Certified organic? Or virus and nematode free? Anyway, I've been getting emails from a place that sells small quantities of both. Not sure if it is what you are looking for or not.

Here's their site: https://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/index/srch:garlic

Certified disease free... I will check it out.

This place is really no cheaper than most others; it just sells single bulbs. It will pay you to shop the online stores that Goggle comes up with for "seed garlic". There are a great many that are certified organic and many others boast of being tested free of nemotodes. Most sell by the pound or half pound in full bulbs. Some sell separated cloves but not many do that.

Unfortunately nearly all commercial seed garlic is expensive. Once you get a good start you can easily save your own, but initially it is going to take some outlay if you want officially organic and nemotode free starting stock.

For smaller and therefore cheaper bulbs, check out Whistling Duck Farm.

I just don't want nematodes or white rot etc. Garlic has a lot of nasty persistent soil borne diseases. My garlic this year had rot issues. I don't really care if it official as long as it is safe.

LOL Garlic actually has fewer really harmful pests and diseases than most of our ornamentals and vegetables. Most important issue is drainage. Volume at harvest is determined by fertilization.

A few years back I lost my entire fall planting to rot because I planted the whole works wrong. I have to irrigate most summers; so I planted in trenches rather than elevated, thinking I would get a jump on the next season. Every clove rotted, even in my relatively sandy soil, which btw is frozen solid from about the end of October until mid April, and that was the basis of the problem turning the trenches into basins of surface melt water. I was able to spring plant right back in the same trenches once the ground had completely thawed, which then worked remarkably well the next summer, but I have never since fall planted in trenches. The rot was a cultural mistake which it generally is. So make sure you have the proper planting and drainage techniques in place or you will get rot regardless of how certified your planting stock is.

I keep my own planting stock from year to year now. I wouldn't begin to get certified by anyone either. Not possible. I lose very few if any cloves that I plant from my main varieties, although I can't say quite the same for the new varieties I test each year. Garlic tends to adapt to you, if given the chance. If you have any that survived your problems this year, those would be what I would plant back if I were you, at least for some of next year's crop.

If you're interested I have disease free garlic that I sell in small quantities via mail. Check Portland Oregon craigslist for my ad, Flying Onion Farm. I've sold to many gardenweb members over the years.

-Mark

It may seems like a lot of cash up front but give them what they need and you'll get a lot of garlic from these high quality bulbs at Fedco Bulbs. I live in Northern Connecticut and these bulbs performed very well. I'm somewhat biased to Fedco because of my location.

FEDCO is no longer accepting bulb orders this fall. It is a good source, but is very seasonal about when it is open. It is getting late to order seed garlic. Already a lot of growers are showing sold out for many of their varieties.

It doesn't seem like there is such a thing as "certified disease free garlic." At least, I can't find it on google.

I was thinking maybe ordering from Rottingers... their potatoes were great. But they don't have the Music I wanted.

So.... I guess I am stuck with what reputable source still has Music in stock. Whistling Duck does not.

I've grown Music and Northern White side by side and can barely tell the difference between them. I think Music is just a selection someone chose and wanted to give it a fancy name. Has anyone here found any specific differences?

Mark...I agree that German White and Music are very similar but for me GW tends to be a little bigger on average. It may be just that I have been growing GW a couple more years than Music and it is that much further along in acclimating to my growing conditions.

Peter. Big Red Barn gourmet garlic in Wisconsin still has about 15 varieties available including Music at around $15/lb. I have ordered from them and got great service and the best looking bulbs I have received from an online vendor. As far as I know there is not a certification process available for Garlic like there is for something like Potato seed. I believe some Ag schools like Cornell will inspect seed garlic for GBN.

Big Red Barn

Thanks, LoneJack. Just placed an order with Big Red Barn.

Excellent!! What kinds did you order?

I ordered Music because I've been trying to find it for a few years and have always encountered "out of stock" in the past everywhere I looked. It'll be my first hard neck variety. When I saw your message saying it was still available, I had to jump right on it.

