These are the varieties we grew this year. So far, only the Chinese Purple is ready to harvest

We got purchased the new varieties from Whistling Duck Farm, Forever Young Farm, Hood River, Territorial and Filaree Farm
This years varieties:
Aglio Rosso - Creole
Ajo Rojo - Creole
Asian Temptest - Asiatic
Burgundy - Creole
Chesnok Red - Purple Stripe
Chet's Italian Red - Artichoke
Chinese Purple - Turban
Creole Red - Creole
Duganski - Purple Stripe
Inchellium Red - Artichoke
Keeper - Creole
Okrent - Artichoke
Pescadero Red - Creole
Siberian - Marbled Purple Stripe
Susanville - artichoke

Ooh, Arlene, you'll have to let us know which you like best, too. There's so many available that I don't have a clue which to order and try here.

I ordered a garlic sampler a few years back, and loved having a wide range of 8 different flavors to choose from. Some were milder, sweeter varieties, and others were pretty hot and pungent. My husband and kids seemed to prefer the hotter ones. I'll have to go back and look to see what the purple striped variety was, as they loved the flavor, and it also stored the longest of any we grew.

I did find a big difference in storage times between the softneck and hardneck varieties. We've learned to use the softneck ones first, as they seem to shrivel and dry up to nothing after a few months. The hardneck varieties keep longer. I harvest them, lay them out on cardboard in a shady location for a week or two, and then store them in wire baskets in my basement (generally 65 degrees or so.)

Last year I waited far too long to harvest, as our vacation hit at just the wrong time, and many of the leaves were entirely gone. The papery husk had disintegrated underground, and as I dug them up, I found loose, individual cloves, rather than heads of garlic. I usually reserve the biggest cloves for replanting in the fall, and let that slip this year, too. Mid-winter, I was sad as I considered that I would have no fresh garlic this summer, when we are used to having a bountiful harvest. I was surprised this spring to find my garlic bed full of garlic sprouts. Apparently I missed a surprising number of loose cloves when I dug them up, and they've sprouted on their own. I no longer have any idea which varieties are which, but I'm so happy to see all those green spears, I don't even care!

Great information, Angie, thank you!

What serendipity about your garlic volunteers! I love that.

Just recognized the name of our purple-striped variety in abhege's post above: Chesnok Red. Or it may have been Killarney Red. Hmm. Wish I'd been better about keeping them separate and labeling them after the first year!

I found labels for 5 of the 8 varieties I grew:
Killarney Red: Rocambole garlic, very hot pungency, stores 5-6 months.
Chesnok Red: a Purple Stripe garlic, medium warm pungency, stores 6-8 months
Siciliano: an artichoke garlic, medium warm pungency, stores 6-7 months
New York White: an artichoke garlic, very little pungency, mellow flavor, stores through fall into winter
Georgia Crystal: a porcelain garlic, mellow flavor, slightly warm pungency, stores 8-10 months.

I ordered them through Gourmet Garlic Gardens in Texas, but they have changed their ordering process. The used to offer collections directly, and now feature several collections, and then provide information on several different growers from whom you can order that collection. Some collections are based on flavor, while others are for specific geographic areas or temperature ranges.

I do recall that I emailed Bob with some questions, and he was very friendly and helpful! I think what I got was the Garlic All Year Round sampler, and specified a mixture of mild to hot.

Mmm, now I'm craving garlic bread. . .and I think I have half a loaf of homemade sourdough bread.

so would you garlic growers suggest buying your starts from a reliable source to plant ,rather than saving some back to plant in the fall?

Angie I did read you save some to plant from your harvest.

For some reason we never have garlic left by the time it's time to plant again, so we always end up buying it. But this year I'm going to try my level best to save some for fall planting!

I posted an update on my blog about our garlic growing progress

http://garden.org/blogs/view/t...

also included the info about the Garlic Growers Field day which we will attend this Saturday.

There's also a link their to their website which has information and a good photo gallery.

We find ourselves expanding our garlic beds each year ... our neighbours are now coming over to "borrow a clove or two"

ooops! Its time right now to harvest the garlic! Its a good thing I read this article.

Not all garlic is ready to harvest at the same time, since there are early, mid season and late varieties, plus climate variations. Check the lower leaves, not harvesting before about 1/3 of them have died (see Dave's pictures). I'm watching my Chinese Pink, but the others are nowhere near ready.

I live in zone 6 and plant my Garlic end September, early October. Garlic likes a cold period.
If I'm not able to harvest all my garlic, I just leave it in my garden. It's a perennial, so I can harvest it next year.
I start harvesting my garlic from now until the frost doesn't allow me.
I'm very interested in 'other' garlics. I live 'in the middle of nowhere', so I can only use garlic from the shop here. If someone is willing to send me (I live in Belgium, Europe) special garlic, I would really appreciate that. In return I can send you seeds. Have a look at my website to see if there is anything that interests you.

We just spent the day at the Garlic Growers' Annual Field Day (zone 6a) and have posted lots of photos and info on our blog:

http://garden.org/blogs/

Just finished digging the last of our garlic today and I'm anxious to clean and weigh to see how much we harvested since we doubled the amount we grew. Funny thing is, I still don't think it's enough! so many people have been asking for it so now I have to get busy and figure out pricing. I think we'll do it by weight this year as opposed to by the head. Anyone have some input for me?

I sell garlic at the market and we sell it based on what feels right, and always a fixed amount per clove. I sell the huge Garlic (Allium sativum 'Uzbek Turban') for $3 per clove and the smaller Garlic (Allium sativum 'Early Red Italian') for $1 each.

The 'garlic lady' at our botanical garden was aghast that I was planting garlic from Hood River. She only orders from one nursery and said that she is very very concerned about some sort of virus that can come with garlic and once here you cannot get rid of it. I almost threw my garlic away rather than plant it. She had put on a garlic workshop and had about 13 different types. A good workshop. But the virus thing worried me. You guys don't seem to be concerned, in fact, I have not even seen it written about here. So, no problems??

I've never heard anything locally about it but our climate is drastically different from yours. If you have local sources saying it's a problem, I would certainly be inclined to listen to them.

Thank you for the visual, descriptive, and informitive instructions on harvesting garlic!