About
Garlic is a vegetable in the onion family, although some people mistake it for an herb. There are two types of garlic, hardneck garlic and softneck garlic. Softneck garlic is more common, more productive and tend to store better since the tops are soft and can be braided, but hardneck garlic can be a hardier grower. Note that elephant garlic isn’t truly a garlic, but a leek.
Growing Advice
Companion Planting
Pests & Diseases
Garlic does not tend to suffer from many diseases, but crop rotation is advised.
Seed Saving
Garlic cloves are actually the seed, so many simply replant a clove. Use the largest cloves possible to yield the largest heads the next growing season. While you can plant the bulb stripped of cloves, it will usually take two growing seasons to produce garlic. If you are storing cloves for planting, do not keep them in the refrigerator, as exposing the cloves to 40F or lower temperatures can cause the cloves to sprout. Because you can plant cloves from garlic you buy, watch local farmer’s markets for garlic for sale with heirloom varieties.
Heirloom Varieties
We have split garlic between the two types, softneck and hardneck.
Hardneck Garlic
- Bogatyr
- Brown Tempest
- Chesnok Red
- French Rocambole
- German Red
- Georgian Crystal
- Georgian Fire
- German Extra-Hardy
- German Porcelain
- Music
- Persian Star
- Pskem River
- Romanian Red
- Russian Red
- Siberian
- Spanish Roja
Softneck Garlic
- Broadleaf Czech
- Chet’s Italian Red
- Inchelium Red
- Italian Softneck
- Loiacono
- Lorz Italian
- Mild French Silverskin
- Nootka Rose
- Red Toch
- Silver Rose
- Silverwhite Silverskin
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