Growing great garlic 2016 Pam Dawling

Growing Great Garlic
©Pam Dawling 2016
Twin Oaks Community, Central Virginia
Author of Sustainable Market Farming
SustainableMarketFarming.com
facebook.com/SustainableMarketFarming
©Jessie Doyle

What’s in this presentation?
Garlic types
Stages of growth
Before planting
Planting
Growing
Weed control
Diseases and pests
Garlic scallions
Garlic scapes
Green garlic
Deciding on maturity
Harvest
Curing
Snipping and sorting
Selecting seed stock
Storage
Variety gallery

Garlic can be
several crops!
It’s not just bulbs!
Bulbs (and braids)
Garlic scapes
Green garlic
Garlic scallions
(shown here)

Types of garlic
• Garlic (Allium sativum) has 2 subspecies, hardneck
(ophioscorodon) and softneck (sativum).
• Hardneck types have flower stalks or scapes, bigger
cloves, are easier to peel, more cold-tolerant.
• Softneck (no scapes, easier to braid, stores later, smaller
cloves, harder to peel).
Left: Music hardneck garlic Right: Silverwhite Silverskin softneck garlic Photos SESE

The botany of
garlic types
Dr. Gail Volk of the USDA
completed a DNA analysis in 2003
All the types tested belong to one
of 10 varieties, 8 hardnecks and 2
softnecks.
The hardneck varieties include 5
true hardnecks (Porcelain,
Rocambole, Purple Stripe,
Marbled Purple Stripe & Glazed
Purple Stripe) and 3 varieties that
often do not produce scapes
(Creole, Asiatic, Turban).
The two softneck varieties are
Silverskin and Artichoke
Photo Southern Exposure Seed
Exchange
www.southernexposure.com

Stages of growth
We have no control over when garlic starts to make bulbs,
only over how large and healthy the leaves are when
bulbing starts, and how large the final bulbs can be.
Bulbs start forming once day-length exceeds 13 hours. Air
temperatures above 68°F (20°C) and soil temperatures over
60°F (15.5°C) are secondary triggers - no more leaf growth!!
12 hours of daylight = spring equinox. Northern latitudes
reach 13 hours of daylight before southern ones, but garlic
does not start bulbing there then because it’s too cold.
Temperatures cause harvest dates to be earlier in warmer
zones than in cooler areas at the same latitude.
It is important to establish garlic in good time so roots and
leaf growth are as big as possible before the plants start
making bulbs. Small plants on the trigger date only make
small bulbs!

Crop requirements
• Sandy or clay loam, very good
drainage, fertile soil, lots of OM,
P and K important.
• Rotation: at least five years
away from alliums.
• Full sun.
• pH of 6.0-8.4, with 6.8
optimum. Onion maggots thrive
if the soil is alkaline.
• Compost or soybean meal at
planting time. 30-60 #N/ac
• 1-2” (2.5-5 cm) of water per
week during the growing season
(not during the winter), until the
leaves start to yellow and the
bulbs start to dry down, when
irrigation should be stopped.

How much to plant
• Yield ratio about 1:6 or 1:7
with hardnecks.
• Makes sense - you are
planting one clove to get a
bulb of 6-7 cloves. If you
get 1:12 you are doing very
well indeed.
• 3-9 lbs (1.4-4.2 kg) per
person per year in the US.

Planting rates
• Divide the amount you
intend to produce by 6 to
figure out how much to
plant.
• Single rows: 5-8 lbs (2.3-3.6
kg) of hardneck or 4 lbs (1.8
kg) softneck per 100’ (30m).
• Large areas 750-1000 lbs/ac
(842-1122 kg/ha) for
plantings in double rows, 3-
4” in-row (7.5-10 cm), beds
39” (1 m) apart.
Garlic planting
Credit Brittany Lewis

Planting time
• Fall-planting is best. We plant in early November. 9 am soil
temperature 50°F (10°C) at 4” (10 cm) deep. If the fall is unusually
warm, wait a week.
• Softneck garlic can be planted in the very early spring if you have
to (reduced yields). Give your seed garlic 40 days at or below 40°F
(4.5°C) before spring planting, or the bulbs will not differentiate
(divide into separate cloves)
Garlic Planting Credit Brittany Lewis
• Garlic emerges quickly in
the fall
• Roots grow whenever the
ground is not frozen
• Tops grow whenever the
temperature is above
40°F (4.5°C).

