Garlic

This is going to be a post all about garlic.  I have been reading up on garlic since the spring and was able to plant some bulbils I was able to get at a local seed exchange (McEwen’s Red which I was told is a marbled purple stripe, Polish White a soft neck variety) and a couple cloves of Music I had leftover in the spring.  They have all done very well, but for the fall I would like to greatly increase the garlic varieties I grow. 

Right now I am planning on buying cloves of Georgian Fire, Central Siberian, Siberian and one more variety that I haven’t decided on yet.  They will be planted in my middle garden bed around the end of September.  I am looking to plant them 4 inches deep and will probably not mulch them.  I had trouble last year with voles eating my mulched asparagus roots and do not want to have a repeat of that.

I do live farther north and snow is usually pretty extensive and rarely disappears completely before March.  But we have also had snow as early as mid-October and it almost always snows on Halloween so waiting until late October to plant seems like it might be too long.  So will be targeting anywhere from the Sept 24^th weekend to October 10^th Thanksgiving.

One of the most challenging things when looking for garlic information is that I have had trouble finding information pertinent to my growing area.  Most of the garlic produced in Ontario seems to either take place in southwestern Ontario or eastern Ontario.  Both of which are located around lake Ontario and have a much more temperate region than ours is further north.

These are all resources I have found while searching the web, most of them reference Ontario Garlic Production:

OMAFRA - Garlic Production
Garlic Growers Association of Ontario
Garlic Farm - Growing Garlic
Seeds of Diversity - Growing Garlic
Tiny Farm Blog - Garlic Planting - From the description of the farm, the are located around Peterbourough
The Cutting Veg Garlic Growing in Brampton
Garlic Growing Paul Pospisil - Beaver Pond Estates Zone 5A Ontario
Colorado State Tests
Hood River Garlic
Snake Root Farm Mulch