Choosing a Garlic Variety Based on the Science - Ep. 316

[00:00:00] It is 101 degrees Fahrenheit outside my window right now, so summer is obviously still in full swing no matter how much I am willing it to be fall. And yet I have already placed my order for seed garlic several weeks ago. And that is not me being an overachiever, and if you've grown garlic before you might already know where I'm going with this.

[00:00:23] If you haven't grown garlic before and you haven't ordered your seed garlic yet at this point, let me save you a little heartache. The best seed garlic gets ordered months before you ever think about putting a clove in the ground. And by the time many gardeners who are new to garlic start even thinking about it, which is, you know, late September, early October when the air finally turns and it starts to actually feel like garlic weather, well, the good stuff is already gone.

[00:00:54] Welcome back to Just Grow Something. I'm Karin Velez, market farmer, horticulturist, and someone who has grown copious amounts of garlic every single year for at least the past decade, if not longer, and who seems to increase the amount that she grows every year anyway. Today we are doing two things. First, I am walking you through the difference between hardneck and softneck garlic, and how your specific climate should be the thing that decides which one you plant.

[00:01:22] And second, I'm going to tell you exactly what to be doing in your garden beds right now, even though planting is still weeks or even months away depending on where you live. Let's dig in. So before we get into the botany and the climate maps, if you have been enjoying the show, please hit follow or subscribe wherever you are listening or watching.

[00:01:46] And shout out to every one of you who has been responding to the newsletter or asking questions on Spotify or YouTube. I promise. I read every single one of them, even if it sometimes takes me a really long time to answer. That usually depends on what's going on around the farm. I will share with you a fabulous question that I got on Spotify from Meggie Muffin 2015.

[00:02:11] And this was after the episode comparing conventional and organic and homegrown produce in terms of nutritional content. I wanted to share the question with you because it was something that I did not address in the episode, and it could be actually a common concern. So he wrote, maybe this is a dumb question, but where do the nutrients go that are lost as time passes after harvest? They degrade, but what does that mean exactly?

[00:02:40] Backyard hobby gardener here, not a soil scientist, but as one who currently has bushels of fresh vegetables sitting on my kitchen counter, I'm shocked to learn this. I had no idea the tomato I picked at first blush to save it from cracking and pests is now rapidly losing its nutrition as it ripens on my counter. That's distressing. And yeah, I could see how, yes, that would be distressing.

[00:03:08] And I have often said that there is no nutritional difference in a tomato that you pick at first blush and the one that you let ripen fully on the vine. And I absolutely encourage gardeners to pick a little bit early, especially if it means saving your tomatoes from insects or animal predators. So if you do that and then you let them finish ripening on the counter, does that make them lose nutrients?

[00:03:36] So let's address the first part, where do the nutrients go? And the short answer is that fruits and vegetables continue to respire as they sit at room temperature. And that action releases stored up carbohydrates and proteins and fats. That respiration is also a metabolic activity.

[00:03:58] And that metabolic activity requires energy, which consumes nutrients, which reduces the vitamin and the mineral content within the vegetable. So, you know, again, then after a while, there are microbes that will start consuming the organic matter, which is what eventually leads to spoilage. And that consumption also further reduces the nutrients. And yes, there's a little bit more to it than that, but that's the basics of it without going too far into like the scientific weeds.

[00:04:26] So what about picking early and ripening on the counter? Now, the good news is those lesser ripe tomatoes are not losing as many nutrients as you might think, so long as they are at the right temperature. Remember, we talked a lot about storage temperature in our already ripe produce and how that affects the nutrients that are being lost.

[00:04:50] If you have an underripe or a lesser ripe, I should say tomato, if they're sitting at around 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, so generally most people's kitchen temperature, then the ethylene production can continue the ripening process without heat damage. And so that preserves most of the vitamins and the lycopenes and all of the good stuff that is actually in that tomato.