Growing in fall and winter
Get enough top growth so garlic has a roaring
start in the spring, but not so much that the
plants can’t endure winter
If planted too early, too much tender top
growth happens before winter
If planted too late, there won’t be enough
root growth before winter, and you’ll get a
lower survival rate and smaller bulbs
If garlic gets frozen back to the ground in the
winter, it can re-grow, and be fine. If it dies
back twice in the winter, the yield will be
lower than it might have been if you had been
luckier with the weather
When properly planted, garlic can withstand
winter lows of -30°F (-35°C)
Photo by Kathryn Simmons

Popping the cloves
• Up to 7 days before planting
• Twist off the outer skins, pull the bulb apart
• With hardneck garlic, the remainder of the stem
acts as a handy lever for separating the cloves
• Don’t worry if some skin comes off the cloves –
they will still grow
• Don’t break the basal plates(the part
the roots grow from)

Sorting the popped cloves
Photo from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
good size cloves in big buckets
damaged cloves in kitchen buckets
tiny cloves in tiny buckets - plant for garlic
scallions
outer skins and reject cloves in compost
buckets

Planting
Our method:
mark the bed with a row-marker
rake
make furrows with pointed hoes
lightly press the cloves into the
furrows at the chosen spacing, using
measuring sticks
Pull soil over the cloves using
regular hoes or rakes
tamp the soil down with the back of
the tool.
Some growers who also plant by hand
make a planting jig to make four or
more holes at a time in loose soil,
rather than make a furrow. Plant a
clove in each hole and cover with the
right depth of soil
Photo by Brittany Lewis

Plant garlic pointy end up
• Hardneck - plant pointy end up!
Hardneck cloves with the points down
suffer a 30% reduction in yield.
Softneck cloves can be planted any
way up, so are easier for mechanical
planting.
• If you can’t squat, or you are planting
from the seat of a tractor, use a 3’ (1
m) length of pipe to drop the cloves
into the furrows. Dropped from that
height, through a tube wide enough
for the garlic to tumble end-over-end,
the cloves will land the way they need
to be.

Spacing
Give each plant 32 to 72 square inches (206 -465 cm2).
3” (7.5 cm) is too close. Shading reduces yield.
We like 5” (13 cm) spacing in the row; 8-10” (20-25 cm)
between rows. 40 in2 (258 cm2) each. We get lots of 2 ½ “
bulbs. Many growers plant at 6” (15 cm) in-row.
Double rows and drip tape - Plant one row each side of
drip tape, with plants 6” (15 cm) apart in all directions, and
40” (1 m) or less between drip lines and the pairs of rows.
Photo by
Brittany Lewis

Planting depth
Avoid planting deeper than necessary, to reduce rotting
In the South, 1.5-2” (4-5 cm) of soil over the top of the cloves
In the north 3-4” (8-10 cm) of soil
In Michigan 6” (15 cm) - Prevent too much top growth
In Arizona, some growers set the cloves on the soil surface, then
cover with 6” (15 cm) straw.
Photo by
Brittany Lewis

• Roll round bales of spoiled
hay over the beds
immediately after planting.
• It is harder to add mulch
after the garlic has started
to grow.
• Organic mulches will
protect the cloves from
cold winter temperatures,
and frost-heaving to some
extent.
• In the South organic
mulches keep the soil
cooler once the weather
starts to heat up.
• Leave alone until late
February
• Weed once a month for 4
months
Mulching
Garlic photo Kathryn Simmons

Liberate trapped shoots!
A couple of weeks after mulching, free trapped
garlic shoots from over-thick mulch Photo by Kathryn Simmons

No-till planting - Disappointing
Trials at Virginia Tech to develop no-till planting for garlic,
planting in the fall into a frost-killed cover crop:
• Sorghum-Sudan hybrid, Lab-lab bean and Sunn hemp were
planted in the first week of August in raised beds.
• When frost had killed the cover crops (10/24) the beds were
rolled to flatten the crop residue
• Garlic cloves were planted 5-6” (14 cm) deep in holes made
with a soil probe. All plots were given organic fertilizers.
• Some were covered with thick straw, which was always
beneficial.
Disappointing results - no-till caused a 32-44% bulb loss, with
Sorghum-Sudan by far the worst. So don’t re-invent the wheel.
Speculation - the cover crop residues tied up the available
nitrogen.

