New Gourmet Garlics Grow Well in the South. Garlic was the International Herb Association's Herb of the Year in 2004 and people are learning that there are many kinds of garlic; all different in taste, pungency, color, size, shape, etc. I have had requests from many people who want to grow these gourmet garlics in warm winter areas like the South, California and Texas for something that speaks to their special needs. This article is my response to those requests. Garlic Isn't Just Garlic Anymore, Now There are Many Gourmet Varieties. There's been a quiet revolution going on in the food and gardening worlds involving garlic. People everywhere are beginning to learn there are many different kinds of gourmet garlics with a wide range of pungency, flavors and colors. While some kinds were heirloom varieties brought to the USA by immigrants over the centuries, most of them came to us in 1989 from a tour of the southern USSR by USDA collectors and advisors, just before the fall of the Soviet Union. The USDA enlisted the help of A handful of conscientious small-scale growers in growing out the numerous cultivars on a shared basis and that's how these rare garlics came onto the American scene. These few small-scale growers have been preserving these many unique varieties that come from all over the world and selling them to other growers, gardeners and friends. Word of these exotic garlics has spread among garlic lovers like kids getting out of school for the summer and every garlic lover who knows about them is excited about them. This article will explore the different kinds, with emphasis on the ones that can be grown in the deep South, Texas, California and other warm winter areas. Many Kinds of Beautiful Garlics Grow Well in the South. Who are These Garlics, Anyway? Scientists are still trying to figure out the exact taxonomy of garlic and how the varying kinds are related to each other. It is ongoing work for a couple dozen botanists and biologists. The latest DNA studies of over 150 cultivars divides garlic into hardneck and softneck types and indicates seven major groups and three smaller sub-groups within those seven basic types (not certain yet, more research needed with even more specimens). Garlic is divided into two broad categories; those which usually grow a hardneck (proper name is scape), called hardneck garlics and those that don't usually grow a hardened scape, called softneck garlics. Hardneck garlic types include Rocamboles, like Spanish Roja and Killarney Red, very strongly flavored garlics that grow best in the northern states due to their cold winters, cool springs and hot summers. Other hardnecks include Porcelains, like Music and Romanian Red, (long storing, big cloves, strong flavors and usually pungent) and Purple Stripes, such as Chesnok Red (nee Shvelisi) and Persian Star (nee Samarkand) (rich taste, moderate pungency - sweetest garlics for roasting). Both porcelains and purple stripes are usually marginal or "iffy" in the South, though some will grow well here most years, but rocamboles are not recommended at all. Burgundy - A Creole/Silverskin Garlic. Varieties that usually do the best in the South are the early season hardnecks called Asiatic or Turban garlics and the midseason Creole hardnecks (long storing, deliciously rich, yet only modestly pungent). Creoles, such as Burgundy, Creole Red and Ajo Rojo may be the most beautiful of all garlics and certainly have the most brightly colored wrappers. The softneck types include the artichoke and silverskin varieties, of which the artichokes are some of the easiest to grow in the South and have large flattish bulbs, while the more teardrop-shaped silverskin types may not do quite as well some years, but are worth growing because they store longer than all the other kinds. The artichoke garlics look like the ordinary white garlic you see in most grocery stores, but with a wide range of flavor and pungency and often more color. What kinds of Garlic Grow Well in Warmer Climates? What kinds don’t. As mentioned above, usually, softneck garlics, that is, artichokes and silverskins do better in warmer areas than hardnecks, having been selected for that trait by growers over the centuries. Of softnecks, artichoke garlics usually grow a little bigger than silverskins, but don't store as long. Grow both kinds and eat the shorter storing varieties first and save the long storing ones for last and maybe they'll still be good when your earliest harvesting Asiatics are ready to dig up. You may never run out of fresh garlic again. Garlic is planted in the fall or winter and some artichoke varieties mature very early in the harvest season (as early as May), but most silverskins mature very late in the season (closer to July). There is a wide range of flavors involved, from very mild to very strong. Some