[00:05:16] It would be leaving them too long at that room temperature once they are fully ripened. That would start to cause the degradation that we talked about in terms of the nutrients, okay? So, you know, the best bet is when you bring in your produce from the garden, try not to store it at, you know, warmer than room temperature for an extended period of time.

[00:05:42] I understand a lot of the time we have a great bounty coming in and we just can't do, you know, something with it all right away. If it is something like a zucchini or a yellow squash or anything else that prefers a colder temperature at storage, then, you know, go ahead and stick them in the refrigerator for a couple of days until you can get around to using them or get around to preserving them.

[00:06:06] If it's something like an underripe tomato, then yes, that room temperature is not going to degrade the nutrients right away. If it is a room temperature, I'm sorry, if it is a ripe tomato at room temperature, then understand, yes, after a couple of days, you are starting to lose nutrients there. And so you likely really need to go ahead and get them used up or get them preserved.

[00:06:32] So feel free to continue to pick your tomatoes, you know, just at first blush and let them finish up on the counter, knowing that they will still have the majority of their nutrition intact. That was a really, really good question. Okay, so why are we talking about garlic in the heat of the summer when garlic is planted in the fall?

[00:06:53] And we'll get to like the region-specific timing on planting here in a bit, but the growers who supply sea garlic to home gardeners kind of work on a different calendar than the one that you might be picturing. They harvested this year's crop back in the early summer at the same time that we were harvesting our own garlic from our gardens to use in our kitchen and to store for the winter.

[00:07:16] But they spent July and August curing that garlic and sorting it and getting it ready to sell. And because garlic doesn't store forever and because demand is genuinely very, very high for seed garlic, most of the reputable seed garlic farms open up their ordering in early to mid-summer. And then they start shipping sometime usually in September.

[00:07:46] And oftentimes they're shipping based on what your typical planting dates would be for your area. Those specific, very sought-after varieties, so the ones that people talk about online or the ones that win the taste tests or the ones that are just solid, standard varieties that are reliable producers year after year after year, a lot of those end up being sold out before we even hit Labor Day.

[00:08:12] Even though the supplier won't finish shipping everyone's orders until October likely. So if you're the kind of gardener who maybe starts your planning when the weather finally breaks and gardening finally feels appealing again after the summer, you more often than not are likely choosing your seed garlic from whatever is left. And it might not be exactly what you want. That is reason enough to order now anyway.

[00:08:42] But there's also a second reason. Where your seed garlic comes from determines what problems you might be bringing into your soil. And what I mean by this is it's a really bad idea to plant garlic from the grocery store. And I know it's tempting. It's garlic. It's right there. It's way cheaper than what you're going to get out of the catalog.

[00:09:07] But grocery store garlic is grown for eating, not planting. Okay. First of all, a lot of it is treated to prevent sprouting. So that's going to cause you problems. But even when it isn't, you have no idea what variety you're getting and whether or not it's suited to your climate. And there is a disease piece here.

[00:09:31] Garlic is vulnerable to a fungal disease called white rot, which can persist in the soil for years once it has been introduced. There is also something called garlic bloat nematode. And it's a microscopic pest. It spreads very easily between farms and gardens on infected seed stock.

[00:09:53] So your safest bet is to source your seed from growers who sell certified disease-free stock. And if nematodes are a known concern in your area, you also want to look for seed that is labeled negative for garlic bloat. The thing is, white rot in particular doesn't really go away once it's in your soil.

[00:10:15] So you are looking at years of that garden bed being unusable for any allium crop. So this would be your garlic and also your onions and your leeks and your shallots. A reputable seed garlic grower is testing for this, okay? But you have no idea what's in a mesh bag at the grocery store that is being sold for consumption. And I know the pricing can be really intimidating on seed garlic.

