Thanks for all the reviews really helpful and many places I didn’t know about!
@zendog I buy mostly from filaree farm and had 100% takes. You did get unlucky.
This year I bought one from the Garlic Store and Territorial, see how they are…
I also grow an heirloom from Wisconsin that is unknown. It did well the first 2 years, but seems to be declining now. I may give up on it although my original seed was the biggest garlic I ever saw. I have not been able to get them that size.
Yeah, thank you everyone for taking the time to type your replies. I knew I’d get great comments here.
My understanding is that in my area (zone 7 MD, near Baltimore and Washington, DC) softnecks ahould all do well, and for hardnecks the purple stripe varieties are best.
I’m in 5b/6a and a few softnecks work really well. This year my bulbs were almost as big as hardnecks. I found the purple stripes work well here too! I bet you could grow just about any.
Hardneck
Softneck
I had good luck with Nichols Garden Nursery last year. The variety pack was the perfect amount to fill up a 4’ x 8’ bed.
I’m buying late. Harris Seeds has a great selection in stock. Whether they are “good” remains to be seen, but they are the seed catalog by old “Greatest Generation” grandfather used to rely on. I’m getting Music and German White. Music grows well here, German White is new to me.
I’ve used https://filareefarm.com/ for years with very good luck. Now I pretty much plant from my own prior year’s stock, buying a new variety now and then.
My dad grew alot of garlic but im pretty new to it. This place lists alot of garlic… i would like to find 2 varieties and not get too crazy with it.
Romanian Red sounds like what i like- If you are going for the healthiest of garlics, Romanian Red is by far the winner having more allicin than any of the other varieties tested. If you want a hot, flavorful garlic, this is the one, and it stores into the following spring!
Snowvalleygarlic.com I bought a couple of kinds from them last year. They grew good. I plan on going to their sale again next week end. Some varieties are already sold out. They do have a minimum of 1/2 lb. order unlike the farmers market where you can purchase just one bulb. It was nice to taste a few of the varieties.
My mind is blown at how many varieties of garlic there is… I really hope i dont get into collecting varieties like i do with other things. My neighbor gave me an heirloom bulb to plant shes been growing it for 40 years. She makes amazing garlic powder with it.
However i went down the rabbit hole and finally decided on
German White/Extra Hardy.
Georgian Crystal
Chesnok Red
There are so many that i would love to try… my gosh there are alot of them.
The worst part is that i have to wait 9 months after planting to see if i failed or succeded…
Note to self to start buying seed in June/July next year not wait until september…wow these get snatched up fast.
Im interested in these varieties but they are impossible to find (Canada).
Fish Lake 3
Northumberland
Mennonite
I’m new to Garlic too. I’ve ordered my seedstock from Keene’s. I basically just did un-bordered raised beds above ground last year . I likely would have gotten better results had I tilled up the space underneath, but the three varieties I tried did very well. I’ve got plenty left to plant and am adding a couple additionally varieties this year.
@krismoriah Those are huge. I’d be trying to use them as a vegetable instead of a spice.
well i think you can… im going to try making some black garlic… supposedly its super healthy for u.
We grow over 80 varieties of garlic, but we only sell locally. My wife does most of the work and selecting. For our stall at farmers market, I created a sign: Margaret’s One Woman Garlic Festival
She has used many resources to obtain our stock. Filaree Farm is probably her favorite.
This was my inchillium order from Filagree Garlic this year. The bulb I saved from last year is on the left. I was ordering to get bigger bulbs, because I was afraid mine had shrunk. Guess they haven’t? I thought I ordered early enough to get the better quality, but guess not.
At least I know that variety is inchillium. That was another reason I ordered some more, I was afraid it wasn’t inchicllum because mine don’t have much coloration. But why is it called ichillium red? What is red about it?
The creole variety garlic I ordered was small too, but I’m not surprised by that. They can’t grow big creoles up there, it’s too cold.
I think Red is actually in the Purple family…of garlics?
From what i read its anthocyanins that turn garlic purple… and its under certain conditions…what those are i dont know. Maybe more nutrients or more cold or something?
I dont see any red/purple on this pic
Gurneys pic shows them red.
I think big cloves have alot of stored energy which gives the garlic a better chance at growing… however its the nutrients and spacing and lack of competition that makes them grow biggest.
Stuff like compost, leaves, mulch, organics and wood ash and most importantly soft sandy loamy soil grows the biggest garlic… at least from what i have read.
That makes sense. It was hot this year, so yeah, not alot of color development. I had some others that developed color though, but it’s probably a variety thing. Kind of weird though that there are that many different pictures of inchelium garlic. I have to wonder if sometimes the garlic you thought you were buying, isn’t actually that variety. I trust Filagree the most on that though.
My plants foliage froze. Even Chesknok got knocked back. So they lost alot of foliage, and I think that what hit me in size this year. That’s why I ordered from filagree garlic, to get some of bigger size.
I read an article that a guy grows huge garlic in cinder blocks. I have some surrounding my raised beds so im going to give the holes a shot and see. Kinda neat idea really.
I guess garlic is super niche as far as growing it… Every grocery store around me has the small softneck california or chinese garlic. Not one place sells garlic seed… except i think Lowes or HD sell elephant garlic bulbs sometimes.
@krismoriah
Cinder blocks ,made with fly ash , Can have large concentrations of heavy metals not something you really want in a garden.
Concrete blocks should be safe, and I have seen things grow very well in the holes
Be ready to water it every day, because garlic likes to be fed and cider blocks set like that will dry out extremely quickly. I use cinder blocks to form all my raised beds. I’ve tried to grow inside them. It works but it’s super dry.
