Garlic Growing Guide

Golden Acres Farm is Certified Organic by Pro-cert. We offer an annual seed garlic catalogue, mailed out in mid August. You can also find it on the Garlic Varieties page, on this site. We take orders the old fashioned way, by email, telephone, text or post. Find details about ordering on our catalogue, in the link on the varieties page. We update the catalogue every year at the time that we open for orders, until then, the previous year's edition is a good guide.

The species of garlic, Allium Sativum, plays host to a riot of variation among the varieties. They all come from the same tree, but like apples, there is a wonderful array of traits to choose from when one considers their culinary use and taste, growth habit, colour and appearance, storage potential, place of origin, and horticultural interest.

Hardneck and Softneck Garlic

  The division of “Hardneck” vs. “Softneck” garlic refers to a shift in the plant's reproductive energies. Simply put, it means that the garlic plant either has a stalk, or not, meaning it will produce flowers and bulbils, or not. The hard stalk is why Hardneck is named as such, and it comprises a larger group of different types of garlic than the Softneck group. There are at least five kinds of Hardneck garlic and only two types of Softnecks. 

  The garlic plant has two viable ways of producing seed: through the cloves (found in the bulb), and through bulbils (found on the scape). A third method exists, but it has become extremely difficult to produce seed through the flowers.

  Hardneck varieties favour producing seed via bulbils. They are considered to be closer to the wild ancestor of garlic, because they retain a stronger genetic desire to produce flowers, and the ability to cross-pollinate. Hardnecks are better suited to cold climates. They grow well in Ontario. The scape, a tall, fibrous flower stalk, is the reason for the name “hardneck”.

Examples of Hardneck Garlic:

Rocamboles are the Willy Wonka of garlic, with their charming, pumpkin-shaped bulbs and whimsical, coiling scapes. The cloves are sweet, rounded candies just waiting to pop out of their wrappers. They do not keep terribly well, so it is best to enjoy them in season. 
Needs well drained soil to grow well (all garlic does, but especially Rocamboles).

Porcelains are the most magnificent of all. In good conditions, the bulbs are the size of tea cups, and the flower stalks as tall as your average gardener! The extra large cloves contain an excellent dose of medicinal allicin. This the type you will most commonly find marketed as "Music Garlic", in Ontario, thought there are many other Porcelain strains available. Porcelains store quite well, and are one of the easiest varieties to grow, from my experience. As the name suggests, Porcelains typically have very white wrappers. The clove skins can be a rosy-beige, or purple and yellowish, depending on the strain and also on the soil they are grown in.

Purple Stripes have slender, crescent cloves and purple flowers. They are noted for bringing culinary excellence to the table. The purple striping on the bulbs can be subtle, or deeply entrancing. Fairly easy to grow. Quick to multiply, with their 9 - 11 cloves per bulb. Scapes are not as coiled, but I have found them to be late emerging, so by growing purple stripes, you might be able to get an extended season of scapes for eating, or to spread out the work of removing them.

Marbled Purple Stripe bulbs celebrate with colourful, festival stripes. Harvesting is like picking a bouquet. The cloves are large and flavourful. Large cloves excellent resource in the kitchen that uses lots of garlic. Has potential as a hardneck for more southern climates. Marbled Purples apparently grow nicely in Texas, so certain varieties (such as Metechi) seem to need less cold treatment than most other hardneck types.

Glazed Purple Stripes have silvery-purple bulbs and fine, articulate plants. I've tried at least 5 strains, and haven't found any of them to be very vigorous, tasty or healthy while growing, so I treat them more as a curiosity.

Hardneck Garlic with scapes.

Rocambole plant with scape: Hardneck

Different kinds of hardnecks in maturity, with the scape still attached.

 These are the garlic plants that bulbils will be harvested from.

Porcelain, Hardneck, bulbs with nice sturdy stalks.

There are two Softneck varieties: Artichoke, and Silver Skin.

  Softneck varieties typically do not have scapes. Those that do form are usually shorter, and boast fewer flowers and bulbils. Softneck varieties prefer to have more cloves in each bulb, as a means of propagating better, even going to the extent of developing layered rings of these little buds, and wrapping them especially tight to preserve them. As a result, softnecks propagate even more vegetatively than hardnecks, and the bulbs tend to keep longer in storage.

Examples of Softneck Garlic:

Artichokes are blunt and bluff. The cloves are squarish-round, and the flavours are timid and unsubtle, compared to most other types. In northern climes, they straddle the hardneck/softneck line uneasily, being mostly softneck, but with some plants producing "neck-bulbils" (a partially grown scape that does not emerge from the top of the plant).
Good keeping quality though. Usually the Ontario grown bulbs will keep until April - May.
At the super-market, Artichokes are usually the variety that comes from USA. Most garlic from USA is grown in California.

