Garlic

[Rhodie Ranch]

Speaking of garlic... Fred Meyer (Kroger). They always have a wooden bookshelf with mark down produce for $1 in red mesh bags. I got a red mesh bag filled with five sleeves of garlic. I broke them apart last nite and I must have 100 cloves. I saved two heads for planting, and the rest I suppose I'll put in oil for use all winter.

 

[flowerbug]

Speaking of garlic... Fred Meyer (Kroger). They always have a wooden bookshelf with mark down produce for $1 in red mesh bags. I got a red mesh bag filled with five sleeves of garlic. I broke them apart last nite and I must have 100 cloves. I saved two heads for planting, and the rest I suppose I'll put in oil for use all winter.

unless you are chopping it up and using some kind of acidifier i'd never store garlic in oil. just asking for possible botulism poisoning. garlic should be fine stored in a dark place for several months. normally mine will go until Jan-Feb before it starts to sprout. when it does i will take it, peel it and then grind it up in the meat grinder and drench it with lemon juice and then freeze it in portions for later use. stored this way it will last several years. instead of lemon juice you can use lime juice, vinegar or any other acidic liquid you'd like... i've also made some very good sweet and sour garlic relishes from the ground up garlic and since that had both vinegar and sugar in it i canned it to seal it up and that lasted years before i ate all that up.

 

[Zeedman]

unless you are chopping it up and using some kind of acidifier i'd never store garlic in oil. just asking for possible botulism poisoning.

Agreed.

 

[ducks4you]

At the Webinar the host said that softneck garlic stores up to 12 months, hardneck garlic stores up to 6 months.
Hardneck garlic is the one with the scapes.

 

[Marie2020]

For the most part, other than keeping a few bulbs fresh for DW to use, I've always peeled, sliced, and dehydrated the majority of my garlic. Those "chips" can be added to any cooked dish (where they will keep their shape) or ground into fresh garlic powder. The only way I've ever eaten a large quantity of garlic is as garlic mashed potatoes. BUT... having used whole garlic cloves in jars of pickles & eaten those, I think I could eat a lot of pickled garlic.

I am building a large raised bed to be used for garlic, and will be growing 8 varieties... plus an unknown from my previous collection which survived in one of DW's flower beds as a volunteer.

I just love pickled garlic

 

[Marie2020]

Agreed.

That's a read that has educated me, I didn't know this

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

At the Webinar the host said that softneck garlic stores up to 12 months, hardneck garlic stores up to 6 months.
Hardneck garlic is the one with the scapes.

I have hardneck.

 

[GottaGo]

Enjoying reading up on your all's garlic stories.

We don't use salt in our cooking to speak of, everything is garlic, garlic, garlic. A number of years back, I had planted garlic given to me by one of my fellow MGers, an Italian type. Got a decent crop, but went lazy more often then not, and used the jarred/minced stuff.

This year, I got a wild hair, and decided to try garlic again. However, with our new raised beds, all spoken for, I didn't want to leave the garlic bed out to the wild and the neighbor's cat for use as a potty box (my current cat-mate doesn't violate my garden beds, he's three legged and doesn't go far from the deck) so I figured until the new veggie garden was complete, I would use a temporary.

Got a tub most people use for mixing some batches of concrete, filled it with dirt about 8 inches deep, and planted the garlic, then covered it up with hardwood mulch, then deer netting. I'll get a picture and post it later.

Any suggestions/warnings for growing in such a container?

 

[Ridgerunner]

My problem with growing anything in a container is moisture. Either it dries out or it stays too wet. If you can keep it moist enough without it getting waterlogged you should be OK. I don't think garlic roots go that deep.

 

[flowerbug]

agree with the moisture control being a problem i'd rather not face. further south it may also just get too hot inside a container unless it is very large and has enough thermal mass.

as for root depth, you have to consider planting depth plus size of the bulb and then inches below that for the roots. so it does end up to be a rather sizeable container for all that.