Hi, all. I'm new to growing garlic,but got inspired by some of you guys in the forum, this Fall I want to try them out myself, and had no idea where to start. I was very surprised that how many different varieties are available, so I need a little help with pick out one or two varieties.
I'm in zone 7a I think, I loved garlic, pretty much use it for everything I cook, I really can't tell the difference of different varieties, but I really loved the scapes of the garlic, some time I get some in the Chinese grocery store but they are not that fresh, and some are not that tender. Is anyone had ideas which variety are best for scapes? Please advise!!!thank you!!!

Get Hardneck garlic, Yan. In my years of growing garlic, almost all of my hardneck varieties produce scapes. I have had one single variety of Softneck do so, and that was last year's crop. I have never had a Creole variety produce scapes.

Good luck with your garlic growing. The hardnecks will grow well in your zone.

Hi Yan -- Ken is absolutely right, you need to grow the hardneck types to reliably get scapes. There are a LOT of different varieties... I grow "Music," which sends up some pretty impressive scapes and has bulbs with just 4-6 really large cloves. Are you planning to buy from a local source, or online? The online sites generally specify whether a variety is hardneck or softneck; from my experience, employees at local garden centers may or may not know the difference!

Here's a site with a good explanation of the different types and subtypes of garlic: http://www.gourmetgarlicgarden...

Under the "garlic information" tab at the top of that page you can see a listing of different varieties by subtype -- stick with the Porcelain, Purple Stripe and Rocambole types and you will have scapes on your plants.

Yan, you might want to take a look at three articles I published here on ATP (Garlic I, Garlic II, and Garlic III). There is quite a bit of information there (that's why it took three articles). They were all published in May, 2015.

Thanks to Ken & Sandi for the info!
My local nursery don't carry anything, so I was checked out some online vendors, but most of them had already sold out for this year. It is a bit late for garlic, isn't it? I did orders some from Forever young farm. Is a starter seed package so I don't know what varieties I'm going to get. I'm really excited about this new experiment, looking forward to spring.

Yan, it may be slightly late for you to plant, but if you get the garlic before your ground is frozen I'd say go ahead and put it in ... it's really pretty much the same as growing daffodils and tulips (if you have any experience with that), and even way up here in the Michigan Upper Peninsula I've planted in late October, although this year I got a little more organized and planted around the beginning of the month. Last year I ordered some garlic from Forever Yong Farms and was very impressed with the quality of the bulbs that I received, so I don't think you'll be disappointed with what they send you. (DrDawg/Ken also sells garlic for eating and planting, but sells out VERY quickly!) Like anything else, growing garlic can be a bit of a learning curve -- for quite a few years I couldn't bring myself to believe that it would actually work for me to plant it in the fall, but even after the very bad winter of 2013-2014 (where we had very extended periods of time where the temp was below 0 degrees F and the frost was down about 6 feet in the ground), every plant came up in the spring for me! I hope you enjoy growing it as much as I do

Forever Yong Farms is a good supplier of garlic. I have not planted any of mine yet, so in my opinion, as Sandy said, you can still plant it.

I received my order from Forever young farm. I got 8 different varieties:
SOFT NECK:
Blanco Piacenza
Viola Francese

TURBANS:
Maiskij
shills

CREOLES:
Creole Red
Rose Du Lautrec
Native Creole
Pescadero Red

And I looked at my cooking garlic in my pantry, it's a hard neck variety too, but it's label as" white garlic", I'm going to plant two or four cloves in to see how that goes, more the merrier.LOL

Yan, you realize that you only have two varieties that will/should grow those scapes, right?

That "white" is probably from China, variety unknown.

I know, Ken.
That's what Forever young farm sent for their Gardener's delight Sample package & Creole sample , just want to try them out, as what I said earlier that most of the online vendors are sold out already, may be next year I can get some hard neck variety from you, I will remember to order them earlier.

I am one of the few and often the only seller of heirloom, gourmet garlic in May. Some vendors will have a few garlic then but more often than not, this is garlic left over from a late harvest the previous year. Others will sell out in September. I sell out in June.

help.......
all my garlic sent out 3" new grow now, I just planted them 3 weeks ago. what did I do wrong?

You did nothing wrong, Yan. In my opinion, you planted them at the right time. They have simply germinated. Depending on how cold y'all get up in MD, the garlic could continue to grow all winter long, though growth will slow considerably when winter sets in. If you have a supply of leaves (I use oak), cover your plants before the first heavy frost/hard freeze with 4-6" of leaves. That will give the plants some insulation during the coldest months.

Oh...so Ken you think it's going to make it through the winter? We had crazy warm Fall this year, and we don't know how winter goes, some time we have a lot of snow or very cold temperatures. I will try your method to help them winterized but don't know how it works with snow.
Thank you for helping!!!!

Snow is actually a good thing, not a bad thing, Yan. How cold is snow?

Folks grow garlic in areas where the temperature plummets below 0F. In fact, often well below. That's usually hardneck though.

Yan, I would definitely mulch your plants with some leaves and/or evergreen branches (the object is to prevent repeated freezing/thawing during the winter), and even if the tops of your plants do die back they should re-grow in the spring; you probably won't get bulbs as large as you would have otherwise, but they should still do okay. Have you had unusually mild weather? You could also consider covering your plants with a "low tunnel" by covering hoops of PVC pipe with clear plastic; I planted onions that way last fall and the tops stayed green all winter and began growing again very early in the spring -- and garlic seems to be much tougher than onions!

drdawg said:Snow is actually a good thing, not a bad thing, Yan. How cold is snow?

Folks grow garlic in areas where the temperature plummets below 0F. In fact, often well below. That's usually hardneck though.

Cross posted... I agree with Ken, snow helps to insulate the plants. Believe me, Yan -- if it grows for me up here, it will grow just fine for you (and I do grow both hardneck and softneck, and had good success with Creole garlic this year as well!)

Thanks guys!
I was thinking that I did something wrong, they all comes out this early. Because tulips I planted in the Fall they won't send out new growth until Spring, I guess garlic is different than Tulip.
I will baby them as much as I can, hopefully they will make it through winter.