Garlic Harvest!

8 years ago

Hey everyone. I haven't posted here in a little while. Sharing my garlic harvest today!

This is Inchelium Red softneck. I'd been told softneck garlic would not survive here, being zone 6, but it survived just fine, including a spell that dropped us to -8 F one morning. I planted right after we had our first frost last Oct. (Our first light frost was Oct. 15 last year.) and then they sprouted and grew quite a lot in an overall quite mild November. They received no fertilizer, other than nitrogen previously fixed by bush beans and 2" of compost. Now it's time to get some brussel sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli in there to crop this Oct.

I got 78 bulbs all averaging 10-12 cloves. I'll let them dry in the shed spread out on my workbench for a few days before I braid them and hang them to finish curing our shed for a few weeks.

Overall I'm very pleased. We had a very mild autumn, but mid December onward turned very cold, not breaking until the beginning of February. Multiple nights below 0 F had them looking quite sorry, but they really took off come March's warmth. None of the late April freezes seemed to bother them either. I'll be saving cloves to plant this autumn, but also hope to grow elephant garlic and a hardneck variety this year.

Jacob

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Comments (5)

User
8 years ago
Oooooh, you did GOOD. I have several varieties that I plant every year, including Inchelium, but I lost a lot of them last winter. I don't know if the cloves I have saved in brown paper bags in the refrigerator crisper will hold till fall or not. I may go out and plant them now. I used to grow elephant garlic that I got at the grocery store and I didn't know any better, so I just planted several cloves when I harvested. Somehow, it all seemed to work out. They say God watches out for fools and little children. Heh.
matthias_lang
8 years ago
Nice to see. It sure has wider leaves than what I have grown up to now. I've never fertilized garlic at all, but I suspect I have a slightly higher pH soil than your Ozarks region, and I think garlic tends to like that.

I've got Inchelium on order for the fall. I'm looking forward to trying it. We're a bit north of you in St. Louis and another gardener here told me it is her best performing garlic. I don't think our winter is a problem for Inchelium.
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jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Thanks!

Lol RE planting after harvesting. Things like that make you wonder how picky these plants really are....I have seen many others in the region this year lose their garlic over the winter. I'm wondering if it's because of how dry winter was? Dry cold can be quite devastating on a crop, especially with as windy a spring we had.

Talked to the lady I bought off of last year last night and she said she should have elephant garlic ready once it's finished harvesting and curing soon. That'll be exciting.
jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
Original Author
8 years ago
Ah, I see you snuck a post in Matthias! Yeah, it didn't seem to have any trouble over winter. Do you have any pictures of yours?
matthias_lang
8 years ago
No pics.