hardnecks don’t do as well as softnecks in the south. We have been totally unable to grow Rocamboles and gave up after ten different varieties failed (our spring gets too warm, too fast for them). We have had fairly good results with porcelains, being able to grow them nice and large some years (cooler winter and spring years) but not as big in other years (warmer winter and spring years). Same with most purple stripe garlics, although there are some very notable exceptions (namely, Metechi and Siberian, both of which grow extremely well for us - see below). Most of these porcelain and purple stripe varieties are a little "iffy" in the south, but well worth the risk if you get in a good crop of them, once in a while. Since all varieties react differently to weather, some will flourish while others don't do as well, but next year they will change places. By growing several kinds, something will always do well. All that having been said, the varieties that have done the best for us are: Burgundy, a beautiful example of a Creole silverskin. Deep purple, uniform cloves, delightfully rich mild-medium flavor in a bulb that grows well and stores 6 to 8 months at room temp. Very hardy and harvests in mid-season. Ajo Rojo is another long storing Creole similar to Burgundy except that its color is more red than purple and it has a much sharper bite. Creole Red Garlic Grows best in Warm Winter Areas Creole Red is a rich, medium flavored Creole that has only about five cloves per bulb, some years but they are larger cloves and it can store for up to 8 months at room temp. Siberian(bottom) and Metechi (top) are Marbled Purple Stripe Garlics. Metechi, a purple stripe of the marbled group. Big, strong and robust - the best in our garden, year after year. Harvests in the middle-late part of the harvest season. Siberian looks almost exactly like Metechi except it is the opposite in taste, mild like Red Toch or Chet's Italian Red. Asiatic hardnecks (also Turbans) such as Asian Tempest or Chinese Pink, grow big, very strong, hearty bulbs and are always the earliest garlic we harvest. Instantly hot raw taste, though in some cultivars the heat is delayed for a few seconds. A sort of Chinese time bomb. I'm a little reluctant to recommend Asiatics and Turbans even though I have grown them successfully some years, they are very short storing and seem to me to be more susceptable to pathogens. They are the only garlics whose necks flop over like onions and you have to be sure to harvest them before they flop over or they won't store as well. Their great value is that they are very early season strong garlics at a time when most people have not been able to get good garlic for months and are desperate for fresh garlic. Artichoke Garlics Grow well in the South. Red Toch and Chet's Italian Red, are standard Artichokes that are very mild, very white and usually large. If you want large, mild garlics, try these. Being an early season garlic, like Chet's Italian Red, Red Toch usually does well most years. Inchelium Red, winner of 1989 Organic Gardening taste contest, another standard Artichoke, with a tinge of red that produces large bulbs of medium flavor - nice taste, but not overpowering. Lorz Italian is a strongly flavored, pungent artichoke garlic from southern Italy that grows well in the South and is a good keeper. Siciliano, an extremely white colored artichoke with a rich flavor, yet mellow pungency. Silverskin Garlics Grow well in the South Most Years. Locati, an Italian silverskin that is hot, strong and long storing, and fairly hard to find. Mild French and Silverwhite. White bulb wrappers with beautiful rose colored cloves that are a little milder than Locati, but still in the medium range. S & H Silverskin. White bulb wrappers and purplish colored clove covers that are a rich medium flavor but very mild in pungency, or hotness. Grows and stores very well most years. People living in Florida and the southern parts of the gulf coast states will have better luck with Creoles, Asiatic hardnecks, artichokes and marbled purple stripe cultivars (but not the standard purple stripes), with silverskins being a little marginal. Conversely, varieties that grow well in years of colder winters and cooler springs, but not in hot or dry years include Purple Stripes such as Chesnok Red and Persian Star as well as Porcelains, such as German Stiffneck (AKA German Hardy and German Extra Hardy and German White), Romanian Red, Georgian Crystal and Georgian Fire would do well less often in these areas. Garlic growing is unpredictable in warm winter areas because the weather is different every year. In most cooler winter/springs, most cultivars except Rocamboles will do OK, but in warmer winter/springs and years with an early hot summer, most cultivars will be hard pressed to do well. For a