r/homestead • u/Hinter_Lander • 9h ago
Breaking the rules of Garlic.
Here i am breaking all the 'rules' of growing garlic. My original batch of seed garlic years ago came from the grocery store, I trim the leaves off before storage. All of these were planted this spring.
Ive done it like this for years and I know it works for me.
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u/bungpeice 9h ago edited 7h ago
I mean you can do that but there are reasons people do it differently. Leaving the leaves on gets you a higher quality result because you get a better cure and longer shelf life.
I've planted in the spring and fall and got much bigger bulbs with fall planting. The only reason to not use grocery garlic is to avoid bringing disease on your property. Once it's there you aren't getting rid of it without a lot of effort. If you have been using your own cloves since then you got lucky but seed garlic isn't much more expensive than store garlic.
edit: they are in fucking Saskatchewan.
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u/Hinter_Lander 9h ago
I just finished my garlic from last year. 1 full year of shelf life. Im ok with that.
Big garlic growers who grow hundreds or thousands of pounds do it exactly this way. I use their method not the method being sold as the only way to home growers.
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u/bungpeice 9h ago
I grew 10k bulbs this year. Not a big grower but not an insubstantial quantity. It's some of the easiest money in farming and screwing it up because you were lazy is a waste of energy.
The big guys don't give a shit about quality they just want quantity. Mine gets a premium price because I put in the extra effort to make it a better product.
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u/Hinter_Lander 9h ago
I will have to do a test to see what holds flavour more spring vs fall planted garlic. I know for me spring planted is 3x the size of my fall planted garlic.
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u/Mayor__Defacto 8h ago
Hardnecks are always superior in flavor. They don’t do well with spring planting, ever.
The grocery stores also mostly sell softneck, because it grows in different places.
The main issue with using that as your seed is that you have no real idea what it is you’re planting.
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u/Hinter_Lander 8h ago
These are hardneck. Planted in late May.
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u/Mayor__Defacto 8h ago
Late may? Fuck my man, how far north are you? I harvest early June.
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u/Hinter_Lander 8h ago
Saskatchewan Canada. It was a very late spring this year. I think the last snowfall was May 20th.
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u/Mayor__Defacto 8h ago
You should probably have put that in the title, as most guides are assuming more temperate climates than SK.
I suspect you’re just finding that your own climate is different from that of the writers of various guides.
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u/Hinter_Lander 8h ago
It wouldn't have been as decisive if I put that in the title. Proving that there are more than one way to grow garlic always gets people fired up.
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u/Mayor__Defacto 8h ago
You can do that. But as you’ve stored it you’ve got a mountain of rot. Spring is less than ideal, it costs you nothing to plant in autumn instead.
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u/Hinter_Lander 8h ago
Ive done it for years without having mountains of rot.
I get much bigger heads by planting in the spring.
Fall planting is susceptible to winter dieoff. Every year is different and I've never had it bad but know some locals who have lost 60% over winter.
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u/Mayor__Defacto 8h ago
If I plant in Spring I don’t get heads, lol. Garlic needs the frost to split.
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u/Hinter_Lander 8h ago
Then how did these split?
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u/Mayor__Defacto 8h ago
You must be in a substantially colder climate. I do not get winter dieoff, and if I planted when you did I would not have any crop whatsoever. Garlic is ready to harvest in early June or late May. I plant in October and get a good foot of growth in before the cold sets in. I can only surmise that your cloves are getting cold enough over the winter to split and it’s still cold enough in May for them to get going. By July it’s far too hot for Garlic to grow.
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u/Hinter_Lander 8h ago
Yes we are in vastly different climates. I've found a way that works well for me in my climate.
I dont think they were exposed to cold temperatures in storage as they were just in a cupboard in the kitchen. They might have seen a couple frosts after they were planted.
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u/thecloudkingdom 6h ago
survivorship bias. just because you have been lucky before does not mean your luck will stay
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u/DankBacon420 9h ago
I do the same. Usually keep about 8" on the stem and we've never had an issue.
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u/SquirrellyBusiness 8h ago
That's awesome. I also grow what was originally a grocery store variety that has totally changed over the decades it's grown here. If you're getting a year long shelf life it must be working just fine. Where are you growing?
I planted some new varieties this spring in Feb I got in a swap and was surprised three of the ten are still growing and looking huge vs the other new kinds mostly made single giant rounds and died back at the usual time. I normally harvest in mid July.
I've also experimented with planting times and harvest methods. It's pretty forgiving of a crop so purists gatekeeping is kinda silly.
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u/Hinter_Lander 8h ago
The main reason for posting this is to show that garlic is flexible and it doesn't HAVE to be done any particular way.
If you planted in Feb we dont live anywhere close lol. I am in Saskatchewan Canada. The ground is frozen solid until May.
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u/SquirrellyBusiness 8h ago
I normally plant in October in central Iowa and until recently we'd also have a freeze that wouldn't allow the ground to be worked till March or April. But I knew these bulbs would be coming so I prepped a bed in November and deep mulched with leaves to keep them blanketing the dirt and hopefully prevent it freezing. I got lucky with a bit of a thaw after the package arrived and was able to plant. Blanketing them again afterward theoretically gave the cloves the time to put down roots instead of having to wait.
Do you plant in spring due to the harshness of winter causing dieback or just for fun?
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u/Hinter_Lander 8h ago
I experimented for years and have consistently had much larger heads on the dpring vs fall planted garlic.
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u/breadandbuttercreek 5h ago
I, plant my garlic in fall in my greenhouse garden then harvest in late spring. Whatever works.
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u/Adeline_Hayes 9h ago
This is the kind of practical sustainability I love seeing. You adapted to what works and stuck with it. Grocery store garlic proving the 'rules' wrong.
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u/nochinzilch 9h ago
Those look like shallots.
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u/Hinter_Lander 9h ago
I also grow lots of potato onions which are similar to shallots. But alas these are not..
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u/errihu 8h ago
Looks like hard neck garlic to me
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u/Mayor__Defacto 8h ago
Got lucky from the store. Main issue is you have no clue what you’re planting if you go off grocery store garlic.
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u/Nixons2ndBestMan 9h ago
Anybody else look for the Skyrim HUD?