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The Storage Stars – The Silverskins, Garlics that store the longest!

 

Harvesting History welcomes its newest newsletter recipients – the folks whom we met at the New Jersey State Fair and Sussex County Horse Show and the folks we met at The Dutchess County Fair. We hope you will enjoy our newsletters. They are created from many years of gardening experience and with an abundance of love from the team at Harvesting History.

The Silverskin Garlic – Nootka Rose

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About GARLIC!!

This is the final installment of our series on garlic. If you missed any of the garlic newsletters, you can read them on our website, www.www.harvesting-history.com in our blog section. Our goal with this series was to teach you all you ever would want to know (and then some) about garlic. The reason we dedicated so much writing to garlic is that it can be grown almost anywhere in the US, it is easy, dependable and fascinating to grow, and it is one of the healthiest vegetables you can consume. In grocery stores and health food markets, you can only find a few different kinds of garlic, so it is best to grow your own.
Silverskins are the garlic cultivars with which all of us are familiar. In some regions of the country they are known as Italian garlic or Egyptian garlic. They are the garlic varieties that you find in the grocery stores. If stored in proper conditions, some Silverskins can last for more than a year.
The flavor of Silverskins is a controversial topic. Many garlic afficionados argue that flavor has been sacrificed for storage capability. They will tell you that the sulfurous fragrance and taste of the Silverskins compromises their flavor. This is true for some Silverskins but not all. One hint about Silverskins – when cooking, make sure the garlic is sautéed to a deep tan or straw color. This minimizes the sulfurous flavor and brings out the richness of the garlic.
Silverskins are one of the few garlic groups that can be planted in the spring. If you decide to try this, you must plant the garlic as soon as the ground can be worked. If you wait, your garlic will not form a bulb.
Silverskins are among the latest maturing of the garlic groups. They prefer an environment with a long growing season and mild winters, so they are great for more southerly climates. They will also flourish in more northerly climates, but may struggle in Hardiness Zones 1-3. They are some of the most reliable producers of all the garlic groups. The bulbs are, in general, medium size, but the cloves are large for the size of the bulbs.
One distinct peculiarity,  that is sometimes shared with other cultivars in other garlic groups is the tendency of the Silverskins to change from nonbolting (softnecks) to bolting (hardnecks). Most garlic scholars agree that Silverskins are softnecks. However, when grown in northern climates, Silverskins frequently produce a scape which is associated with hardnecks. When grown in milder climates, Silverskins rarely produce such scapes. Their behavior is much more closely associated with softnecks. Like most garlic classifications, the naming distinctions are fluid.
All the garlic groups we have discussed in this series are important, but the Silverskins are in a class by themselves because of their exceptionally long storage capability. If you decide to get into growing garlic, you should choose at least one Silverskin cultivar to include in your collection.
I have selected the two Silverskins that are my favorites to discuss in this newsletter. I have grown these two cultivars for more than 10 years in the Hardiness Zone 4 environment of Upstate New York. They consistently produce excellent size cloves on large, medium sized bulbs. Their flavor is excellent. They are easy to peel and very forgiving. Whether you are just getting started or are long term garlic growers, they are a rewarding choice.

The Silverskin Garlic – Mild French

Buy Now for late summer planting!

I LOVE telling customers about this garlic! As any of you who have met me know, I always begin a discussion of this garlic by telling listeners,
“Mild French is a giant misnomer. It is not mild and it is not French.”
This garlic comes from the great state of Texas where it was developed by a venerable, old nursery, Porter and Sons. The nurserymen were trying to create a garlic which would thrive in the mild Texas winters and the hot, dry Texas summers. They succeeded.
Mild French is mildest when grown in the South. When grown in the North, the garlic becomes quite hot. The colder the environment, the hotter this garlic becomes. Unlike many Silverskins, the plants are very ta ll, exceeding two feet and the bulbs mature much earlier than other Silverskins. My bulbs produce 8-10 fat cloves per bulb.

The Silverskin Garlic – Nootka Rose

Don’t miss out on Garlic Bulbs. Buy now!

This great Silverskin comes from Nootka Rose Farm on Waldron Island in Washington St ate. The name, Nootka Rose, refers to a native, Northwestern America, wild rose that grows throughout the region bordering the Nootka Sound. The rose is deep pink in color. Nootka Rose garlic is quite popular because of its vividly colored clove wrappers which are often deep brown with red tips. However, this coloration comes from the soils around the Nootka Sound and does not hold up when the garlic is grown in other regions of North America as you can see from the photo.
This garlic is not hot, but the flavor is strong and pleasant. I get 10-12 cloves per bulb with some smaller cloves in an interior layer that I eat and never plant. Because of its reliability, this garlic is a joy to plant.