more complete description of these and other varieties, you might check out the Varieties section of our website. What about the Issue of Garlic Breath? (Pardon the Pun) Garlic breath simply isn't a problem - in an age of designer garlic breath, true garlic lovers are proud of their garlic breath, wear it like a badge of honor and claim that they reek of good health. That's right, these people have designer garlic breath; they don't have ordinary garlic breath. They have Metechi breath or Burgundy breath or Spanish Roja or Music or Red Toch breath. The more socially sensitive among them will munch on a few sunflower seeds and chew a little parsely to lessen the intensity of their aroma some. Eating garlic makes you feel really good, or in the words of one research psychologist, "Eating garlic gives the consumer an enhanced sense of well-being". Have you ever noticed that people with garlic breath are usually grinning? These folks are almost giddy at times. Garlic breath never bothers the ones who have it, they're too busy having fun. Who Says You Can't Grow Gourmet Garlic in the Deep South, Texas or California? We live right in the heart of Texas, 75 miles southeast of Abilene and as our climate varies from year to year, the characteristics of our garlic vary as well. We will also tell you what varieties have thrived and which did not make the grade. Supposedly, we have cool winters, warm springs and hot, early summers. But sometimes we get long cold winters and sometimes they’re wet. Sometimes they’re dry and with strong winds that don’t let up until July. I don’t think any two are very similar. Our rainfall has ranged from 8 to 38 inches yearly, with the average year around 18-24 the last few years and our soil type is mostly bottomland silt. Be ready to see changes in the appearance, size, color and taste of garlic, based on what kind of growing conditions are present during each different crop year. One year we had a dry winter with extreme temperature changes that resulted in reversing the taste of our garlics. Normally hot varieties were mild and normally mild varieties became very hot and strong (they all reverted to normal the following year). Most years you'll have full healthy foliage and big bulbs. Garlic will usually get what it wants out of the soil and survive whatever the current year's weather brings. The smaller bulbs usually have more intense flavor than the larger ones, and that's not all bad. As long as you grow it outdoors, every year will be different. Growing Techniques that work for us. Garlic growing is definitely different in the warm winter states than it is in the northern tier of cold winter states. You can plant later and harvest earlier. You can plant right on up until the end of December, or even later some years. There have been times we have planted some varieties in late January and February and still obtained large, healthy bulbs, but it is usually better to get it in the ground in October or November as it will always get larger. The real key is when the weather turns hot enough to force the garlic to mature and shed all its leaves and wait underground until it cools off some in the fall. Another difference is that garlic emerges in the fall/winter and puts on good foliage all winter long while northern garlics do not emerge until just before its final surge of growth in the spring. Southern growers can be enjoying wonderful fresh garlic a month or two before northerners. I recommend using organic growing methods if you want the best results in terms of taste, nutrition and human and plant health. Garlic does best grown in rotation with other garden crops in good organic garden soil with pH in the range between 6.5 and 7. Garlic can only get out of the soil that which is in the soil to begin with. It’s pretty good at getting what it needs out of any soil, but thrives in good soil and has no special N-P-K requirements. In fact, too much nitrogen will cause lush leaf growth but small bulbs. Growing in rotation rather than growing it in the same place year after year will keep the soil fertile and prevent pathogens from building up in the soil. Garlic grown in good, healthy organic soil withstands weather extremes that would stunt garlic grown in tight, dry soil. Raised Beds or Not? Whether you choose to plant in flat beds or raised beds is largely determined by your soil type. If you have sandy soil that doesn't hold water well, then flat beds are fine and should grow good garlic if you start with the right kinds for your area. On the other hand, if you have tight clay or silty soil like we do, raised beds are usually better. A few inches below the surface, our silty soil becomes very tight and that makes it difficult to dig up the bulbs without damaging them or their roots. Also, in tight soils, the raised beds help