I am also going to order from them. I grew Russian Red this year and it did ok, despite the rot. Should I order Music or Russian Red do you think, or do you have any other recommendations? I want the biggest bulbs, with the least amount of bulbs per clove (less peeling...) Sounds like I should go for Music?

Just a hint here, for the best selection of seed garlic start shopping on line in June and July but no later than the beginning of August. Many of the actual growers of organic seed garlic will be out of stock for most of their most popular varieties by now. Many wholesalers will also be. Best selection is early. Many suppliers ship their largest bulbs to the earliest orders too; early shopping also enables best quality.

Though I really hadn't originally meant to get more seed garlic, I ordered a turban/Asiatic combo from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (1/2 pound of three different varieties for about the price of 2). Their earliness has intrigued me for some time. I already have Japanese from the Asiatic group and it does very well for me here in Minneapolis and is definitely earlier than Music or Siberian, which are my main varieties. Everything else will be my own seed stock held over from this summer's harvest.

Today I get amendments and start getting the beds ready. I like to let them set a few weeks after prep before planting which will probably be in early October this year.

I just bought a 1lb order of Music from Big Red Barn. Hopefully they are ok, but garlic seems a bit of a roll of the dice with anybody.... the price and availability was right.

Music is about as dependable as they come, and stores very nearly as well as any of the other hardnecks. I also finding that Siberian does well at least here in Minneapolis, although it doesn't store quite as well as Music. Siberian also has the reputation of being very widely adapted, doing well farther south than many hardnecks do.

Although I really didn't need any more seed!, I decided to bring a three Asiatic/Turbans to see if I can get early enough harvest to meet up with the last of my stored hardneck garlics. I had usable cloves into June in one variety this past year, although I had to sort through the dried out bulbs to find them. Few of the bulbs had more than a single plump clove if that, but there were a surprising number of them.

Just an FYI

Big Red Barn garlic is now sold out for the season. Sounds like you guys wiped out their inventory!!

For those that ordered from them can you report on the seed quality and service you received?

I got nice decent size bulbs, looks like definitely more than the pound I ordered, was shipped immediately, so far so good definitely no complaints. I haven't cracked them open to plant yet, I will update after I do. I am planning to plant this weekend.

They did contact me after placing my order with the shipping costs, which I then had to separately pay for. I thought it was included but wasn't really paying attention when I ordered, I am sure they noted it somewhere.

Looks like they have some assorted bulbs still left for sale.

Yea Peter I had to pay the shipping separately last year as well. Not sure why it isn't included. Last year they sold by the bulb and they added a 'bonus' bulb in my order of Estonia Red.

I'm glad you are pleased with your order so far!!

This is my first year growing garlic and I ordered from highmowingseeds.com. They are out of Vermont and are all organic(if that matters). They have free shipping on everything(no minimum), which I believe wasn't just a promotion...I think it's all the time.

I ordered 1 lb of Music garlic in August, but it was backordered until 10/15. They came in the mail last week, so ahead of schedule. I actually liked that they were delivered right around planting time, because then you don't have to store them, and it's also a reminder that it's time to plant. I'm not familiar with all the types of garlic, but heard Music was great. The garlic looks great and the cloves are huge.

I'll let you know how they turn out.

If large cloves are a selling point for you, then Music is a very good choice. It is also widely adapted. So is Siberian, a marbled purple stripe, which is a bit milder than Music but does not keep for quite as long in storage. Both types have fewer cloves per bulb than a lot of others; so if you plan to keep your own planting stock, be sure to plant enough extra to allow for that.

Good luck.

Yeah I read that the hardnecks typically have far fewer cloves than softnecks. I was kinda surprised at first when I noticed that some of the Music garlic only had 4 massive cloves.