GARLIC GROWING SUMMARY

Garlic Fields in Eastern Washington State

To summarize all that we have discussed in this series on growing garlic, we finish with this step-by-step set of instructions:

    1. Choose garlic that will grow best in your climate. Creoles and Silverskins are best for the South. The Striped garlics are best for the North. Research the Turbans, Artichokes, Asiatics, etc. for where individual cultivars will grow best.
    2. Separate each bulb into individual cloves. Choose only the biggest, fattest cloves to plant. Eat the rest.
    3. Plant the garlic in a location that receives full sun and amend the soil before planting with Rock Phosphate and Potash. Plant the cloves pointed end up. If you have a woodburning fireplace or stove, dust the garlic bed throughout the winter with the ashes.
    4. In Hardiness Zones 1-6, plant the garlic cloves 4-6 weeks before the ground freezes hard. Plant the cloves 2-3 inches deep, 6 inches apart, in rows 12-18 inches apart. Remember, garlic hates to be crowded. It is not neighborly. Even with adequate separation, the bulbs in the middle of a row of garlic will be smaller than the bulbs near the end of the rows.
    5. In Hardiness Zones 7-10, put the garlic cloves in the refrigerator for 3 weeks. This process exposes the cloves to a period of cold known as vernalization and makes for better bulb formation. Remove the cloves from the refrigerator and plant immediately. In Zones 7-8 plant in November-December. In Zones 9-10 plant in December-January.
    6. It is not necessary, but if you wish, mulch the garlic bed with straw or, even better, alfalfa hay
      Garlic Plants Mulched with Alfalfa Hay
    7. Throughout the winter, check the garlic. In climates where there is frequent freezing and thawing, the soil may spit the cloves out. If this happens, bury the cloves again, but the bulbs from these cloves will probably be smaller than the bulbs grown from undisturbed cloves.
    8. In the spring, keep the garlic beds well watered, but not soggy. In late spring, stop watering altogether, no matter how dry it gets.
    9. In late spring, if the plants begin to produce ‘scapes’, a thick flower stem, remove the scapes immediately by cutting the stem close to the soil surface.

      Garlic with scapes
    10. In early summer, the plants will begin to turn brown or yellow depending upon the cultivar. When most plants have turned 2/3 brown or yellow, dig the plants with the bulbs attached. The exception to this rule are the Asiatics and a few other garlic cultivars. These garlic varieties must be lifted as soon as the plants show any discoloration.
      .
      Garlic ready for harvest
    11. Bundle the garlic plants together in bunches of approximately 10-12 plants. Hang in a location where they will not be exposed to direct sunlight, but will be exposed to excellent air circulation.

    12. Garlic plants curing in a barn in Upstate NY

    13. In 6-8 weeks, the stems can be removed and the garlic stored.
    14. Store garlic at a temperature between 50-58 degrees Farenheit with humidity between 45%-50%. Storing garlic above 68 degrees Farenheit will cause the rate of clove shrinkage to increase, roots will begin to emerge and mold may form. Storing garlic between 40 and 50 degrees Farenheit will cause the cloves to sprout and become bitter.
      Stored Garlic
      Garlic can also be stored by freezing the cloves. This is actually an excellent way to store garlic, but once thawed the garlic must be used immediately.

      Garlic Plants

    Take a long look at this final photo. Homegrown garlic is garlic at its best. Once you have successfully grown garlic, you will always grow your own garlic crop. It is so easy and so delicious and so rewarding. We hope you have enjoyed this series and that you will embark on your own garlic growing adventure. Life doesn’t get any better.
    All of the garlic varieties discussed in this newsletter are available on our website. Please visit our website and purchase some garlic for your garden. We sell out of garlic quickly, so if you are thinking about ordering, please do it soon.
    We have exciting news!! Harvesting History will be at The Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, PA – September 14-16, 2018. We will have heirloom flower bulbs, garlic and onion and shallot sets and seeds for fall planting. Stop by and visit for a while. We would love to see you.



    We have exciting news!! Harvesting History will be at The Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, PA – September 14-16, 2018. We will have heirloom flower bulbs, garlic and onion and shallot sets and seeds for fall planting. Stop by and visit for a while. We would love to see you.

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