reduce fungal infestations by holding the bulbs up further out of standing water after heavy rains. If the soil is hard and caked on the surface, rainwater flows right off the raised beds without soaking in. Mulching with organic material helps to conserve soil moisture and keeps the surface absorbent. What works for us is six inch high raised beds about 24 inches wide across the top containing four rows of garlic, six inches apart, with staggered rows to maximize root space. These raised beds are spaced five feet apart from center to center . this gives us plenty of room to work in between the beds. We build the beds one at a time and plant immediately while the soil is still soft. Cloves are set with the bottom of the cloves two inches deep. Each bed is planted with varieties that will mature all at the same time. As soon as the bed has been planted, we run drip irrigation tubes (we use t-tape with built-in emitters 12 inches apart) down the bed inside the two outer rows on each side so the beds get evenly watered. and cover the bed with three or four inches of organic mulch (leaves, whatever). Then we build the next bed. When we’re done, we mulch between the beds to conserve moisture and discourage weeds. We went to that system for three reasons. First, to get the roots into looser soil and make harvest easier on people and plants, both. Second, to get the bulb up out of the water zone after heavy rains and during the drydown period just before harvest to avoid fungal and other problems. Lastly, in building the bed by adding the surrounding topsoil on top the topsoil in the bed, you increase the feeding zone of the plants roots by thickening the layer of fertile topsoil above the less fertile deeper soil. This additional nutrient-rich layer allows the roots to get more out of the soil and their increased strength allows them to resist pests and weather extremes better. Water also percolates through it better. At harvest time, the mulch is pushed off to the sides and the beds are leveled during harvesting simply by moving the excess dirt to the walkways right on top of the remains of the mulch, assuring fertility for the next growing season. The soil is so soft that the entire root system comes up easily and without damage and often we can simply grasp them by the neck and pull them up with little resistance and we don't even have to dig them up. Shall We Mulch (cha cha cha) If you live in one of those areas that gets a lot of rainfall, even a light mulch is usually better than no mulch since it keeps rainfall from splashing dirt up on the leaves and then having it wash down into their bases and, possibly, contaminate the bulb with some kind of soil-borne bacteria or fungal spores. If you have heavy soil that holds water a long time, thick mulching may not be for you. If you live in a dry area or have sandy soil, a thick mulch is essential if you want good results. By alternately irrigating or removing mulch, you can control the soil moisture to maximize bulb size and health. Using organic mulch has an additional benefit - you’re fertilizing the soil for next year. We found that when we put several inches of mulch on the entire growing area that our harvest was better all the way around and the soil was less weedy and more fertile and softer for the next crop. In the south, the idea is to keep the ground cool as long as you can so the garlic will bulb up good before warm temperatures force maturity. If it matures before the bulb has grown large, you will have small garlic. It is the increasing heat that causes garlic to mature, each in its own time. Mulching also discourages weeds from sprouting and growing. We have had a lot less problems with weeds since we began mulching. We still have to weed some but not as much as we would have to if we didn’t mulch. Garlic does not do as well if there are weeds in the beds as they do not compete well against weeds. Garlic you grow yourself always tastes better and stores longer. Some Planting and Growing Tips To Improve Your Crop We soak the cloves overnight in water containing liquid seaweed and either apple cider vinegar OR baking soda, but not both (you can use either but if you use both, they will neutralize each other) at the rate of one tablespoon each per gallon of water to inhibit fungal growth and stimulate rooting. Next we soak it for 3 to 5 minutes or so in rubbing alcohol in order to kill any mites or other hitchhikers, and plant immediately. This may seem a little draconian, but many pathogens that affect garlic present few or no symptoms until it is too late, and the soaking eliminates most problems before they develop. For long term soil health, it is best not to plant anything but healthy cloves. Growing garlic in rotation with other crops which we fertilize with old cow and chicken manure as well