Hardnecks tend to have a single row of cloves around the hardened central stem, while softnecks tend to have several rows of cloves, very often with the inside rows made up of cloves too small or almost too small to use. The actual number of cloves varies by variety, for example my feral and the Viet Namese Red both tend to have significantly more cloves than porcelains like Music, although still only in one row around the stem. With softnecks you plant the largest cloves, generally from the outside row or two and eat the rest, with hardnecks you plant them all, since they all tend to be similar in size, but you tend to get fewer to plant per pound of seed bulb with the hardnecks.

This is my "one pound" of Music from Big Red Barn. 9 big beautiful bulbs. Very happy with my order. I'm going to have to eat some of this!

I planted about 70 cloves, in 3 different beds, amd still had a few left over for eating. They are mulched with 1-2" of composted ground hardwood. I will amend with organic granular ferts in the Spring. Looking forward to the garlic next year!

Looks like they sent you some nice Music and over a pound. Did you get 70+ cloves just from these 9 bulbs or did you have some additional seed stock? Looking at the picture it appears that the bulbs have the typical 6 or so cloves per bulb which would be around 50 to 55 total.

No just those bulbs - the ones I grew this year got rot so I opted not to replant them. I counted as I was planting, I think I counted 65 to be exact. I think there may have been more than 6 cloves per bulb - more like 8. Is that not normal?

For me usually about 6 large cloves but sometimes there are additional small cloves squeezed in some of the bulbs that I don't plant. Anything from my planting stock that I don't plant get used in the kitchen or dehydrated.

But like you when I first purchase a new variety I will plant every clove no matter the size.

They were almost all very nice sized cloves. I ate the 5 or so smaller ones.

Jungs in Wisconsin is running a sale on surplus garlic stocks, and they are advertising a very nice selection still available. I have dealt with them on and off for years, and have found Jung's to be dependable. My yellow potato onions originally came from them and my Copra plants have come from them the last couple of years. All of them have done well for me.

Peter, do you think it would make sense for us to cover up the recently planted garlic? We are expecting a couple inches of rain tomorrow.

You mean mulch? The mulch is added for insulation for the winter... no weeds right now, not really going to do anything for you, IMHO, but keep the freshly planted garlic in soggy soil. But I am not a garlic expert, I have only grown it once, JMO.

No I mean covering it with plastic temporarily.

I planted the garlic and mulched in on Saturday. Too early for mulch?

Why would you cover with plastic? That seems... a little obsessive :) Do you have extremely poorly draining soil?

This is my first time growing garlic. Obsessive is probably an accurate word haha. Just don't want the garlic to rot.

The garlic would only need some protection from getting washed away by that much rain, and maybe not even that. Forget the plastic though, all the alliums need to breath and raised beds even just a little will help with that.

Not really too early for mulch either unless it packs down and keeps the cloves from breathing. They do not like being waterlogged. It would probably be better to wait with the mulch until you get some drying out and then some cooler temperatures. Most advice is to wait until the ground freezes to mulch using the mulch to even out winter soil temperatures to prevent frost heaving, but so long as your mulch is loose, your beds are well drained and the weather is not constantly raining, garlic is pretty tolerant. Garlic does not need mulch to be winter hardy.

Ok thanks, OldDutch....I mulched on Saturday, so would it be worth it to pull the mulch back for now? Or is it ok to leave(heh) it? It is planted in a raised bed.

Chris, If you planted in a raised bed and the mulch is loose, it will probably be OK. If your soil is very well drained and your bed is not below the surface and the mulch is loose, you might want to pull it back, if you have the time and let the bed breath and dry out. Whatever you do, you do not want a tightly packed mulch or to have planted in a trench. With a very well drained soil (sandy loam) you can often get away with a trench when spring planting, but not overwintering from a fall planting, especially not if you soil freezes up dependably and stays that way for most of the winter, and generally not when your soil freezes, thaws and refreezes a number of times over the winter. That last is the perfect recipe for frost heaving. A good mulch will even out the winter soil temperature and help avoid that problem.