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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jun 18, 2018 14:29:08 GMT -5
This is Moose Knuckle Garlic. It grows wild here on my place. We moved a few down here on this end of the property and they are doing well. Those extra-wide leaves look very much like elephant garlic. That seems to grow rampant throughout the South. When dug, how many cloves? Average would be about 5. Might even be some large rounds. A key to look for is small brown corms at the base of some bulbs. Martin The truth is more important than the facts. Yes Sir, it's a type of elephant garlic, but it isn't mild like most. This one has some good bite to it.
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Post by paquebot on Jun 18, 2018 23:49:42 GMT -5
Never have been able to figure out 100% what determines the taste of elephant garlic. I've had the same strain going for close to 20 years and it never has tasted the same from year to year. In fact, I'm trying to eliminate it in favor of my regular garlic. I'm thinking that the amount of rainfall is a factor. Wet springs may mean big bulbs but also mild.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 19, 2018 13:48:34 GMT -5
paquebot and pepperhead212, Bob at Gourmetgarlicgardens.com recommends soaking cloves in a mix of baking soda and liquid seaweed overnight, then peeling the cloves, then soaking in either 100-proof vodka or rubbing alcohol for 3-4 minutes immediately before planting. The baking soda and liquid seaweed soak is to loosen the clove wrappers for easy peeling, provide a little boost, and inihibit fungus. Peeling lets you see that there are no damaged or diseased areas on your cloves. And like you said, the vodka or rubbing alcohol soak is to kill any pathogens or mite eggs that might be living on the cloves. Peeling, he said, is too time-consuming and labor intensive for a commercial grower, but for a home grower where space is a premium, peeling lets you ensure that you are planting only healthy cloves - no duds. It seems counterintuitive to plant naked, unprotected cloves, but Bob points out that the first thing garlic cloves do when they are planted is shed their wrappers. So, the wrappers are not really providing protection any more at that point. And by peeling before the alcohol soak, you can be sure that the alcohol gets on every part of the cloves' surfaces - there are no places for pathogens or pest eggs to hide on naked cloves. So he has just a little different take on things, but it working from the same place. His advice has worked for me - sometimes for weather reasons or my own mistakes I get small or split heads, but I have had almost no pest or disease problems with my garlic.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 19, 2018 17:39:56 GMT -5
I like the idea of peeling, then soaking it alcohol, Laura_in_FL. Some people don't like to use peeled garlic for planting, but, as you noted, the skin just softens and separates as soon as the cloves are planted, and it serves no need for the plant. I will definitely try this method next season.
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Post by paquebot on Jun 19, 2018 23:39:55 GMT -5
If I'm not mistaken, a "Bob" came up with the soaking thing because he was selling potentially disased stock. That was probably 10 years ago and we were already using isopropyl alcohol. Later found that there are some vodka brands cheaper than the alcohol.
We never removed the clove skins intentionally. Maybe OK if you only have 100 or less but I think that we topped at between 40,000 and 50,000.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 20, 2018 12:32:24 GMT -5
Yeah, I only grow about a pound of garlic a year - with Turbans that's about 70 cloves and it still takes some time to peel them without damaging any cloves. It would be nuts to peel thousands of cloves! I don't know anything about the Bob at GourmetGarlicGardens.com other than that his advice has helped me grow garlic. He could be the same Bob you're talking about. That would make me sad to hear, since I've been referring other folks in Florida and the Deep South to his site for the growing information. I don't buy my garlic from Bob. I get it from ForeverYong Farms (which is in Southern Arizona; they specialize in warm climate garlics), and the three previous times I've ordered the garlic has been beautiful. I'm looking forward to getting my order from them again this year. I haven't seen any brands of vodka that I can buy cheaper than the isopropyl alchohol I get from Sam's Club - 2 quarts/1.9L of 91% strength for $3.94. But I'm all ears if you know of vodka that's cheaper than that.
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Post by paquebot on Jun 20, 2018 23:04:08 GMT -5
We didn't have a Sam's Club handy so Walgreens was the closest place with alcohol and it wasn't cheap. Alcohol was used the final year but then there was a Costco not far away.
The Bob who was supposedly had some diseased garlic was in Texas, as I recall. You'd have to search back 10 years to find it. Nothing wrong with having diseased garlic but is when sellling it. He did help spread the word about using vodka or alcohol so maybe that was a good thing.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 25, 2018 23:05:49 GMT -5
I dug up all of the Music today - many more were getting totally browned, except for the stalk; some were OK, but not very large. The one on the far right is the first Metechi next to the Music, so you can see how much larger it is, even than the ones that weren't diseased, even though it has about 2 weeks left to grow. The yellowish ones are the ones that were diseased - I'll cure them, and use them all very soon. DSCF0737 by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by paquebot on Jun 26, 2018 10:53:42 GMT -5
"Torallt brown" is not when garlic should be dug. A third brown is proper time for most. Go beyond a third and you risk finding only bare cloves rather than intact bulbs. Also, totally brown and still intact generally means that the plant died of un-natural causes.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 26, 2018 12:39:37 GMT -5
"Torallt brown" is not when garlic should be dug. A third brown is proper time for most. That's what I always do, and the rest of the varieties have just started turning, while these turned very quickly, and only the 6 or so that didn't appear diseased still had a few green leaves. Since all of those Music plants seemed to be turning too fast, I pulled them all. I knew they would be small, as this is a couple weeks earlier than usual, but I wanted to get them all out of the ground. The other 3 varieties seem to be growing well, and look like they will be ready to dig around the normal time. Next year, I'll definitely use some alcohol on all of my garlic!
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Post by paquebot on Jun 27, 2018 0:13:33 GMT -5
Easiest thing to remember is to dig when the bottom third of the leaves are dying. Most full-size garlic plants have 9 leaves. There are a few exceptions. Purple Glazer needs show only one dying leaf. If left for three, the bulb wrappers will be about gone. There are a few others like that but I can't remember them all.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 27, 2018 12:54:17 GMT -5
Turbans are like that, too. They need to be harvested when the first leaf or two go brown. (I am an expert in waiting too late to harvest Turbans. )
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 27, 2018 18:05:12 GMT -5
I pulled all of my garlic today, because heavy rain is coming, according to the forecast, which is not good for garlic! Almost all had at least one brown leaf, and could have waited another week (the usual date for harvest here - around 7-4), but it looked ominous out there toward the end today, and I started seeing drops as I was finishing up, though tomorrow is when it's supposed to get heavy. I got 34 of the 36 Northern White Porcelains, but a bunch of heads were small, despite the plants being the largest, and the cloves being largest - the reason for only 36 in a pound. DSCF0739 by pepperhead212, on Flickr The Estonian Reds were the smallest plants - first year for that with this variety in my garden. I got 49 of 59 planted, and it had heads as large on average as N White porcelain, though both had a generous number of small heads. DSCF0740 by pepperhead212, on Flickr Metechi had the largest average size, with fewer small heads, and the plants were in between in size. 45 out of 45, and that extra i counted before was a double head, which had plants grow sort of separated, once above ground. DSCF0741 by pepperhead212, on Flickr All the metechis: DSCF0743 by pepperhead212, on Flickr The ERs and NW porcelains: DSCF0742 by pepperhead212, on Flickr Even with all of those small heads, I should be fairly set for the season. I'll use the musics first, due to the problems with those, then the ERs, as those have the shortest storage time usually. Next thing I'll do out there (once it dries out some!)is solarize that row, to kill anything left in there!
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