as compost means we don't have to fertilize the garlic very much, just so the soil stays loose and soft to make planting go easier. Every two weeks during the growing season we give the garlic a foliar feeding using the same formula that we use for inoculation, but adding a tablespoon of molasses as well. Stop feeding once the bulb begins to swell and grow, but continue to water. We discontinue watering a week or so before harvesting to let the soil and the garlic dry down some as late watering can cause bulb wrappers to split as the bulbs swell up too rapidly. Excess water during this time can also lead to fungal and other disease problems. How To Know When To Harvest. Your garlic’s leaves will tell you when it wants to be harvested. They will do this by beginning to turn brown from the bottom of the plant upward. When only the top five or six leaves are still green, that is the time to harvest. Notable exceptions to this general rule are the Asian and Turban Artichokes - they need to be harvested as soon as their lower leaves start to turn brown. Shut off water to any variety when the bottom one-third (one half if you have sandy soil) of the leaves have turned brown and pull the mulch away from the beds to allow the soil to dry out. If it looks like rain, put a tarp over your garlic bed and remove it after the rain. When just over half of its leaves have browned and only the upper leaves are still green, it is time to harvest if the ground is dry enough. You can test for soil moisture content by digging carefully down to the root area and putting your hand in the soil. If your fingers get muddy, it is too wet to harvest. But if you must harvest anyway, rinse the mud off in running water and strip the plant down to it's outermost complete layer of foliage and cure as usual. The top six of a garlic plant's leaves control the bulbs wrappers. If you wait until all the leaves die, these bulb wrappers will deteriorate and you will be left with bare bulbs that don’t store well and invite contamination and disease. Since each variety matures at a different time, we harvest only those that are ready at any one time. As each bed or row contains the same variety, you can use a garden fork to pry the bulbs from their earthy wombs and break up the soil so that it is easy to pull each bulb gently by hand. The dirt shakes off easily and just falls away from the roots, if the soil is properly dried. Garlic should be taken immediately to a shady place with good air flow to dry down, or cure as it is called, for a few weeks. Each bulb should always be handled with gentle, loving care to prevent bruising - don’t throw, bump or drop them, it can damage them and give disease an opportunity to set in. You can braid the softneck types when they are about half cured and partly dry, but still pliable enough to braid. The cured hardneck garlics should be cleaned down to the first complete clean bulb wrapper and the roots and dried leaves cut off. The cleaned garlic stores well for three to nine months, depending on variety, at cool room temperature. You can store it in net bags, unglazed ceramic flower pots or double-bagged in plain brown paper grocery store bags. Do not store garlic in the refrigerator, as it will not store long and will soon sprout. Special Considerations for Central and South Florida - The further South you go in Florida, the fewer kinds of garlic will have a chance to do well for you in any given year and even in North Florida, your choices are limited. North Floridians should be able to grow most of the things we can, most years, since we are at similar latitudes although ya'll will have a lower soil pH and more rain than we get - garlic loves rain but doesn't like standing water. In South Florida, your best chances are Artichoke and Creole garlics and Marbled Purple Stripes like Metechi and Siberian. In theory, Asiatics and Turbans will do well there as well if you can find good planting stock. If you have sandy soil, you will need to add organic material to it so it will hold water a little longer, and maybe mulch to maintain soil moisture around 50%. Artichokes were developed in southern Italy and other warm winter areas and are well acclimated to the conditions. Creoles, on the other hand, came in with the Spanish conquerers and even grow in the Caribbean, hence their Creole name; some of their names, Pescadero Red and Cuban Purple or Spanish Morado tell you that they have been grown in the Caribbean area. Garlics need to be growing in anything that resembles a cool season because the heat of oncoming summer will force them to mature regardless of whatever size they have attained up to that point. Special Considerations for Texas - Because Texas spans several topologies, different kinds can flourish in different parts of the state, depending on the