Garlic

[curly_kate]

I ordered a pound of garlic, and of course, only had room to plant 2 heads of it. Is the rest of it edible? Also, next year, can I just plant a head of garlic that I harvest that year? That though occurred to me after I received the garlic I ordered this year.

 

[Cassandra]

I got myself into that bind year before last. I don't think I ended up eating (I think you can... but I would wait for someone to say for sure.)

The instructions that came with my garlic said to use only the biggest cloves. So, what I did was cracked open all the heads and took the biggest cloves from all of them. So, that didn't leave me with a bunch of unopened heads.

What I was left with was a poop ton of tiny little cloves of garlic. I put them in the compost pile.

.... shoot, I feel sure I read somewhere that you can eat that.

Cassandra

 

[patandchickens]

I have never ever heard of garlic being treated with fungicide etc so personally I would not (in fact, last fall *did* not ) hesitate to eat the littlest cloves or any other parts not being planted. You could check with the source to find out for sure, though.

Yes, most definitely you can (and should!) plant your own cloves next year; if you are modest in your garlic requirements (at least for the first few years) you can become self-sustaining, garlic-wise, that way. I don't think my parents have bought garlic for like 12 years

Have fun ,

Pat

 

[Cassandra]

Home grown garlic is like EONS ahead of store bought garlic. It's unreal how much better it tasted. (was this my imagination?) I found home grown onions to be miles ahead, too.

Cassandra

 

[vfem]

Does this mean I can goto the farmers market and grab a garlic bulb and just plant the larger cloves off of it???

I would like to try this?

When would you plant them for fresh garlic next year?

 

[Grow 4 Food]

Yes you can go to farmers market and plant those cloves.

You need to be planting it now if not sooner as garlic is a wintering plant.

 

[me&thegals]

Hi--I think there's an existing thread on this site or BYC that gets fairly specific on garlic planting Now is the time to do it--or at least in the next month.

 

[vfem]

Hi, thanks Pat... I just saw it this morning, and This weekend we're doing 'raised plant beds' for the spring. I will set aside an area for garlic before I leave for the beach on Sunday. THANKS!

 

[silkiechicken]

When we had garlic, we'd let some rest over winter. Then the following year, we collected seeds (bubils) from those and planted them and repeated the cycle of seed planting, clove wintering with a portion of the garlic.