Garlic: Nutritious, flavorful, easy to grow
Garlic is a species in the onion genus Allium, and therefore related to onions, shallots, leeks, and chives. It is flavorful, nutritious, and easy to grow.
There are two types of garlic: softneck and hardneck. Softneck garlic is the easiest to grow. It lasts longer in storage and produces flavorful bulbs. The flexible stems of softneck garlic are easy to braid. Hardneck garlic has larger cloves surrounding a stalk or ‘scape’ that terminates in a beautiful flower. When the stems of hardneck garlic dry, they become ridged and impossible to braid. Hardneck garlic grows best in colder climates. You will also find “elephant garlic” in grocery stores, but it is not a true garlic; it is more closely related to leeks, but is cultivated the same as garlic and has large mild-flavored cloves.
You can purchase a variety of different “seed” garlic from online seed sources or catalogues. But you can also plant the garlic you have in your pantry that you may have purchased from a grocery store.
Several garlic varieties grow well in our climate. “California Early White” is a mild-tasting variety developed for the garlic industry, known as Gilroy garlic. “Susanville” is an improved selection of the “California Early.” “Chesnok Red” is a medium hardneck garlic with purple stripes. “Inchelium Red” is a softneck garlic that tastes mild at harvest time but increases in flavor during storage, gaining a touch of spicy heat.
Planting
Garlic is the last crop of the year, planted in late fall at least two weeks from first frost (mid- October through the end of November in our area). It is harvested in early summer (June or July).
WORKSHOPS
There is still time to sign up for the final two workshops in the Master Gardeners Fall workshop series: Plant Viruses and Journaling with the New Garden Guide. These free workshops are being offered via Zoom.
Plant Viruses will be offered Tuesday, Oct. 13, from 10to 11:30a.m. Most gardeners are aware of plant diseases that can wreak havoc in their gardens. If you grow fruit trees, you may be confronted with curled, reddened peach leaves (peach leaf curl fungus). If you grow apples or pears, your trees may sometimes look like they were scorched with a blow torch (fire blight bacterium). But did you knowthat viruses can also lurk in the leaves, stems, and fruit of your garden vegetables and flowers? This workshop will cover how viruses behave, how they are transmitted, and how to identify and manage them. Journaling with the New Garden Guide (Thursday, Oct. 15from 10to 11:30a.m.) will explore the newly updated and revised Butte County Garden Guide and Three-Year Journal.
An integral part of this workshop is using the guide to record lessons learned and keep track of useful plant and weather information for your garden over the years. If you already have one of our previously published Garden Guides, have it close by for the Zoom class.
To register for either or both of these workshops, please visit https://ucanr.edu/p/52170. Registration is required for all workshops.