No-till where oats winter-kill
David Stern in upstate New York successfully
plants into oats that have reached 6” (15 cm) tall
Sow oats 4 weeks before garlic planting date
He cuts slots through the oats with a disc-
furrower and plants the cloves in the slots
The oats continue to grow until winter-killed,
and they continue to protect the garlic
Timing is obviously critical and site-dependent
Can be harder to harvest from the “turf-like” soil
Wireworms could potentially be a problem,
encouraged by grasses

When foliar feeding is wasted
1. It provides no gain in yield if the soil had
adequate fertility at planting time.
2. Foliar fertilizers tend to run off the waxy
near-vertical garlic leaves, unless you
add a good sticker-spreader (soap).
3. Foliar feeding (or side-dressing with
compost or organic fertilizers) is wasted
after the fifth leaf, and certainly after
the bulb starts to enlarge.
4. In the South, garlic reaches a four-leaf
size before winter - spring is too late.
5. But don’t over-fertilize in the fall or
growth will be too fast and tender to
survive cold conditions, and the storage
life of the garlic will be reduced. Photo by Kathryn Simmons

Weed control is important
• Weeds can decrease yield
by as much as 50%.
• Kill the spring cool-
weather weeds, then kill
the summer weeds.
• Take care when hoeing or
cultivating and hand-
weeding. Keep the leaves
in good shape.
• Each leaf damaged or
removed will cause about
a 17% yield reduction for
that plant.

Weed control methods
without mulch
Cultivate fairly frequently
Tractor cultivation: use tine weeders up
until garlic is 6-8” tall. Then hillers will
deal with the between-row weeds and
some of the in-row weeds, but be careful
not to cover too much of the foliage as
this reduces yields.
Flame-weeding is possible.

Flame weeding
• Flame-weeding can
achieve as good results
as hand-weeding using
one-third of the labor.
• Can be used for
relatively mature garlic,
but young plants (four or
fewer leaves) are too
easily damaged.
• Direct the flame at the
base of the plants, in the
morning, when the
plants are turgid.
• Don’t flame-weed if you
have mulch!
Photo by Kati Falger
Colorado State Specialty Crops photo

Vinegar weeding
Useful to control broadleaf weeds, but has no effect on
grass weeds. Can reduce labor by 94% using vinegar
rather than hand-weeding, so if broadleaf weeds are
what you get, this is a good solution.
2004 SARE Grant report by Fred Forsburg.
• 5 applications of 10% acetic acid vinegar spray
during the growing season.
• Start when the garlic is 18” (46 cm) tall
• Spray about every 10 days, from both sides of each
row.
• Wear a mask and gloves, long sleeves and long
pants, this strength of vinegar is caustic.
• www.honeyhillfarm.com

Diseases
The major diseases are mostly fungal:
White Rot, Fusarium, Botrytis, Rust,
Penicillium Molds, Purple Blotch,
Powdery Mildew and Downy Mildew.
Bacterial soft rots are also sometimes
seen.
• Use pre-plant clove treatments to
reduce disease.
• Remove isolated sick plants as soon
as you see them.
• Always remove garlic debris from the
field at the end of the season, or till it
in and plant a non-allium crop. In
summer, soil biological life is very
active, and soil organisms will quickly
break down the debris.
Downy Mildew
Photo University of California IPM

Cold weather diseases
White Rot fungus is most active
below 75°F (24°C). Yellowing and
dying of older leaves, tipburn,
destruction of the root system and
rotting of the bulb. Can persist in
the soil for 10 years, requires
assertive action to reduce the
problem. Spray garlic extract on the
soil when the temperature is 60-
70°F (15-21°C) with no garlic
growing. The fungal mycelium may
grow and then die off in the
absence of food. Several weeks
later, garlic can be planted and will
escape the rot. Photo White Rot
University of California IPM
Rust shows up initially as small
white flecks on the leaves,
developing into orange spots.
Favorable temperatures 45-55°F (7-
13°C), high humidity, low rainfall,
low light. Stressed plants are more
likely to be stricken. Infected bulbs
may shrink, yellow and die. Use
good sanitation and rotations.

