Anyone out there growing Martin's Heirloom?

Looking at it last night it appears to be putting on some decent growth this week, but still much smaller than the Estonia Red and Purple Glazer on either side of it. Hoping that it is just a late bloomer! Still another month or so before it should start bulbing.

I'm growing Martin's, but the bulbs I was sent (through a private exchange) were small, I'm still trying to get them to size up. Last year all my garlic was under-sized due to weather, but Martin's - while still small - was larger than most of the others. The variety has a reputation for large bulbs.

Thanks zeedman! I'm rethinking how much Martin's I will plant this fall. I planted about 90% of the cloves from 4 bulbs last fall which was 35. 8 or 10 of the plants are a decent size now but the rest are pretty small. I had planed to plant about 80 cloves this fall but I'm thinking to cut that in half and only plant the biggest 40 or so cloves and eat, sell, or trade the rest. Reading some of Martin's old harvest posts is what prompted me to want to grow some as well as the fact that my late father's was named Martin and my middle name is Martin. Do you know if Martin still around?

Yes, Martin is still around. He no longer posts on this board, but still posts on several other garden sites under different screen names.

Planting only the largest cloves is the best way to increase & maintain large bulb size, so you have a good plan. However, before deciding how much to plant, you might want to compare the flavor of Martin's to your other garlics, to see which you prefer.

You should also take note of how many cloves you get per bulb, since that will tell you your multiplication rate... and how much of the crop would remain, after setting aside stock for re-planting. I'll assume that after setting aside the largest cloves, you would want equal quantities (by weight) of all varieties. Estonian Red gets only 3-5 cloves per bulb, so assuming no losses (and that is a big "if") you would get to eat only 60-75% of the harvest... so you would need to plant more of them. In contrast, Martin's gets 8-10 cloves per bulb, so after setting aside planting stock, you would get to keep about 90% of the crop... so you would need fewer plants to get the same weight.

Good to here that Martin is still around. I have good notes on from last falls planting including cloves/bulb, avg weight per bulb and clove, etc so I can compare to my harvest this year. I plan to double my garlic planting next year from about 450 to around 1000. This year 13 varieties and will add a couple more for next year including a silverskin for long storage (I'm out of garlic right now except for some dehydrated flakes). So far no loses on the Estonia Red and it is looking really good. I ordered 4 jumbo bulbs from BigRedBarn garlic in southwest WI and they sent me 5. I planted all 24 cloves from those bulbs and the cloves AVERAGED 14.5 grams/clove! When buying a small amount of expensive seed stock I will usually plant all of the cloves and not just the largest but with Estonia Red they were all large.

One of the varieties I grow is called a Spanish White, and even though the plants appear smaller than several of the other varieties I grow, they have extensively large individual cloves. Almost all of the heads are maybe mid-sized, but with far fewer individual cloves. These things are nearly as easy to deal with in my kitchen as the Elephant Garlic, but with much more garlic flavor and heat.

Gotta love the large clove varieties! I'm not familiar with Spanish White. Is it a hardneck? Is it the same as Ajo Blanco? The Martin's Heirloom I planted did not have overly large cloves but is reputed to be capable of 3"+ bulbs.