current years weather. We're in West/central Texas and in El Nino years, we are cooler and get more rain and most kinds except Rocamboles do OK here but in La Nina (hot and dry) years, few garlics do well although the earlier harvesting types have the best chance in dry years as they mature before the grasshoppers settle in to dine. Sometimes the temp gets up to 100 in April and in that stunts the whole crop. Every year is different. Those in the panhandle hae colder winters and cooler springs than the rest of the state and have a better chance of growing more different kinds than those in most of the state. Because garlic grows better in the mountains where it is cooler if it can get decent organic soil and sufficient water, those living in the Davis mountains should be able to grow all kinds, perhaps even Rocamboles. People living along the Gulf Coast and South and SW Texas should try Artichokes and Creoles first as they are the ones that have the best chance to do well there. All others are marginal there most years. Artichokes were developed in southern Italy and other warm winter areas and are well acclimated to the conditions. Creoles, on the other hand, came in with the Spanish conquerers and even grow in the Caribbean, hence their Creole name; some of their names, Pescadero Red and Cuban Purple or Spanish Morado tell you that they have been grown in the Caribbean area. Special Considerations for the Desert Southwest - All kinds of garlics, including Rocamboles have been grown successfully in Santa Fe and other mountainous areas. In the typical prairie/desert flatlands; however, I'm not so sure about Rocamboles, but just about all others should do well most years. I just don't have a lot of information about this part of the country and am hoping to get more feedback from those who live there what kinds of garlics have thrived for them so I can fill in a little more information here, since I have no personal experience growing there. If anyone who has grown garlics there will let me know how they did, I would appreciate it. I suspect the cold nights will allow more kinds to do well there rather than just the Artichokes and Creoles. I think Silverskins, Purple Stripes and Porcelains will do well there and also Asiatic/Turban garlics, too. Special Considerations for California - Like Texas, there are many topologies in California and where you live pretty much dictates what kinds of garlic you can grow in your back yard. Different kinds of garlics can grow in different parts of the state. In southern California and Along the coast where it is warm and in most flatland areas, Artichokes and Creoles are going to be the best ones, along with Asiatics/Turbans and Marbled Purple Stripes. The problem with the very early harvesting Asiatics/Turbans is that good planting stock seems increasingly hard to come by. The Marbled Purple Stripe garlics are very large and hardy garlics that have thrived for us most years and should excel in southern Cal. Artichokes were developed in southern Italy and other warm winter areas and are well acclimated to the conditions. Creoles, on the other hand, came in with the Spanish conquerers and even grow in the Caribbean, hence their Creole name; some of their names, Pescadero Red and Cuban Purple or Spanish Morado tell you that they have been grown in the Caribbean and other warm winter areas. These would be the best garlics to try to grow from San Diego through Los Angeles and out across the desert areas of southern California. All along the coastline where there are warm winter temps, the southern Cal varieties should be tried first before experimenting with the other hardnecks. The bottom line generally will probably be that if your days are cooler and more spring-like than summer-like, the better chance you have of garlic doing well for you. In the mountains of central and northern California, Purple Stripes, Porcelains and even Rocamboles can be sucessfully grown if the winters are cold and the springs cooler than below. Generally, the further North you are in California, the more different kinds you can grow, although Rocambole growing is usually pretty much limited to higher elevations in the mountainous areas. New July 2, 2008 - Now you can buy two different kinds of Virus-Free Garlic. That Will Grow in Warm Winter Areas. Pssst - Hey You - Gardener. Wanna grow some big, I mean really , really BIG bulbs? Use Virus-Free planting stock. Big News - We will have three cultivars of very rare Virus-Free garlic available this fall. We were very lucky to be able to get three cultivars of Virus-Free garlic , some Duganski, said to be a Marbled Purple Stripe; some California Late, an Artichoke, both of which grow well in warm winter areas, and some as yet unnamed Rocambole that won't from Bulgaria. I now call it Bulgarian Rocambole