Hot weather diseases
Fusarium usually attacks plants that are
under stress. (In our garden it is the plants
on the gravelly edge of the patch.) It grows
during hot weather, with symptoms similar
to White Rot, but slower to develop.
Fusarium produces small brown spots on
the cloves, yellowed leaves and stunted
browned roots. The discoloration of the
leaves spreads from the tips. The main
organic approaches to controlling Fusarium
are good sanitation (and pre-planting
treatments) as well as fostering strong plant
growth.
Botrytis symptoms include “water-soaked”
leaves, and can lead to bulbs rotting,
sometimes during storage. This fungus
grows best (worst!) in warm wet weather.
Good airflow during growth, curing and
storage, will reduce the chances of Botrytis
problems.
Botrytis (top) Downy mildew
(bottom)
by University of California IPM

Pests
Nematode damage
(top); Onion maggot
damage (bottom)
Photos by University of
California IPM
Weekly scouting is a good practice. Use pre-
planting treatments against nematodes, mites.
Caterpillars can be killed with Bt.
Nematode infestations show up as distorted,
bloated, spongy leaves and bulbs, perhaps
with brown or yellow spots. Top growth
yellows and may separate from the roots.
Thrips are eaten by lady bugs and minute
pirate bugs. Farmscaping (planting flowers to
attract beneficial insects) can work.
Onion maggots: Ground & rove beetles, birds,
braconid wasps are all good predators.
Beneficial nematodes can be effective.
ProtekNet or row cover can exclude them
Mites eat the skins of the cloves, survive the
winter and multiply all spring long, seriously
damaging or even killing your crop.

Pre-plant treatments
To prevent some pests or diseases
Stem and bulb (bloat) nematode:
1. Soak the separated cloves for 30 minutes in 100°F (37.7°C) water
containing 0.1% surfactant (soap).
2. Or soak for 20 mins in the same solution at 120°F (48.5°C).
3. Then cool in plain water for 10-20 mins.
4. Or soak in 10% bleach water for 10 mins, warm water rinse.
5. Allow to dry for 2 hours at 100°F (37.7°C) or plant immediately.
Fusarium:
1. Soak the cloves in a 10% bleach solution, then roll them in wood
ash (wear gloves). The wood ash soaks up the dampness of the
bleach and provides a source of potassium.
2. Add wood ashes when planting, or possibly dust the beds with
more ashes over the winter. (Use moderation - don’t add so
much that you make the soil alkaline.)

More pre-plant treatments
Mites:
1. Separate the cloves and soak them overnight (up to 16
hours) in water. The long soaking loosens the clove skins so
the alcohol can penetrate and reach the hidden mites.
2. Optional additions to the water: 1 heaping tablespoon of
baking soda and 1 tablespoon of liquid seaweed per gallon
(around 8 ml baking soda and 4 ml liquid seaweed per liter).
3. Just before planting, drain the cloves and cover them in
rubbing alcohol for 3-5 minutes, so the alcohol penetrates
the clove covers and kills any mites inside. Then plant
immediately.
Various fungal infections:
1. Separate the cloves and soak them for 15-30 mins in water
(optional extras as for mites).
2. Just before planting, drain the cloves and cover them in
rubbing alcohol for 3-5 minutes.

Reasons to grow garlic scallions
• A very tasty and visually attractive crop during
the Hungry Gap, the spring period before any
new crops are ready for harvest.
• Supply garlic taste at a time when supplies of
bulb garlic may have run out.
Photo from
cbf.typepad.com

Garlic scallions
Set aside the smallest cloves when
planting your main garlic crop
Plant close together in furrows,
dropping them in almost shoulder
to shoulder, just as they fall. Close
the furrow and mulch over the top
with spoiled hay or straw.
We harvest garlic scallions from
early March, once they reach about
7-8" (18-20 cm) tall,
They last till May, unless we need to
use the space.

