Grow your own garlic. Is fff; fun foolproof fabulous
First, where do you live?Next, Google "growing garlic in ______________"Fill in the blank where you live; click, duh, lol.Up pops garlic links for, yep, for where you live.
Garlic grows everywhere. Well, not in, say, Iraq, that's a dumb thought. HA!, clicking on Iraq anyway.
OMG it DOES grow in Iraq; they are famous for it!!!http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200605/natural.remedies.of.arabia.htm
Did you know that? I never knew that! OMG what a fabulous link, so much other interesting info on other foods, herbs, spices.
Warning: Alert: Seee the fun stuff connected to garlic fun!!!
Anyway. All you need is soil, land, pots, containers, etc. no matter where in Iraq or anywhere else you might live. Plant it. Hope for rain now and then. Done.
This fall I got lucky finding some seed-bulbs in the grocery store, of all places, with roots from Argentina.
Wait. They are only "seed bulbs" if the roots are alive and grow. Soooo, fingers crossed. I planted 2 cloves and....bonus, they stared to grow.
Grocery store bulbs, so I hear, from China have been chemical-treated to kill the roots. That prolongs economic shelf life and yet otherwise they just will not grow and sprout.
Other best places to find garlic seed stock would be from a reliable seed house, (expensive, shipping etc.) or better yet at the local farmers market. As long as the "farmer" is not just a lazy re-seller or they dont try to pawn you off with garlic imported from China. Sorry I hate farmers markets full of lazy re-sellers.
Here is a routine I try to follow.
Let's start with the 12 grocery store bulbs I just got from Argentina via the local grocery store for $7.19. OK, I'll plant those 12 bulbs X 8 cloves each = 96 cloves planted = 96 plants to harvest next summer.
Wow, thats a lot of garlic bulbs. From those I will immediatley save the best 12 or 15 in cool place for replanting next fall. (96 or more new plants again)
The other 81 or 84 bulbs I can begin using right away, right past the time I replant the other 12 and keep using all winter. The objective is to never buy seed stock again. Henceforth, I become my own grow seed stock grower plus have all the garlic I can eat or give away to friends and relatives.
OR. Time to experiment. Some of the 81/85 bulbs I save I might save until early spring and harvest in the late fall to see if that growing cycle works. Well it's known that it works in warmer climates. But no one does that here. Gonna try it.
That would result in a brand new objective of a "split harvest" as a hedge against failure or tying to save garlic too long. It eventually and sometimes prematurly drys out, moulds or sprouts way too soon. Depends on smart storing proeedures.
Heres some fun garlic math:
Year 1 96 new bulbs X 8 cloves each. Replant them all.
Year 2 1,152 new bulbs x 8 cloves each. Replant.
Year 3 9,216 new bulbs x 8 cloves each. Replant.
Year 8 301,861,888 new bulbs, ohhhh my aching back!!!
12 garlic from rhe store was 2 pounds ,so, 6,288 tons.
One picture attached shows one of the test cloves I dug up after about 7 or 10 days with the hairy-like roots, and a new sprout starting from the pointy end. So now its easy to visualize what going on under the soil.
The other picture shows 2 bulbs from Argentina, looking like almost any other garlic. But I tilted one of them so you can see the dry bottom root nubs trimmed by the shipping farmer or processor. Can you count the cloves humps under the skin? 8? 9?. That would mean 8 or 9 cloves to plant yielding you 8 or 9 new bulbs at harvest time.
(Refer to garlic math fun above)
Each clove shares its own little section of the root nubs. If you find bulbs where the root nub has been hollowed right out, it might be a wonderful cooking bulb but it wont ever grow. No starter root nubs.
It wont take you very long to become a garlic expert. I think garlic people stink nice. :-)
Have garlic fun, it's fabulous, foolproof, and, ohhh, we already typed fun!
johann