[00:10:44] And it seems like it just continues to go up and up and up. But the reasons that I've just stated are the reasons why that pricing exists, okay? It's grown specifically to be safe to plant. Now, if you don't want or can't splurge for what's in a catalog, and you maybe have a local farmer that you trust who also grows garlic, you might consider buying stock from them.

[00:11:13] Be sure that you're asking the right questions, specifically whether they've had any incidents of these pests or diseases in their garlic crop. And make sure that you know if the garlic has been cured so that it will hold until you are ready to plant it in the fall. If you've got somebody that you trust, you'll likely be able to get garlic from them for planting this year. And it will likely be a lot less expensive than trying to go through the catalogs.

[00:11:42] Either way, order now, okay? We'll talk in a few minutes about how much to buy and what to look for. But first, let's talk about the decision that you have to make when you're ordering, whether you're going to order hardneck or softneck. Because this is where I see the most confusion. And it's a pretty simple concept once you understand what's driving it.

[00:12:12] So garlic, Allium sativum, splits into two main types. It's genetic, it's structural, and it drives a completely different set of growing requirements, depending on which type you grow. Hardneck. Hardneck. The defining feature of hardneck is right there in the name. It's a stiff, woody stalk that runs up through the center of the bulb.

[00:12:38] In late spring, that stalk usually produces a curling flower stalk. We call that escape. And at the very end of it are these tiny bulbils. Around that central stalk, the cloves form a single ring. Okay? So fewer cloves per bulb than a softneck, but generally they are bigger. The hardneck types, you know, usually you're going to see purple stripe or porcelain or rocambole. These are the families.

[00:13:07] And then you're going to have all the different varieties underneath those different families. Softneck garlic is a little different. There is no hard central stalk. And under normal conditions, there is no scape. Sometimes you will get them if they are super, super stressed, but in most instances there is no scape with softneck garlic, which is exactly why softneck garlic is the type that you see braided, because it has that flexible neck,

[00:13:34] and that's what makes the braiding possible in the first place. And instead of one ring of cloves like we see with the hardneck, the softneck forms multiple overlapping layers. And you can get anywhere from 12 to 20 cloves per bulb in anywhere from like three to six layers moving from the center on out. That's a really big difference from the one single ring that you get with hardneck. So you're going to get more cloves.

[00:14:02] They're generally going to be smaller individual cloves, but that's a lot more total garlic per bulb. Now, here's the mechanism that actually should drive your decision about which one you're planting, and that is vernalization.

[00:14:25] Vernalization is a period of sustained cold that a plant needs before it will do something specific. So in this case, it is before a garlic clove will divide into a proper multi-clove bulb instead of just growing into one undifferentiated ground clove. Essentially, that's elephant garlic.

[00:14:52] And I actually have to look up and see whether or not that's the reason why elephant garlic is the way that it is. Your regular garlic cloves require about six to eight weeks of cool weather after planting, below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, in order to undergo vernalization and to induce that proper bulbing. Hardneck garlic is absolutely non-negotiable about this. It has to have that vernalization.

[00:15:22] So if you don't get the cold, the hardneck clove is just going to give you one small single round bulb. There's going to be no division, which really means there's no real harvest to speak of. Softneck garlic is a lot more forgiving in that area. It still benefits from cold exposure, but it doesn't have anywhere near the same hard requirement for it,

[00:15:46] which is exactly why softneck is the type of garlic that dominates commercial production in places like California's Central Valley, because the winters just don't get cold enough for what a hardneck actually needs. That's the whole ballgame. That one biological requirement is the reason that a hardneck garlic is going to do really, really well in Minnesota, but it's not going to do really well in coastal Georgia,

[00:16:15] and it's the reason that softneck is what you're going to find at the grocery store nine times out of ten, regardless of where you live. It's not really about which type is better. You might have a preference, but it's going to depend on whether your winter can do the job that the plant needs done. In my area, we actually can choose to plant both, and I do. Some years, the softneck way outperforms the hardneck,

[00:16:43] but in really, really harsh winters, the hardneck tends to be the clear winter. There are also a few more practical differences that are not climate-related, and the first one is flavor. Hardneck varieties tend to have a more complex and more intense flavor profile. This is part of the reason why chefs actually prefer hardneck.