Harvesting garlic scallions
Loosen the plants with a fork rather
than just pulling
Trim the roots, rinse, bundle, set in
a small bucket with a little water
Scallions can be sold in small
bunches of 3-6 depending on size
Or cut the greens at 10" (25 cm)
tall, and bunch them, allowing cuts
to be made every two or three
weeks. Greens wilt quicker than
scallions

Garlic
scapes
• Garlic scapes are the firm, round seed stems that grow from hard-
neck garlic, starting to appear in our region 3 weeks before harvest ,
as the bulbs size up. Day-length and temperature determine when.
• Remove them! The garlic bulbs will be bigger and also easier to braid,
if you want braids from hardneck varieties.
• Contrary to ideas mentioned by some sources, leaving scapes in does
not increase the storage life.
• 1 acre (0.4 ha) of hardneck garlic produces 300-500 lbs (136-226 kg)
of scapes
• Most people who remove scapes cut them where they emerge from
the leaves. We prefer to pull ours, to get the most out.
Photo www.greencitymarket.wordpress.com

When to
harvest scapes
• 2 or 3 times/week, for 3
weeks in May.
• Late morning or early
afternoon is a good time.
Wounds heal quicker then,
reducing the risk of disease
and wilting.
• Don't wait for the top of the
scape to loop around - they
toughen and the final yield
of the garlic decreases.
• Pull as soon as the caps
have cleared the leaves
Photo by Small Farm Central

How to harvest scapes
• Grasp the round stem just
below the pointed cap and
pull steadily straight up. The
scape emerges with a popping
sound - you have the full
length of the scape, including
the tender lower part.
• It's an enjoyable stand-up job,
and there’s a friendly
competition to see who can
get the longest scape.
(Encourages everyone to
perfect their technique.)
• Gather scapes into buckets,
standing upright
• Put a little water in the
bucket.
Photo www.awaytogarden.com

Scapes post-harvest
• Scapes are aligned in
the bucket, easy to
bunch or cut up. Scapes
sell in bunches of 6-10.
• They store well in a
refrigerator for months
if needed.
• Use for stir-fries,
grilling, omelets,
quiche, soups, pesto,
pickles, dips, sauces,
dressings
• Photo simpleseasonal.com

Green garlic
The juicy immature
plants before the bulbs
mature.
Could be small bulbs
before they differentiate
(divide into cloves) or
later, before they dry
down.
Worthwhile if you have
a large planting and you
can get a good price
Photo by Small Farm Central
www.smallfarmcentral.com

Preparing for garlic bulb harvest
• Day-length as well as accumulated degree days determines when
scapes appear and when bulbs are ready to harvest. This is a good
time to be paying more attention to your garlic crop, and what better
way than walking through pulling scapes?
• Remove any diseased plants from the patch at the same time. 3
weeks before the expected harvest, remove the mulch to help the
bulbs dry down, and to prevent fungal diseases.
• In our rotation, the spring broccoli is next door to the garlic, and we
move the old garlic mulch to the broccoli to top up the mulch there.
It helps us stay on track with getting the broccoli weeded too.

Drying down
Hot weather above 91°F
(33°C) ends bulb growth and
drying down starts. It is
important to get plenty of
good rapid growth before
hot weather arrives.
Garlic can double in size in its
last month of growth, and
removing the scapes (the
hard central stem) of
hardneck garlic can increase
the bulb size 25%.

Determining when to harvest
Garlic is ready to harvest when
the sixth leaf down is starting to
brown on 50% of the crop. See
Ron Engeland's Growing Great
Garlic.
Harvesting too early means
smaller bulbs (harvesting way too
early means an undifferentiated
bulb and lots of wrappers that
then shrivel up).
Harvesting too late means the
bulbs may "shatter" or have an
exploded look, and not store well.
Usually it's 6/7-6/14 for harvest of our main crop of hardneck garlic,
but it has been as early as 5/30, and as late as 6/18. Our softneck
variety is a little later.

