quote:

Originally posted by bluestreak:
Are there any garlic varieties out there that should be planted in the spring instead of in the fall?

There are some garlic varieties that don't need overwintering, and this is the way thay grow them in areas with very long growing seasons. However, they are those softnecks, and I don't know about you, but I am a die hard hardneck grower, partly for the fact that I don't have to peel 20 or 30 tiny cloves from one head, but also that the only time I did try softnecks I lost some out there! It was a summer of bad weather for garlic, and the rain rotted the tops so fast I couldn't pull them, and couldn't even tell where many were. The hardnecks still had that stalk sticking up, so they were easy to find and pull, even if there was no green left on them.

As it turned out, the flavor of those softnecks didn't live up to the hype, either. The porcelains were still the most intense.

Dave

Hi all! Sorry!

Yup, I was in Oregon, and still playing catch-up at work & home now!

Never pulled any of the garlic before I left, but just looked & the Russian looks really good...the "volunteer whatever-it-is" has thinner, smaller leaves, but looks good, although "clumped", like 4 or 5 came up together in each spot & still making me crazy, but I am working again today from 10:30am til 8 pm, so can't check it today.

I am off in the morning, so I am gonna dig some & see what's goin' on.

Maybe take some pics, too! I'm not good at getting the pics on here, but will try if I have hundreds of hours to try it! LOL!

Will let ya know what I find, anyway! :

So do any of you have those little thingys up top that you're supposed to be able to eat? I don't but wondering when they'll come up?

Also, what are you all planting in the garlic spots after the garlic harvest?

Greenish, those 'thingies' are scapes. Yup you can eat them. Yup they usually appear latter in the summer. Nope, I plant my scapes due to the fact I have chimonks who like garlic too.

Hey!
My "store-bought" garlic from last year never got scapes, but I don't know what kind it was.

I planted Russian White last fall...do they get scapes? I want some scapes, so what kind should I plant to get them?

Thanks!

I got scapes!
I made garlic scape nachos for a late night snack but these would be great in a stir fry or omelettes.
Only one variety gave me scapes so far. Most of my garlics are softnecks.
Scapes are sweet like a green onion but with a nice bite at the end.
This summer I am going on a 1/4 mile diet. If I can't grow it, its not on the menu.

Looks like it's time to do a "Scape Thingy Post", but it will have to wait until after dark, I gotta make good use of my daylite and get my butt out in the dirt. Ya'll have a nice day, ya hear....

......ok, ok...I fell asleep..........so we'll do the post now with my morning coffee........

Scapes - garlic flower stalk with the bulbil/seedhead bobbin' on the end. Last stage of top-growth before bulb swelling time. Normal on hardnecks; a sign of stress ( usually lack of moisture or hot weather ) in softnecks. There are a couple softneck variety exceptions I'm told, but have never seen them myself.

Can ya eat them? - Yep. Let them get to full height and coiled. They are still supple at this point. Cut the coil off, trim off the seed/flower head. Use it like you would a winter onion or chives. Be aware that it can turn whatever your cooking it with green. Had a chef try boiling them in with his pasta, but he didn't care for the resulting color. They can also be froze, but will keep for quite some time in your crisper. Basic rule-of-thumb; they are useable up until the coils have straightened and the stalk has become stiff and woody.

Recipes - they are all over the web, just query "cooking with garlic scapes".

Cutting scapes - impact on garlic harvest.
Studies have shown that cutting scapes after they have fully emerged but before they have uncoiled can increase bulb/clove size. The same studies have shown that same garlic had a shorter shelf life. Your choice - cut, brag, get it used up before it dehydrates,... or leave them until they straighten and then clip the heads off so that it doesn't volunteerly re-seed your garden, giving you garlic that should store longer for you. Don't leave the cut coils/heads in your patch, they will/can still mature and sprout next season.
I let mine go full term, clipping the heads only just as they are opening to flower; mine need a longer shelf life for my retail markets. The basic "quality over quanity" theory. Anybody can grow big bulbs, but not everybody can go the distance.

Where to cut - anywhere between where they emerge from the leaves up to the coil.

Pearl - I knew your season was farther along than mine up here; but I didn't know you were that much farther along. I'm a few weeks from "scaping" yet.
Good luck on that "'1/4 mile diet"....better keep some vitamin suppliments on hand.

Sprout - I'm "guessing" a garlic with a moniker of Russian White is a hardneck, but who knows until you've put them thru their paces and see what they do.

Krap!!! The Jr. High School just called; they let the kids hatch duck, turkey, geese, and chicken eggs this year, now they need somebody to take them off their hands. Guess who the wife volunteered....??!!.....no, that's not a good thing..............

Ok....coffee cup is empty.........see ya'll out in the dirt.

This is the same diet I was on last year and I never felt better. Maybe a 1/4 mile is a little strict. Let's go with 10 miles so I can still pick up a steak at the new grocery store in town occasionally.
I just don't want anything grown in China and I am tired, tired, tired of everything having GMO crops. Can't even trust a tortilla these days!

Hey, I have a real garlic question. Is there a consensus amongst the growers about how deep to plant the cloves? I know mine are a ways down after I get done piling on all the goodies for 6 months. They don't poke out of the soil like onions do, right? Mine never have. I am guessing mine are now 4" down to the top of the cloves, or so.

I plant mine 2" down. Didn't mulch this winter, or last. Should have mulched this winter. Last year was mild. This year was crazy!

You should shoot for a planting depth that gives you a minimum of 1 inch of soil covering the planted clove. Depth is mostly relative to your zone. For me, in my zone, with the freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw; I push them in knuckle deep, about 3-4 inches. Winter mulching is highly recomended.
But more importantly, you don't want the tops of your bulbs being exposed to the sun during your growing season. Dirt, compost, grass clippin's, I don't care what ya use.....just cover them up.

Hey!

Can I use fresh grass clippings to mulch? We recently started mowing & I have quite a bit of clippings...was gonna throw them in a plie with some old leaves, but if I should mulch the garlic with 'em, I will.

Ok...I never went out to dig up the old patch & see what's goin' on down there...gonna do it now...be right back (HA! like you guys are timing me, here! )

Ok...I did it! I took a pic, too, but might need my son to help me get it on here. How do you do that? Go to the display image thing right on this page?

Remember when I said the volunteer garlic looked like it was clumped together?

"the "volunteer whatever-it-is" has thinner, smaller leaves, but looks good, although "clumped", like 4 or 5 came up together in each spot"

Well, it is! It looks like green onions or scallions, but smells like garlic.

This can't be something wild...it is right where I dug-out my store-bought-fall-planted-year-of-2006 garlic last year, but it doesn't look at all like a "bulb" of garlic, and the way the bunches are clumped together, it wouldn't have room to expand like that now.

Just looks like a bunch of small green/purple onions.

Hmmmmm...has me stumped!

Nawww Bean....this one's easy ....( there are two possible answers )...and those are gonna be "rounds"- garlic that hasn't achieved enough size to seperate into cloves....think of them as baby garlics relative to the garlics ability to replicate or clone it's self year after year.They look like scallions because you are still pre-bulb swelling stage; garlic puberty, if you will....and I mulch with clippin's....usually let them lay a day first before I rake and spread.

.....hmmmmm.......green onions, scallions, baby garlic......all we need are some eggs and cheese.

Quick question regarding damaged garlic.I found the entire top of one garlic plant snapped off and laying on the ground along with a freshly dug hole for a squirrel's buried treasure.Is it too late for this plant or will it still be able to recover enough to bulb later?