The Great Canadian Garlic Collection

In the Fall of 2007, we joined Seeds of Diversity and started to work on their project called the Great Canadian Garlic Collection

Seeds of Diversity Canada www.seeds.ca

There are well over 100 varieties of garlic that are suited to Canadian growing conditions. Their goal is to grow as many varieties as possible in all of Canada's major agricultural areas and to record their success and characteristics. The collected information will be posted to their website for use by all.

The three varieties that they sent us are: Sweet Haven, Mountain Top, and Music. They sent us 3 whole garlic of each variety.

All that they requested of us, for the fall, is to document how we planted them and record the date and soil type. So, some of the interested gardeners joined me in planting these garlic. As well, a friend from a near-by community garden joined us to find out how to plant the garlic, and, she brought along a sample of garlic called Russian. to add to our project. We followed the institutions provided and all took turns planting one of the variety's. To add to this, I had some garlic that I grew the previously, and second year bulbils. I never knew the name of it, but just that it came from a health food store.

We used straw for covering it with mulch. Little did we know how interesting it would make our project in the following summer! ...

On the left, you can see some scapes growing with their beautiful curves, and the wheat that grew as a companion with the garlic

On the right/below, are the tiny bulbils that appear on the tops of the scapes

About Bulbils: they are like little cloves of garlic. They are not seeds in the usual manor. The first year I grew them, I just sprinkled them on the ground and covered them with soil and compost. When they came up in the spring, they almost looked like blades of grass. When they died down, I let them cure, just like mature garlic, and them braided them. They had grown from the size of am apple seed to the size of a blueberry.

To the left you will see the third year bulbils. You might be able to notice that this year, they made scapes, and there are 2 cloves in most of them.

... That was it, we planted, and mulched it, and then we waited for winter.

In the spring, it was very exciting to see all the garlic coming up, and knowing that we had done a good job planting. Each type of garlic plant is a little different. The shade of green, how high they grow, and at what angle the leaves come out of the stem. As they grew, I noticed that the wheat seeds left in the bale of straw that we used for mulch, were sprouting and growing. I wasn't quite sure what to do about it, but then in June, we had a visitor to the garden, that helped explain things. John Slack visited the garden on June 14th. you can read the story called "Guest visiting the Garden". He said that the wheat was a fine companion for the garlic, and that we should leave it. He also said that there was enough growing here for a loaf of bread! Well, I don't know if there is enough for the whole loaf any more, the little sparrows enjoyed some.

An other difference in the types of garlic is how many bulbils appear on the tops of the scapes. I decided to keep one scape to grow on each group of garlic. The size of bulbil was different for each variety. By the middle of July, they were clearly visible.

So, late in July, after a bit more documenting how the garlic grew, the garlic leaves started to turn brown, and it was time to harvest them. Each variety was about a week apart from each other. That gave me time to document the harvest and find a place to let them cure.

The one variety that didn't grow scapes, was fun to braid, and because I had the most of these, it made a very long braid. Week by week, I collected the different garlic, and documented how well they grew. The best one for our garden was Mountain Top we had planted 25 cloves, and we got 25 garlic heads.

When the garlic is first dug up, it is very delicate, I had to be careful not to bruise them, or break the skins. There had been a lot of rain and the soil was quite moist, and sticking to the cloves. We were told not to wash them unless it was really necessary, but just to let them dry off, during the curing process, and brush the dirt off later.

After I had let them all cure in my office (the back porch) I set about cleaning them.

Cleaning and trimming the cured Garlic

These garlic had dried dirt on them, so I needed to gently brush off the dirt and the outer layer of wrapper, It didn't always come off, but for the most part, I was able to make them look better.

Next, I took my pruning shears and gripping the dried roots, I clipped them off, so that the garlic would look neat.

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