Cut across hardneck garlic –
airspaces around stem show maturity
Music German Red

Mechanical harvest
Use a tractor-mounted
undercutter to loosen
the bulbs, or a root-
harvester to completely
dig them up. Sub-soilers,
European leek harvesting
machines or homemade
undercutters fashioned
from an old snow plow
blade bent into a
rectangular shape, have
all been used.
Photo www.pinterest.com

Manual harvest
Use digging forks to loosen the
soil – lift, don’t pull. Stressing
the necks will not improve the
curing.
In drought years use overhead
irrigation the evening before, to
loosen the soil enough to
harvest without damage.
Treat the bulbs like precious sun-
sensitive eggs! Bruised bulbs
won't store well, nor will sun-
scalded ones. It’s better not to
wash them, as drying is what’s
needed. Shake off the soil,
without banging the bulbs.
Photo Twin Oaks Community

Despite looking a lot yellower than “5 green
leaves”, this 2012 crop was not shattering.
Photo Marilyn Rayne Squier

Avoid cooking your garlic!
We harvest into buckets to keep the bulbs shaded. Others
might use crates. If it’s hot, get the garlic out of the field
quickly, hang it up and get it drying, (indoors!) Don’t let
garlic get above 121°F (49°C) as it will cook. Photo Marilyn Rayne Squier

Our garlic harvest gets fast follow-up
Immediately after the harvest we till the old garlic area
and sow buckwheat and soy. We have about six or seven
weeks before we'll use these beds to sow our fall carrots
at the very beginning of August. Photo Marilyn Rayne Squier

Setting garlic
to cure
Hanging the garlic indoors to cure
(as it comes in from the field) is
popular when it is hot outside. It
takes us several mornings to get our
4200 row feet (1280 m) of garlic
harvested and hung up.
Some growers tie the plants in loose
bundles of about 8-12 plants and
hang the bundles under cover. If you
can size the bunch so it ends up
around one pound (0.5 kg) in
weight, you may save yourself a task
later.
Whatever method you are using, get
the garlic spread out immediately.
Don’t leave it in plastic containers
where the heat and moisture will
incubate fungi!
Photo Twin Oaks Community

Cure for 3-4 weeks
You could use
snowfencing (slats and
wire, or the plastic kind).
Or you can make
horizontal racks, and lay
the garlic on top.
To braid softneck garlic,
start braiding within the
first week of curing,
before the leaves become
too brittle. You’ll also need
to clean your garlic.
Photo Marilyn Rayne Squier

Using netting
We hang our garlic in nylon netting
around the walls of a barn. The
netting has a 2" (5 cm) diamond
mesh.
We thread a bulb in each diamond,
by bending the tops of the leaves
and feeding them through the
space.
We take a section of netting and
work upwards in rows, back and
forth, covering the walls in garlic.
We use fans to move the air, which
you should consider if your climate
is also humid.
Photo by Marilyn Rayne Squier

Snipping garlic
Test the curing garlic by rolling
the neck of a few sample bulbs
between finger and thumb. If it
feels dry, rather than moist, it's
ready.
Use scissors to cut off the roots
close to the bulb and the tops
¼ - ½ " (0.5-1 cm) above the
bulb. Don’t remove any skin.
Some growers brush mud off
with toothbrushes. We find
enough dirt drops off during
storage to save us this tedious
task.
Trimming garlic roots.
Photo by Brittany Lewis

Sorting garlic after snipping
• If not damp, decide if it’s storable.
• If the bulb is damaged or mushy
anywhere, or the cloves have sprung
apart, put it on the Farm Use rack.
• If storable, decide if it’s seed size and
quality (next slide).
• When all the hardneck garlic is
trimmed, weighed and recorded,
take it away to storage.
• Then start on the soft neck garlic, if
dry. Do the same as with the
hardneck garlic. Use different colored
bags.
Trimming garlic.
Photo Brittany Lewis
• Decide if the bulb is dry. Feel the cut neck. The remains of the stem
may have a Styrofoam texture. The stem should not be damp.
• If damp at all, put the trimmed bulb on a Farm Use rack.

