic. Only in things where there isn't much else in the dish, in which case, I take out the sprouts. Amazingly, my garlic has lasted incredibly well this year, due to the fact that it was dry, leading up to the harvest last year. Even my Estonian Red - usually the one with the shortest life, so the first I use - was good until I used it all up!

[svalli]

Sari, did any of yours have green sprouts in the center when you sliced them?

None of them had sprouted. I have kept all a garlic in room where temperature is 22°C or more and humidity really low during winter.

Maybe next winter I will test and keep some of the garlic in garage where I store onions. Temperature there is low, but stays above freezing. Some of the onions have sprouted there and that may happen also to garlic, but the cloves may not dry as much as in the house.

[bower]

My garlic seems to keep best in a cool room downstairs where it's probably around 60F most of the winter. But perhaps also best because the relative humidity is low and the temperature is steady, compared to rooms upstairs that get more direct sunshine and more exposed to windchills too.
Last fall I dehydrated a lot of small bulbs and damaged bulbs, including some that had stayed good from the year before. Messidor had made a lot of small bulbs and boy are they good keepers! For over a year. Still I didn't manage to complete the task, and some small and damaged bulbs got left in a corner upstairs in paper bags, and only used a few occasionally because big bulbs are quicker to peel. So yesterday I had some bulk cooking planned and decided I would use up more of those small bulbs. Still firm but some of them did have a green sprout inside, and I also found it interesting to see quite a bit of pink color on some of the cloves. I wondered if that was due to the effect of the wet winter on last year's crop. If so, I'll see more of it this year, as the winter has been mainly alternating downpours and then sudden deep freezing, not a good garlic winter at all.
Anyway I checked my remaining stocks, I still have close to a kilo of marbled PS and porcelain, which will get used first as some wrappers are starting to get loose. And about a half kilo of Glazer and Purple Stripe ones which are completely firm, tight wrappers, as always the longest keepers.
In the very small bulbs which still are unused, there are also Messidor and Lautrec which are still perfectly firm.

[JRinPA]

72F or more and really low humidity during winter. Got it.
Certainly no place like that here. We keep the upstairs at 68F during the day and 60F at night.
The garlic is basement stored, so down to 55 peak low, and about 50% RH. Mine do show green usually by March, but we keep using them and they taste fine. But, I wasn't sure about the garlic powder process, if anyone would bother if the garlic was waking up and showing green.

So how do you use the dehydrated garlic? Soups and such? Or do you make fresh powder, grater or grinder?

[GoDawgs]

@svalli , I LOVE your garlic! Such excess I can dream about.

I'm in the process of using my last five bulbs from the spring '21 harvest. Waaaahh! They were starting to show a few green tips but they'll taste fine.At least I had enough to use all I wanted until now. I have some dehydrated slices in the freezer so will still have homemade garlic powder for a while. More must be planted this fall. MORE!

The problem here is storage. Most homes here have no basements, especially out in the country. Basements in large homes in upscale neighborhoods near cities tend to be turned into rec rooms or "media centers" with big tvs. I hang my garlic from a bar in an interior closet. If I hang it outside in the shed it might freeze sometimes at night and then get warm in the day when the sun hits the shed. Back and forth... warm, cold, warm, cold. Maybe I should dig a hole and bury the garlic in a sealed bucket. Think that might work?

[svalli]

So how do you use the dehydrated garlic? Soups and such? Or do you make fresh powder, grater or grinder?

I put the dried slices whole into stews and crush the pieces to all sorts of foods.

I have also cold smoked garlic slices and hot peppers before drying and put the dried pieces into a spice grinder with a bit of coarse salt. That is an awesome seasoning for steaks and grilled meats, when freshly ground just before eating.

The room where I store the garlic is actually below ground and has no windows, but it is not like a basement, since our house is built on a slope and half of the first floor is above ground level. The room is next to our sauna and has a fire place and heated floor, so it can get quite warm in there.

Sari

[JRinPA]

Sounds wonderful, Sari. I use the bulbs as fresh garlic, almost exclusively. I need to start using the dehydrator more often.

[bower]

Cold smoked garlic and pepper sounds amazing...