Garlic for Northern Gardens

Internet photo

Garlic is a member of the onion family.  It is actually a perennial, but is usually grown as an annual.  After all, we grow it to eat.  To eat it, we have to dig the bulb.  When we dig the bulb, well, let's just say the plant is not appreciative and won't continue to grow as a perennnial.  :)  Garlic produces a bulb that is made up of several cloves, sometimes a dozen or more per head or bulb.  Each clove is covered with a thin, papery skin. 

There are two types of garlic – softneck and hardneck.  Hardneck garlic is generally the most productive type of garlic in North Dakota gardens, although both varieties grow here.  Softneck garlic stores better and longer than hardneck, and if you like to braid the stalks for drying or for decoration, you will need to plant softneck.  Softneck garlic doesn’t form flower scapes, so the strap like leaves are easily braided.  This lack of flowering also causes the bulbs to mature more quickly and each bulb produces a large number of cloves.  They are less hardy than hardnecks, however, and might suffer winter kill in a harsh, open winter.

Softneck garlic is sometimes referred to as “artichoke garlic”.  Varieties of softneck garlic that seem to do well in North Dakota are Silverskin, which produces bulbs about two inches in diameter and can be stored for 10 to 12 months at room temperature.  New York White will often have some purple streaking in the bulb.  New York White is a good producer, but does have a tendency to bolt, which greatly diminishes the size of the bulbs.  Red Toch is another variety that is quite attractive, with bulbs that are streaked red and pink.

 Hardneck varieties are hardier than softnecks, so they are usually quite productive in North Dakota, regardless how harsh the winter might have been.  They form fewer cloves per bulb than the softnecks, but the individual cloves are generally larger.  Hardneck varieties include Asiatics, Creoles, Glazed Purple Stripes, Marbled Purple Strips, Porcelains, Purple Stripes, Rocamboles, and Turbans.

Chesnok Red (internet photo)

The hardiest of the hardneck garlics for more northern climates, are the Purple Stripes, which include Chesnok Red.  I’ve had very good luck with Chesnok Red in my garden, with good production, excellent hardiness, a very good garlic flavor, and, it's pretty!  Premium Northern White is a Porcelain variety that has also done quite well for me.  Other Porcelains that thrive in harsh winter climates are Leningrad and Romanian Red.  Marbled Purple Stripe varieties Bogytar, Metechi and Siberian are also said to grow well in northern climates, however, I have not personally tried those in my North Dakota garden.

In my garden, I tend to grow more of the hardneck than softneck varieties because of their hardiness.  Since I use much of my garlic for pickling, the poor storage life of the hardnecks isn’t as much of an issue.  I never know what the North Dakota winter will bring, so I play it safe with the hardier varieties, although, I usually plant a few softnecks – just to say I can.

Each year, I save the biggest and best of my cloves for planting in the fall.   The new garlic plant is essentially a clone of the parent plant, so if it grew nice, large, flavorful cloves one year, it will likely produce the same in following years, provided the growing conditions are favorable.  In the next blog installment, I'll talk about planting garlic.