Selecting seed garlic
• If it could be between 2 and 2 ½”,
measure it. If smaller or larger, put in
a red bag. It’s for eating.
• Don’t just save all the biggest bulbs
for seed - they tend to be uneven in
shape and quality, with cloves of all
sizes.
• If 2 - 2.5" (5-7 cm) in diameter, with
an even shape and cloves that are
tight together, not opening up (and
not obviously more than 10 cloves),
put it in a green bag.
• We use about 50 lbs per 1000’ of
seed garlic (hardneck and softneck).
This allows some slack.
• When we have enough seed garlic,
stop measuring. Simply snip, sort and
bag.
Measuring garlic bulbs
Photo: Brittany Lewis
Some growers use measuring
jigs with two foam-lined
battens tapering towards each
other on a board
Decide if each bulb is seed size and quality

Storing seed stock
Ideally, store at 50-65°F (10-18°C)
and 65-70% relative humidity.
Our seed garlic goes on a high shelf
in the shed, at quite variable
temperatures, and does fine until
early November when we plant it.
Don’t refrigerate - prolonged cool
storage results in “witches-
brooming” (strange growth shapes),
and early maturity and lower yields
Avoid temperatures of 40-50°F (4.5-
10°C) during the summer, as this
causes sprouting before you are
ready to plant.
Storage above 65°F (18°C) results in
delayed sprouting and late maturity.
We have been carefully selecting
seed stock for about 20 years now,
and it does great.
Inchelium red garlic.
Photo www.southernexposure.com

General storage
• We store our eating garlic in a
dry, coolish basement at 60-
70°F (15.5-21°C) over the
summer.
• In late September we move it
to a walk-in cooler at 35-38°F
(1.5-3°C). At 32°F (0°C) it will
store for 6-7 months. Garlic
does not freeze until 21°F
(-6°C).
• Avoid the middle temperature
range of 40-55°F (4.4-13°C), as
this encourages sprouting.Garlic photo by Radish Acorn

Lorz Italian softneck garlic

Chesnok Red hardneck garlic

Music hardneck garlic

Nootka Rose silverskin softneck

Silverwhite softneck (Silverskin type)

Siberian hardneck garlic

German Red hardneck garlic

Italian softneck garlic (Artichoke type)

Killarney hardneck garlic

French Red softneck garlic

Inchelium Red softneck garlic (Artichoke type)

Polish White softneck garlic

Resources
Growing Great Garlic, Ron Engeland, 1991, Filaree
ATTRA, Organic Garlic Production,
www.attra.ncat.org/attra-
pub/summaries/summary.php?pub=29
The Garlic Seed Foundation,
www.garlicseedfoundation.info An organization of
growers and eaters. Website lists suppliers and
resources, including the ARS Germplasm Resource,
which supplies small amounts of plant material to
growers. Extensive library and information on building
your own harvesting equipment.
Dr Gayle Volk’s Garlic DNA Analysis, (How many garlics
are there?)
www.garlicseedfoundation.info/allium_sativum_DNA.
htm
Bloat Nematodes,
www.garlicseedfoundation.info/bloat-nematode-new-
york.htm
www.garlicseedfoundation.info/images/nematode-
cce.jpg
Fred Forsburg has designed a tractor-drawn planting
platform www.honeyhillfarm.com
Vinegar to kill weeds: 2004 SARE Grant report by Fred
Forsburg ] FNE03-461 Final Report
Sources for Seed
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, VA,
www.southernexposure.com 540-894-9480,
16 varieties, mostly Organic
Gourmet Garlic Gardens,
www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com 325-348-3049,
81 varieties, grown in the US by small growers across
the country. Growing instructions, pests and diseases
and more
Filaree Farms, WA, www.filareefarm.com
509-422-6940, over 130 varieties
Territorial Seeds, OR, www.territorialseed.com
800-626-0866, 18 varieties
Irish Eyes Garden Seeds, WA,
www.irisheyesgardenseeds.com 509-964-7000 or
509-925-6025, 4 varieties
The Garlic Store, CO.
www.thegarlicstore.com 800-854-7219. 54 Organic
varieties

Growing great garlic 2016 Pam Dawling

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