[00:17:07] Softneck is typically milder, although there can be some variations within both of these categories, depending on the variety. I mean, you know, plant breeding is fascinating, and they're always breeding new varieties of things for very specific traits. But generally speaking, hardneck has a stronger flavor. There's also a difference in the storage life, and this is a trade-off that kind of catches people off guard sometimes, because you would think for all of its flavor complexity,

[00:17:35] that hardneck would be the one that would store longer. But actually, it doesn't store as well. You're looking at something in the range of like four months, maybe up to six months under really good conditions, before that quality starts to decline. Softneck routinely stores for like six months or more, sometimes stretching towards nine months or even a year, when it is cured and stored really well.

[00:18:02] And part of that is because it's got more wrapper layers. So, and of course, the head is much tighter too, and those wrappers are much tighter. And so, I mean, this is also part of the reason why it's kind of the commercial standard, because it's going to survive shipping, and it's going to survive sitting on the shelf, which, you know, hardneck likely wouldn't be able to do. The other difference is in the peeling, the easiness of peeling them, right?

[00:18:29] So you've got fewer larger cloves with the hardneck. You have fewer of those wrapper layers, so it's generally easier to peel than the softneck, which you have, you know, smaller, more tightly wrapped cloves. So if you cook with a lot of garlic, and peeling is kind of annoying to you, that's a point in the favor for hardneck, if your climate will allow you to grow it. And the other thing too is the scapes.

[00:18:58] Only hardneck is going to give you the scapes, and to me, this is like a bonus crop, okay? We want to remove the scape as it grows, and it starts to curl, so that we can redirect the plant's energy into the bulb development instead of developing a flower, right? But that gives you an entire separate harvest of the scapes in the early summer, and they are absolutely delicious. You can saute them, you can blend them into pesto, you can throw them on the grill. If you've never had a garlic scape,

[00:19:28] that alone might be worth choosing the hardneck if your climate is going to support it. I will say under very stressful conditions, like what we had this spring here, I have had hardneck fail to send up their scapes. They actually stopped partway up, and the bulbils formed like within the stalk instead of at the top, and we found them busting out the side when we were harvesting. Every single one of them did that this year, but that's not the norm for us, and I will definitely plant both hardneck

[00:19:57] and softneck this year. So that's the botany side of things. Now let's talk about where you live and garden, because that is what's going to make that decision for you. So I'm going to walk through several sort of representative regions here, moving roughly cold to warm. Wherever you are listening from, find the description that's closest to your winter conditions,

[00:20:28] not necessarily your hardiness zone number, because, I mean, two gardeners in the same zone can have very different winters, depending on the elevation and the wind exposure and how consistently cold it actually is. So I'm going to talk about different U.S. regions, but hopefully you can find the description that matches where you are. We'll start with the colder winter regions, so like the upper Midwest, northern New England, the northern Rockies. If you're gardening somewhere with a real winter,

[00:20:58] like reliably below freezing for a sustained stretch of time or snow cover that holds for weeks at a time, you are definitely in hardneck territory, full stop, okay? The mild climate that produces most of that commercial garlic, you know, is not going to perform well in those conditions. And garlic from those warm climate sources will develop a, I guess, a hot flavor, which is a little bit less desirable,

[00:21:27] specifically when they are grown in the cold, which is one of the main reasons that folks gardening in these areas should not try to grow the garlic from the grocery store, okay? Your best bet is to choose varieties that are bred for cold climates specifically. So your common hardneck varieties like the rocambol and the purple stripe and the porcelain. In your kind of climate, vernalization essentially takes care of itself, okay? Your winter just does the work for you. The recommendation is to plant your cloves about one to two weeks

[00:21:57] after your first killing frost. So late enough that the shoots aren't going to emerge early and get frost damaged before you really get into winter, but early enough that your roots have time to get established. For some place similar to like my home region, so Missouri and anywhere that's sort of like the transitional Midwest, I guess, Kansas, that sort of place, roughly zones, you know, 6A to 7A, this is where I garden.