Silverskins sleep in pearly, satin bulb wrappers, resting peaceful for as long as eighteen months before they go bad. (They keep until nest year's harvest, and they get easier to peel in storage.) The bulbs are teardrops, and the cloves are slivers of soft salmon-rose colour. Silverskins rarely bolt, but in northern climates when they do bolt , it is as a full and majestic scape, no half measures like the Artichokes.

Atwater, a Softneck, Artichoke type

Ann's Italian, Artichoke type

Silverskin, Softneck

Between hardneck and softneck, there is a gray area belonging to varieties that produce scapes with less vigor than the hardnecks. That is where Asiatics, Turbans, and Creoles can be found.

Creoles enjoy an illustrious Spanish and Mexican history, having a strong history in the Mediterranean area. They hide most of their colour in the clove wrappers, under a glamour of satiny white skin, and subtle beauty. Croeles store amazingly well, and are known for having complex and pleasing flavours. 
They may be the exception to Spring planting - most bulbs are smaller when spring planted, but from initial experiments spring planting Creoles, I'm pretty certain that the bulbs will be bigger. (always cold treat the bulbs when planting in spring.)

Creole type, showing the hard stalk that it can produce. Creole is not referred to as Hardneck, but as weakly bolting, because they often produce less scapes (50% of the crop may bolt), or softer, thin-walled stalks.

Asiatics are small and bright. Be warned by their soft reddish stripes, the teardrop bulbs are full of fire. The plants are pale green, and slightly yellow, with short stalks, and very interesting scapes. They make attractive bundles, and the stalks are not very stiff so they can also be braided. Good storage life, and will usually keep until May - June.


Turbans are nomads of time. Never staying still for long, the bulbs quickly sprout, mature, and are ready to be eaten by mid-summer. They are very sensitive to cold, and change their nature to the tune of the winter-wind, being sometimes hardneck, and sometimes not. 
Garlic the super-market that is sourced from China, is usually from the Turban or Silverskin varieties. However, I would not suggest growing those bulbs for seed. When we grow turbans and silverskins in ontario, they partly adapt to our climate, and they have much more colour, flavour and seed vigor than the ones from shipped en-masse from China.

Elephant garlic is it's own class of allium, and not really garlic at all:

A comparison: Elephant Garlic in the forefront and  Regular Garlic (Porcelain type) behind and to the right. (The background is a field of organic soybeans.)

Growing Garlic

Planting

Ontario is a great place to grow garlic. Our winters are cold enough to excite a proper growth habit from the plant, and not so cold that we cannot afford the luxury of overwintering for a better, bigger crop. Select seed from clean, undamaged bulbs that have a good appearance. The optimal time to plant is from late Sept. to late Oct. Choose well drained soil, or plant in ridges or raised beds. Full sun is best. Carefully
separate the cloves from the bulb and plant them approximately 3 inches deep, 6 inches apart, in rows
10 – 30 inches apart. Keep in mind that the sprout emerges from the pointy clove tip, and roots grow
from the basal plate of the clove. Plant the cloves upright. Light mulch is recommended.
If possible, plant in a new location every year to avoid disease problems.

Care While Growing

 Garlic emerges rapidly in the spring. Keep it well weeded.
In June, hardneck varieties produce scapes. To encourage large bulb size, cut the scape off when it is nicely coiled or just starting to straighten (usually in late June). Cutting too soon can decrease the storage potential of the bulb, but if you like eating the scapes, cut while they are still tender. The scapes can also be left on. They will mature into clusters of tiny flowers and bulbils under a spathe that splits open on most varieties. The bulbils are like miniature cloves, and can be planted or eaten. If forgotten, however, they may plant themselves! The scapes of Asiatics, Creoles and Turbans can be left on, or cut when the flower stalk is properly developed. Softneck varieties occasionally grow short scapes within the plant as an added survival response to environmental stress. These short scapes may cause the plant to look strange, but they have no deleterious effect besides that of unsuitability for braids.
Note: Early die-back is often a sign of disease. Cull any plants that are excessively stunted or senescent.

Harvesting

In late summer the leaves begin to dry down from the bottom of the stalk, up to the top, and from the  storage potential. Digging too late will yield split wrappers and unsuitable bulbs.
Approximate Harvesting Dates:
Turbans & Asiatics – early to mid July.
Artichokes & Creoles – mid to late July.
Rocamboles, Porcelains, Purple Stripes, Glazed and Marbled Purple Stripes – late July to early August.
Silverskins – early to mid August.
Handle gently. The bulbs bruise easily.
The entire plant needs to cure (air dry) for about three weeks. Place in an area out of direct sunlight
where there is good air circulation and low humidity.
Hardnecks are ready to be trimmed, or tied into bundles, when the stalk is completely dry. Softnecks can be braided when the leafy, stem-like portion is almost dry, and still flexible.



