I'm not a new vegetable gardener, but I'm fairly new to TN and haven't planted any garlic here yet. What are the best varieties for my location? I'd like to plant a good hardneck variety and maybe a softneck as well.
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I purchased garlic from the supermarket and planted it. Each year, I save the best/largest ones and replant them.
Broadleaf Czech and Inchellium Red have both done very well for me. Both are softnecks. Ajo Rojo (hardneck) was a poor performer over all here. Early Red Italian and Lorz Italian were okay performers.
Garlic planting season is in the fall here. I plant in late October and harvest around early June.
Dixondalefarms.com has garlics for yours and mine zones. Garlic gets shipped thru from so many places...but does like fall plantings, even in middle Tn. Curious where you call middle- Centerville? East side of the middle is a bit cooler most times
I do just like HoneyBeeNC: I buy my garlic at COTSCO in August.
It comes California at that time of the year, and not from China.
I spent $4 for a huge bag of garlic.
Last year I decided to order garlic from one of the website and I spent $30 on a "few cloves" of garlic ... and just a few of them made a bulb ... That was bad luck.
I normally plant my garlic between September 15th to October 15th and harvest it in May.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I am in northwest middle TN near the border with KY.
After reading on the subject, I'm going with a softneck type. Any recommendations among these?
http://www.southernexposure.com/garlic-softneck-braidable-c-25_96.html
Well, I've ordered the Inchellium Red for fall planting. Thanks for the input, NicoleC. :)
I hope they do as well for you as they have for me!
So would it do me no good to plant garlic now for a fall crop? I dearly wanted some honest-to-goodness homemade garlic this year! :o(
sparklinBarb, you can still plant garlic in the spring, but it won't get as big, or have quite as many cloves, as fall planted garlic.
It also depends on the weather we get this spring. Garlic needs cool weather to grow leaves, then when the weather turns warm in the spring it changes to forming bulbs. If you don't have enough cool weather to grow a full set of leaves, the plant won't be able to collect enough energy to store in the bulbs.
Do you think planting early, in the shade, might make a difference?
At minimum I would get them in the ground as soon as possible -- your not early, you are late. I don't think shade would help since they need sun to produce those leave and bulbs.
Personally, I wouldn't order any fancy garlic for your experiment, just try grocery store garlic. If it doesn't work out, well you tried something new. If it does work out, woo hoo, right?
And then you can plant what you really want this fall.
Thanks, NicoleC, but boy did this advice come 2 hours 2 late... just bought a handful of garlic and an elephant garlic to plant in my frist square foot garden... so without leaves, I won't get bulbing.... OK, well, it will still be garlic in the garden and that has to be a good thing.
I'm just trying to figure out IF I can grow a veggie garden.
But will make a BIG note in my gardening notebook -- GARLIC IN FALL... lol...
You can garden! You're just going to make mistakes; we all do, on our 1st garden or the 101st. You may get some bulbs, they just won't be as big as they could be.
Contact your local county extension office or their Master Gardeners program. They should have a planting calendar on the web site or they can send you that gives you the date ranges when to plant many crops in your area.
https://utextension.tennessee.edu/Pages/default.aspx
I agree. It's often trial-and-error since gardening conditions and micro-climates can vary so much from place to place.
You've already learned a lot. I do a variation of Square Ft. Gardening. It's fun! Keep at it.
Here is a great source for garlic if you need another one..
http://www.thegarlicstore.com/
Larkie
Thanks. :)
Really dumb question here -- do you peal the garlic down to tender flesh or leave the dried layers of skin on it when you plant it in the garden?
No need to peel. There was a thread a while back on this topic and I guess some people peel them, which doesn't seem to hurt anything but it's not necessary.
In the zone your all talking I imagine about any soft garlic would grow I grow the hard garlic here , trying some exotics , and growing the soft in pots ..(etc supermarket California white)?
