Seed Garlic

SEED GARLIC AVAILABLE AT FARMERS MARKETS NOW!

Whatley Farm is excited to be able to offer seed garlic again in 2024! A wet 2021 harvest led to our crop being infected with Botrytis porri, not the worst garlic disease you can get by any means, but not good, so we did not sell seed garlic from that crop. We replaced our seed stock in fall 2021 with German White from Fraser’s Garlic Farm in NY (our original source for that variety) and eliminated other varieties which we had collected over the years, but which had not performed as well in wetter growing conditions. We also increased our rotations and have been selecting from this seed stock for 3 years now, and are confident in being able to share a clean crop with you this year. 

Our garlic has been tested by the University of Maine Plant Diagnostics Lab and the sample was found to be free of garlic bloat nematode, white rot and botrytis porri. We also watched for signs of disease on the growing plants this spring and summer, and found it be a healthy crop. 

What is seed garlic anyways? The best way to maintain disease-free garlic is to start with clean seed and then save your own every year. We grade our garlic for uniformity and size, which really does matter in planting stock. Plant a bigger clove, and you will grow a bigger bulb. German White is a Porcelain type of garlic, similar to Music and German Extra Hardy. It has 4-6 large cloves arranged evenly around the hardneck (also called stiffneck), which is an advantage in the changing Maine climate. We found that other varieties, such as Phillips and Russian Red (Rocambole-types) had more surface area around the smaller cloves to trap moisture and harbor disease inside the bulbs.

Why not plant just any garlic? The garlic which is commonly available from supermarkets is softneck (grown widely in California and China). Softneck has a milder flavor and does not typically grow as well as hardnecks (especially hardy porcelains like German White) in our region. Softneck garlics are widely grown for the wholesale markets because they can be processed mechanically using onion toppers. Hardneck garlics have to be grown and processed by hand, but the flavor is stronger and the cloves are bigger.

Why is it so expensive? Hardneck garlic is labor intensive to grow. Soil preparation is more extensive than other crops, because it will be in the ground much longer (9 months) and needs a lot of organic matter, fertilizer and mulch. Then it is handled more than any other crop: hand-planted, hand-weeded, fertilized in spring, loosened with a fork, hand-pulled, bundled and hung in the greenhouse to cure, taken down to have the hard neck lopped off with pruning shears, roots trimmed with scissors, cleaned and graded by hand before it makes it to the farmers market. The good news is that you only have to buy it once (if you keep up with your crop) and it will give you a 4-6x return each year.

Pricing

$24.50/# for up to 4.99#

$23.25/# for 5-9.99#

$22.00/# for 10-19.99#

$20.75/# for 20# and up

Culinary-grade garlic (smaller than 2” in diameter) is also available for $18/#. But if you want to harvest a big bulb, it’s best to plant a big bulb!

How to grow garlic

When to plant:
Recommended planting times for garlic in Zone 5b (find your hardiness zone here) are the second to fourth weeks of October. You are probably safe with a week or so of wiggle room. Fedco Seeds says you want to get the garlic planted about four weeks before the ground freezes. The idea is to get the garlic to start to root but not to send up shoots that would get damaged by frost and snow. We tend to get ours in the ground the third week of October. 

How to plant:

• Prepare a garden bed with well-fertilized, tilthy soil. You may need to add compost or fertilizer or use something like a broadfork to loosen the soil. 

• Break your garlic bulb apart to separate the individual cloves. You do not need to peel off the paper around each clove, but it won't hurt if you do by accident. We plant our garlic with an average of 9" around each plant - we have rows 10" apart and plants 8" apart in the row. 
  Plant each clove as far as you can push it with your fingers (about 4"). 

• Cover your planting of garlic with a layer of mulch about 4" thick. This will help insulate the garlic from cold temperatures and from frost heaving. We use organic straw (it's more expensive than hay, for example, but has fewer weed seeds, which is a definite plus for us). You can also use hay, chopped leaves, or another fluffy, insulating mulch. 

How to cultivate:
In the spring, remove the mulch from on top of the plants so they can get sunlight as soon as possible. We usually do this in April, after the snow has all thawed and the ground has dried out enough to walk on. Use the straw as mulch around the garden bed to keep down weeds (we rake ours in the the pathways for this purpose), or compost it. 

Fertilize! Fertilize! Garlic really needs a relatively consistent moisture level, little weed competition, and regular fertilizing. We use bloodmeal, fishmeal, and composted chicken manure most frequently, although you can certainly use other fertilizers. We get a lot of our fertilizers through Fedco Organic Growers Supply. The different fertilizers have different amounts of nitrogen; bloodmeal has about 4 times the nitrogen compared to composted chicken manure, but it doesn't have any phosphorus or potassium. You will have to experiment to see what works better for you, but as an example, we might feed the garlic a tablespoon of bloodmeal per plant once a month from April to July or a big handful of composted chicken manure once a month from April to July.

Weed regularly! Water if the soil surface is dry and crumbly. Ideally the soil surface is moist to the touch.

In about June, hardneck varieties will start to send up garlic scapes, which are the flower stems of the garlic plant. Softneck varieties have been bred for bulb production for not producing garlic scapes, which take some energy away from bulb production. All the varieties we sell are hardneck except Inchelium Red. Cut the scape off as soon as they start to curl, and cut them just above where the top leaves part. Eat the scapes like you would garlic - they make a fantastic pesto when blended with olive oil and salt, and they are fabulous brushed with oil and grilled until tender. Cutting off scapes helps hardneck varieties send energy back into bulb production.

How to harvest and cure:
In mid to late July, you can start poking around your garlic to see how it's sizing up. Garlic is generally ready to harvest when the bottom two leaves have gone yellow. You want to harvest before the cloves separate and pull away from the stem, which starts to happen when the rest of the leaves yellow.

Garlic should be cured in a well-ventilated area that stays between 60-80 F. If you are curing in your house or garage you may want to use a fan to help with airflow, especially if the summer is wet. After about 3-4 weeks, the garlic paper should be fairly well-dried. Trim the stems to about an inch, and rub off the soil-crusted out layers of garlic paper. Depending on the variety, garlic can store from about 4-10 months; it should be stored in a cool, dry place (out of direct light). 

Fedco has more tips and details!

Enjoy!