[00:22:26] It's genuinely like middle ground, okay? Late fall is the ideal time to plant here specifically because it lets the roots develop while we're still limiting the shoot growth that would otherwise just die back over the winter and that kind of wastes the plant's energy a little bit. So late October or early November is good timing here, usually around six to eight weeks before the ground really starts to freeze hard. Missouri's winters do get cold enough, reliably enough that hardneck does well here.

[00:22:56] And it does well pretty much across most of that transitional Midwest area, honestly. But our falls can also run warm well into what feels like it should be garlic season. So don't let a mild October fool you into planting too early. You want root establishment. Not a bunch of like tender top growth heading into a hard freeze. That's not a death sentence for the garlic,

[00:23:25] but it could mean smaller cloves at harvest time because you're just expending energy at that point. Softneck does just fine here too in a normal year. In the severe cold seasons, it can tend to be a little bit smaller at harvest sometimes. Just in my experience, sometimes we suffer some crop loss, you know, from rot a little bit if there are like excessive freeze-thaw cycles. So like I said, I hedge my bets and I plant equal amounts of both.

[00:23:54] And some years everything grows amazingly well. And I have garlic coming out my ears and those are the fantastic years. But either way, I've got all my bets covered. If you're in like the Southeast, so Georgia, the Carolinas, Alabama, any kind of mild winter region that is similar to that, this is where the calculation kind of flips. Hardneck garlics may grow in Georgia, but it's going to be hit or miss. And, you know, obviously the hardnecks generally prefer

[00:24:24] the colder winters and longer, cooler springs that you're going to get, you know, further up north. Softneck varieties, on the other hand, are very well adapted to that more temperate southern climate. And because they don't bolt as readily under stress, they can handle sort of the erratic up and down temperature swings that you might get in a summer, you know, a southern winter. If you're in this region, I would lean softneck, okay? Silver skin and artichoke types specifically are very reliable performers.

[00:24:54] You're likely going to be planting, you know, anywhere from late September through November, depending on what you're particular climate is like. And you're going to see that crop maturing by early summer. If you're in like the intermountain west, so Utah, Colorado, similar high elevation, but low humidity climates. These areas really do span a really wide range of conditions. I mean, high mountain valleys, warmer desert basins,

[00:25:23] you know, which means you could be planting anywhere from late September all the way through November. You would want to adjust to plant earlier in those colder, higher elevation spots and then maybe planting later in the milder valleys. Because a lot of this region does get a real winter, hardneck does just fine here, particularly at elevation. But the lower humidity and the intense sun that make this

[00:25:53] actually genuinely a good garlic growing area just means that you have to keep a closer eye on your soil moisture at planting time. But again, I would go hardneck here if I were you. The Pacific Northwest, western Oregon, western Washington, this one surprises people. It is a mild maritime climate, but mild, and I'm using air bunnies here, doesn't necessarily mean warm, okay?

[00:26:22] So even if we look at Oregon State University Extension, they're saying September through November is the planting window. And, you know, this region's winters, while rarely brutally cold, stay consistently cool and damp for months at a stretch. So that sustained coolness, even without the deep freezes, is often enough to satisfy those vernalization requirements, which is part of why you will find some serious hardneck production

[00:26:52] happening in backyard gardens all over this area, right alongside the commercial softneck operations in like the broader Pacific Coast growing areas. So you can likely do the same thing that I do and try your hand at both types and have good results. Once we get into the deep south and the other like really warm winter regions, so southern Texas, Florida, the Gulf Coast, anything that's similar to that, if your winter rarely,

[00:27:21] if ever, delivers a sustained stretch below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, softneck is your most reliable choice and the most low effort choice. And I say this because if you are determined to grow hardneck anyway, and I understand the appeal because the flavor can really be worth chasing if you are very culinarily inclined, you can actually simulate that winter artificially.

