Which Garlic Do You Choose to Grow?

Garlic has never been so widely appreciated and more than ever before garlic cultivators are available. This actually can be called a garlic renaissance. Among the hundreds of different varieties in eleven horticultural groups, garlic serves many different needs. Climate, growing practices and storage conditions all affect the way garlic performs. It is a matter of trying what works best for you. After some exploration, you will develop your own list of favorites.

The three basic kinds of garlic are Common Garlic, Elephant Garlic, and Hardneck Garlic. Appropriately named, elephant garlic has enormous cloves, but contains very little garlic flavor. Common Garlic is the white skinned type usually found at supermarkets sometimes called soft neck garlic or Italian garlic. The silverskin types of common garlic are the ones used for braiding found at farmers’ markets.

The bulbs of the artichoke types of Common Garlic have an outer white or off-white parchment skin. There is a row of decent-sized cloves around the outside with smaller, thinner cloves among the interior. Removing the skin from these cloves is not easy. The bulb is wrapped in many layers of parchment, which continues up to form a soft parchment like neck. These layers are ideal for using to braid all your bulbs together on a string to hang in the kitchen. Garlic keeps well and braiding it is a nice way to store it. Silverskins have a strong flavor with numerous small cloves. Their white neck is sturdy so they are well suited for plaiting. The Creole sub-group of the silverskin type is atypical because they have only 8-12 cloves, are mild in flavor, and have a rose colored outer skin.

Hardneck Garlic has many varieties such as Serpent Garlic, Stiffneck Garlic, Rocombole Garlic, Top Setting Garlic, Bavarian Garlic, Porcelain Garlic, and Purple Stripe Garlic. These garlics have stiff, sometimes thick, necks. They usually have fewer, even-sized cloves arranged around their center neck. The number of cloves run from four to twelve or so, depending on the variety. They are generally less reliable in changeable weather conditions (especially hot) than Common Garlics, with the exception of the Rocombole type.

The most distinctive of the three main hardneck types is Rocambole Garlic. The most significant property this type has is that it throws up a flowering stem, called a scape. Another difference is that the bulb has relatively little outer parchment skin leaving the cloves often exposed to being knocked off or withering. However because they have very little skin, they are very easy to peel. The tall flowering scape makes a twisting loop as it unfurls the head containing not flowers, but tiny little bulbils. Purple Stripe Garlic has very white, thick, bulb skins, streaked with bright purple. Some are strongly flavored and others are mild tasting. Some are ready to harvest mid-season and some are late maturing. They all store fairly well. The Porcelain Garlic variety has few (between four and eight), large fat cloves and is covered with a very thick and very white bulb skin. The taste of this garlic is usually strong.

Be guided in making your choice by the local varieties available. However, make sure they genuinely are local. A variety that is reliable in one location may be marginally reliable in another. Ask around and get the advice of knowledgeable local home gardeners.

Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking good and healthy.