This is good news for growers all over the country and even the warm winter growers have something to cheer about as the Artichokes and Marbled Purple Stripes both do well in warm winter areas. A Marbled Purple Stripe called Metechi is always the biggest and best in our garden year after year. Why does virus-free have any special appeal and how do they do it? At this point I'm not entirely clear as to all the features and benefits of virus-free garlic but I can tell you how they are developed and that ridding a cultivar of virii causes the to grow larger and heavier than the same cultivars the contain virii. I'm not sure what effects being virus-free has on the health benefits of garlic but researchers have shown in the past that densec, heavier varieties, Porcelains, in particular had greater capability to produce Allcin, from which the most healthy fat-soluble compounds are derived. All natural garlics contain some virii; it's what happens out in the wild, life happens. These virii have no known harmful effects on humans but apparently only affect the garlics and most of their effects are unknown although a few are; for example, the yellow streak virus carried by wheat curl mites cause a garlics leaves to show some yellow streaks but their effects on the clove is minimal if anything. If a garlic bulb has a viral contamination, and they all do, almost every part of the plant is affected. All, in fact but the tiniest growing tip where the virus has not yet gotten a grip on the plant. This tiny growing tip, called a meristem, is snipped out under a microscope and tediousky grown out from that tip and that virus-free tip will eventually become a bulb with virus-free cloves and the cloves will also be virus-free and can be replanted to produce virus-free offspring. It takes several years of replanting all or most of the cloves for a single virus-free bulb to reproduce into a marketable number of bulbs to base a virus-free seed garlic business on. They are still a few years from widespread distribution. By removing the virii, it causes the bulbs to get bigger and denser. This is only the second effort I know of ever to produce virus-free garlic. The earlier one was done in California in the 1980s but the grower discontinued his program because it produced such large garlics , over 3" in diameter, that he had a hard time selling such large garlics and he quit doing it. I understand he is retired now and no longer involved. Our virus-free garlics were produced by a different retired plant pathologist and grown in Oregon and we're ready to try again so we can see for ourselves what the results are and are inviting our customers to try them also and see how they do for them. We are the only place in the country at this time offering virus-free garlics for sale on the internet. They were not grown organically and normally we would not handle such garlic but since there is no source of organically grown virus-free garlics, these can be introduced into an organic operation and their offspring, if grown by a certified organic grower would become certified organic next year. They're a little pricy but the grower is rightfully proud of his accomplishment and the amount of time he has invested into this very worthwhile project. What is the future of these V-F garlics? How long will they stay virus-free? I don't know. Nobody knows how many years it took garlic to pick up all its virii. Nobody knows how long it would take to re-acquire some more of them via insects, etc. or how often new virus-free planting stock would have to be purchased in order to assure an essentially virus-free crop. We're stepping out on unexplored turf here. Whacking out new trails, so to speak. We'll learn as we go. NEW! - Click Here if You Want to Buy these Virus-Free Garlics. Click Here to print out a short one page summary of Planting Instructions - Click Here to print out a one page Instruction on knowing when to harvest.- NEW - Added May 30, 2007 - Pictures of our Fabulous wildflowers this spring. - If you want to learn more about why you should be growing, curing and storing the different kinds of garlic in the South, Click here to go to our Hurricane Survivor's Guide page. If you want to see our garden, Click here for a Pictoral tour year of a year in our garlic garden. NEW! - Click Here if You Want to Make Money Growing and Selling Garlic. - Updated August 1, 2007 If you want to learn a lot more about growing, curing and storing the different kinds of garlic, Click here to go to our regular Growing Tips page. Click Here to order Sampler Assortments of Garlics - Click Here to order bulk Garlics sorted by taste/flavor. - Click Here to order bulk Garlics by varietal type - If you have any questions, please see the FAQ Page or E-Mail me.

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