[00:27:51] Remember, we said hardneck varieties need around 4 to 6 weeks of cold below 40 to 45-ish degrees Fahrenheit to really differentiate into that strong bulb. So where your climate can't provide that naturally, you can refrigerate your seed garlic for that same window of time before planting and that can act as a substitute for it. It is more effort and the results, you know, might be a little bit

[00:28:20] more modest than what like a naturally cold climate is going to produce, but it is a genuine option for you if you want to experiment. Across every one of these regions, you should aim to get your seed cloves into the ground roughly 3 to 4 weeks before your ground typically freezes. If you are in the way south and you don't get those freezes, then, you know, you might be looking at closer towards the end of the year, but for a lot of the country it's like early October. This is going to be later

[00:28:50] the further south you are and it's going to be earlier than that in the coldest zones. But that window of time gives those roots time to establish before the ground sort of locks up without so much time that like those tender shoots kind of push up and get caught by a hard freeze. Now I do get questions from listeners outside the U.S. all the time and so it's, you know, I would want to touch on this really quickly even though a lot of my recommendations obviously are U.S. focused. The

[00:29:19] vernalization science that we just walked through doesn't care what country you're in, okay, it's basic plant biology and it applies everywhere that garlic is grown. The pattern is going to hold globally so if you are in the northern hemisphere hardneck garlic is the reliable choice for you as you move toward higher latitudes and higher elevations so anywhere that winters deliver sustained cold. Softneck takes over as you move toward those milder more coastal or more southern climates.

[00:29:49] In the southern hemisphere that pattern is just going to flip geographically, okay, so your hardneck territory is further south, softneck territory further north because that's where the cold winters and the mild ones respectively land. Now in genuinely tropical and equatorial regions where a sustained cold snap essentially never happens, softneck is probably your only realistic option and you might even opt to do a little artificial vernalization with those

[00:30:19] by popping it into the refrigerator prior to planting just to kind of hedge your bets a little bit. The underlying biology is universal but planting calendars in different regions are going to be specific to your local frost pattern and I don't want to hand you some made up date for a place that I haven't personally researched down to the region so if you can reach out to your local university ag department for guidance that would be a good idea.

[00:30:53] So let's talk about what to do in your garden beds right now. I mean yes, planting is still weeks away from most of us so why am I telling you to think about beds now? Because good bed prep needs time and September gives you that time in most instances. The first thing we want to do is just sort of clear the beds and get testing if necessary. So if there's a summer crop that is still kind of hanging out in the space that you want to use for your garlic, start planning how and when that's going to come out.

[00:31:23] Garlic should go into a bed that's in full sun with well-drained soil and a good amount of organic matter worked in. So if it's been more than a couple of seasons since you have tested that bed for the fertility and for the pH, now might be the good time to do that while you still have weeks ahead of you to be able to act on those results rather than scrambling in October just prior to actually planting your garlic. We want to get that organic matter in early.

[00:31:52] This is the single biggest advantage of starting bed prep now instead of at planting time. Working in well-rotted manure or compost is going to provide good organic matter and good drainage and good moisture retention. So compost or manure worked into your bed now has time to integrate into the soil biology before those cloves go in. Instead of sitting there sort of half broken down and not really inoculated in October,

[00:32:22] and that can be a real difference for the root establishment of your garlic. You also want to get your baseline fertility right, but hold off on any nitrogen heavy amendments until closer to planting time. We know that nitrogen leaches, we know that it can move out of the soil very quickly, so we want it in place at the time we actually plant. In the absence of getting a really good specific soil test, a good baseline is roughly three pounds of a