Storing Garlic
Home grown and local garlic is best stored at a steady temperature between 13 and 20 C (59– 68 F ).
Temperatures between 0 and 10 C  (conditions that mimic early spring) will trigger vernalization, and cause growth. Never store garlic in the refrigerator.
High humidity may cause roots to push out at the base of the bulb, and increases the danger of storage molds. A humidity between 50 and 60 % is best.

Good air circulation is also important.
Note that some varieties have a greater storage potential than others.

                                       Growing Bulbils

Porcelain umbels,
with lots of little bulbils
 between the flowers.       

Bulbils are a great way to expand on your garlic seed production. Growing out bulbils can also clean up some of the potential problems that might occur from growing garlic exclusively from cloves, such as untidy bulb formation, and soil- borne pathogens.

A good time to harvest seed bulbils from the plant is when the spathe splits, or when you can see that the bulbils are developed. (this is usually around the time you are ready to harvest the bulbs.) The scape has been fully straight for a while, for most kinds, and the flowers may be starting to wither. Hang the umbels in small bundles and dry as you would garlic. (Out of direct sunlight, in a dry, airy place.)

Or, if you find you have mould issues with that method, cut the "stem" off at 1-2 inches, peel off the spathe, and lay the umbels on a window screen, or open net container, such as a Strawberry carton, or woven basket.

An interesting note: I have cut the scapes when they are straightening from the coil, and still slender, while doing my regular scape removal. I have let them lay on the ground in the sun, with 2 inches of cut "stem" attached. One month later, when I am Harvesting the garlic bulbs, those scapes have developed viable bulbil seeds, and are still partly green. They are amazing! There is a lot of energy in that umbel, and it can complete the development even after being cut. (I don't suggest leaving them in the field however - you have to pick them all up, otherwise they grow next year as a weed.)

Plant Bulbils about 1 inch deep, 1 inch apart. Larger bulbils can have more space. It may also be worth planting the larger bulbils upright, so that they do not have to search for the sun.

If you plant bulbils in the fall, they are ready to harvest a little earlier than your clove-planted garlic. Planting in the spring usually means that they will be ready to harvest a touch later, or at the same time as the clove-planted garlic.

Mulch is an option for bulbils - keep it light, or pull it back when the shoots are emerging. The most difficult part of growing bulbils is keeping the weeds down. It can also be quite tedious to dig up the smaller rounds at harvest.

It is worth sorting the bulbils and rounds for size, all throughout production. The nicest, most even results I have harvested from Porcelains were from bulbils I had sifted with a coarse sieve, to remove the small ones. Same thing with rounds, it pays to be picky, because otherwise you invest more and more time in the ones that will continue to be smaller, for longer.

It can take about 3 - 4 years to harvest regular size bulbs from the varieties that produce small bulbils : Porcelains, Purple Stripes and Glazed Purple Stripes.

Marbled Purple Stripes can take 2 -3 years.

tips in. Each leaf is the grown-out portion of one bulb wrapper. Those still green are an indication of how many bulb wrappers have not decayed, and are still covering and protecting the cloves. Dig when approximately 50 % are dry and yellowing, and 50 % are still green. Digging too soon may decrease

My very favourite from bulbils, Rocamboles can be done in just one year of growth. 
The first harvest is usually in the form of large rounds. Second harvest can be very nice-size bulbs. 

Artichokes are similar to Rocamboles, in that they have very large bulbils, and can get a head start from the extra energy stored in each seed.

Be sure to cold treat any garlic you plant in the spring - the bulb, and bulbil, is a finely tuned instrument of time and temperature. It needs sufficient cold to tell it to grow properly. 2 - 5 Celsius for 4- 6 weeks, is a general guide. The lower the temperature drops, the less time the bulbils need to be kept cold.

( Take care to not freeze them.)

If the bulbil seed has not been cold treated, either by the natural winter soil conditions, or from cold treatment, the leaves stay green well into frost-time, and the bulblets are very late to develop. In situations like this, your best option is probably to leave them, as they are, to over-winter, and you may have re-growth next year.

Unlike garlic, you can harvest bulbils after all the green top has dissppeared - just don't forget them - you only have so much time before the covering on the "clove" is gone ( soil conditions set the clock). I usually harvest when I see a little green, just to be safe.

As they get larger in size, plant and care for bulbil culture seed the same way as regular garlic.

I hope you have found this information useful and enlightening. I wish you the best with your bulbil seed project.

Sincere and Garlicky Regards, Julie Fleischauer

Rounds harvested from Rocambole bulbils in the first year