It will be interesting for you to see how well the Turbans do in the great white north of Minnesota and how much earlier the Turbans are compared to your other hardnecks. I believe Turbans are supposed to be 'weakly bolting' so not much for scapes?

Regarding the growing guide info, I believe I have read similar information in either Ted Meredith's book or Ron Engeland's book or maybe both. You shouldn't have any trouble getting the 40 days of vernalization in your garden!

Old, you grow some interesting garlic. If you have a good harvest this year, I may want to get some seed garlic from you :-)

I counted mine as about 10 varieties. But lat year was half lost. I plan to be more careful this year with my planting. I really want to develop my Music and German White, where our local farmers grow.

I have been growing Japanese, an Asiatic, for a couple of years now with decent results. Mostly no scapes just bulbils inside the stems. That is a bit earlier than the other hardnecks I grow by maybe a week or two depending on how the season works out, and I expect the Turbans to generally be as hardy and at least that early. I have yet to see the famous elongated scapes of the Japanese garlic; so I am getting nice sized bulbs with the large cloves this variety is noted for without having to cut back the scapes. This year I got some of the large bulbils from Japanese anyway and have planted them back in a row of their own.

I was actually hoping for some more Asiatics from Southern Exposure, but they sent all turbans, which is ok for testing anyway. I really don't need more garlic or more varieties, either. But what can you do if you don't purposely quit shopping.

lonejack, I've been growing turbans for several years and they always bolt; can rely on their scapes to be the first to emerge with their telltale pink flush at the base of the spathe - our winters get down to around 21 F and the snow seldom stays on the ground for more than a few days.

Thanks for that information. I have never grown Turbans but I thought I had read in one of the books that they were 'weakly bolting' but not sure exactly what the means. Maybe I got them confused with the Asiatics?

weakly bolting is often in reference to varieties more suited to growing in warmer climates, eg; creoles, asiatics and turbans. Not grown any asiatics but the creoles and turbans routinely bolt in my growing conditions as do silverskins. Even artichokes have neck bulbils but the same varieties grown in the far north of the north island and top of the south island where the winters are much warmer won't send up scapes at all.

Both Asiatics and Turbans are considered "weakly bolting". Although many of them are considered better adapted to lower latitudes, most of them still are hardy up into zone 3 or very close to it. They just don't perform as well, especially not sizing up so well in the higher latitudes. Some of them do just fine, however. What I am hoping to find is exceptional earliness, as much for allowing a second gardening season in that space as anything else.

I hope your plan works out for you Dutch. I imagine double cropping is quite a challenge up there. The extra 4 weeks or so I have at each end of the season here in Missouri compared to Minnesota allow me to easily follow any garlic with a fall crop of just about anything that can take our July and August heat as seedlings. This year I followed garlic with Broccoli, 4 plantings of radishes, Brussels Sprouts, Carrots, Lettuce, and some green onions. Everything did or is doing well except for the green onions which never really put on much top growth so I pulled them and planted by shallots in that bed last weekend, and the jury is still out on whether the Brussels Sprouts will make before Thanksgiving. There are some little sprouts forming on the bottom of the stalks now so I am hopeful.

Also, I have to get in a 'Let's go Royals!' after last nights big win!!

There is really no comparison between the sweetness of autumn coles, carrots, parsnips, radishes (gotta love the daikons!) and those planted in early spring. Our first killing frost is supposed to happen tomorrow night. It keeps getting later and later every year. This year was long enough that the one volunteer tomato I allowed fruited out heavily and ripened a whole lot of fruit, although my local tree rats got most of it.

Besides I only have about 600 to 700 square feet to play with and I like my own tomatoes, squash and sweet potatoes, and the multiplier onions, and so on... And I am not ready to give up my daylilies and Siberian irises for more garden space either. My entire lot is only 40x120 from the middle of the back alley to the middle of the front street. I sorta have to overlap some crops, and grow the smaller and bush varieties instead of the rampant viners.

If the turbans that I got from Southern Exposure are that much earlier, they will get their own bed next fall. At least one of them will right along with my Japanese. This year the garlic is in a wide bed, but if that scenario holds, I will separate the early ones from the much later hardnecks into 2 narrower beds that will run full length which is only about 18feet or so anyway.

All my garlic varieties are showing some sprouting. The biggest sprouts are on those planted 10/07, but even the Turbans I planted 10/15 are showing some sprouting. There is also some sprouting on the sand leeks I planted on the 7th, and some also on the bulbils for the walking onions I also planted on the 7th.

My 11 garlic varieties and 2 shallots varieties planted 10/9 and 10/10 were not yet sprouting as of yesterday morning but it should be any time now. I pulled my last cherry tomato plant yesterday after harvesting about 50 ripe and 200 green cherries for my chickens to enjoy over the next couple weeks. The last of my main heads of Broccoli were enjoyed over the weekend and now picking lots of side shoots but they are getting smaller on the first planting. Brussels Sprouts are starting to put on some size and I will probably top the plants next weekend so they put more energy into the sprouts. Carrots are looking good and getting some good size roots. I'm spending a lot of my time now doing the fall leaf roundup and filling the compost piles. The first pile I built on 10/16 was 140 degrees on Saturday and had dropped about 15" in height but was also gassing off ammonia. Think I might have used a little too much urea on that one!! I mixed in some more leaves yesterday to balance it out and fill it back up to the top.

Jack, do you water in your garlics? I do, them and my tulips, too, although I do not expect to see tulips until next spring. We have also been getting real regular fall rains this year. All of my garlic varieties are showing sprouts now; which is a bit different from the past, when most of the hard necks would wait until spring to show up. Of course almost all garlics are hardy as a stone, even if they may do better in one latitude than another; so I am not worrying about it.

Most of my trees have dropped their leaves, but it is too damp to run them through the mower, which is what i prefer before mulching with them. I get a little bit of green grass mixed in then too, which helps, and the leaves get shattered good into smaller bits that decompose quicker and do not pack down so bad.

Next week I think for the leaves provided we get some drier days.

Dutch - Yes I do water the garlic in the fall if we don't get any rain for a week or so. I watered after planting and then again a week later. We have had a very dry late summer and early fall so far but we got a little bit of rain last Friday during the ALCS game 7 and we are getting light rain today just in time for the World Series game 1 but hopefully not enough to postpone the game.

I checked my garlic last night and saw a dozen or so sprouting after 17 days so all is good.

For leaf cleanup, if they are just going into the compost pile I just mow them up with the bagger attached and dump them in the pile. They get somewhat shredded that way but not real fine. If I am going to mulch the gardens I mow them up with the bagger and then dump into a windrow about 1' high and then go over them with the mower without the bagger on and that chops the leaves up pretty good. Then I put the bagger back on to collect them. I think about 5 or 6 bags of leaves ends up fitting into one bag after being finely shredded.

I have done 2 rounds of leaf roundup around my house so far so I'm not getting much in the way of grass clippings because it is not growing very fast now. When I mow out in my front pasture where most of my garden is located I should get a higher percentage of clippings because I haven't mowed out there for a few weeks.

I am hoping to get enough dry down yet to till up a couple of beds for next spring. Where I planted tomatoes this year was worked up with some dolomite as well as liberal humus and fertilizer. I had no blossom end rot either. Then I will mulch in real good. I got lots of leaves for a small city lot anyway that is.