[00:32:52] balanced fertilizer, so like a 10-10-10 per 100 square feet of bed and just work that in as you prep. And then you might give it a shot of just a nitrogen amendment right at planting time, and then again in the spring. You also want to think about rotation. Don't plant garlic where onions or any other allium crop has grown recently. So if the garlic bed that you were planning on has just finished a run of

[00:33:21] onions or shallots or leeks, you might consider a different space before you commit to that. And if the bed is currently weedy, like most of our garlic beds right now, or our garden beds specifically right now, if they look anything like mine, deal with it now, not in October. Garlic is a notoriously poor competitor against weeds. It just does not have the vigor to

[00:33:51] out-compete or out-hustle weeds, especially early on. So try to get ahead of that this month, whether that's a round of just hand-pulling the weeds or throwing in a quick cover crop that you can terminate before you plant, or just trying to stay on top of anything that's trying to go to seed in that space and nipping it in the bud. And if you want a refresher course on what to use once the cloves are in

[00:34:20] the ground and you're mulching for winter protection, go back and listen to episode 302. We covered straw and shredded leaves and the rest of the mulch lineup in detail in that episode, and most of that conversation applies directly to garlic beds heading into winter. So I will leave a link to that in the show description. Do this bed prep work now, and by the time your regional planting window opens, you're not going to be scrambling to amend the soil and clear the weeds while you're also trying to figure out the clove

[00:34:50] spacing. At that point, you will just be planting. So how much should you order? How much seed garlic do you need? For a home garden bed, if we think in terms of row feet or square footage rather than bold count, we know it takes roughly two to three pounds of garlic to plant a hundred feet of row. Okay, so you can figure that out based

[00:35:20] on whether you're doing it in sort of a square foot area or if you're doing it in one long row. Of course, that number is going to shift a little bit depending on the variety because that clove count and the clove size per pound varies quite a bit between like a large cloved porcelain hardneck and then you know a silver skin soft neck that has a ton of cloves. A lot of the suppliers are going to tell you approximately how many cloves are going to come per pound. So that should help you be able to figure that out. When you're evaluating a supplier,

[00:35:49] look for language around certified disease free stock and if again you have that garlic bloat nematode, look specifically for seed tested negative for that. I have ordered seed garlic from Johnny's Seed, Harris Seed, and Seed Savers Exchange all in the past with all really positive results if that helps you with a supplier. Whatever you order, resist the urge to start separating the bulbs into individual cloves right away when that order shows up.

[00:36:18] Keep the bulbs whole until the day that you're actually planting or like just the night before. If you separate them early, that's going to decrease your yield because each one of those exposed cloves starts drying out which means it's going to lose a little bit of its vigor basically as soon as it's separated from the bulb. So we tend to have a garlic party here the night before we plant. We just grab a cocktail, sit in the living room, watch a movie, and we just sit there separating thousands of

[00:36:48] cloves of garlic. It's actually a good time. So if you haven't ordered seed garlic yet, go do it today or as soon as you can. Even if planting is still a month or two out for you, just choose a hard neck or soft neck based on the winters that you typically have and walk out to whatever bed that you're targeting for your garlic and kind of take stock of the situation. Is something still growing there that needs to get out of there eventually? Has it been tested in the last couple of seasons?

[00:37:18] Could it use some compost worked in right now while there is still time for it to integrate? Do both of these things this week and by the time your planting window actually rolls around, you will be putting cloves into soil that is already ready. In the show notes, I'm linking every extension resource I referenced today, the regional planting guides, the vernalization research, and the sourcing information on disease-free seed. If you want more information about the actual growing of the garlic, I did a deep dive into that

[00:37:48] back on episode 168, so I will leave a link to that and all the other garlic episodes in the show notes. Until next time, my garlic friends. Yes, you are my garlic friends, but you are also my gardening friends. Keep on cultivating that dream garden and we'll talk again soon.