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Does garlic come back every year


Growing Garlic as a Perennial

While most plants are planted in the spring for fall harvest, garlic is just the opposite.  Usually, garlic is planted in the fall and harvested mid-summer the following year.  Why is garlic so different? 

Because garlic is actually a perennial, that gardeners choose to grow as an annual.  Garlic can be grown as a perennial in a permaculture garden, or as a unique edible addition to your perennial flower gardens.

Growing garlic as a perennial means less maintenance, year-round harvests and never buying seed garlic again.

Growing garlic as a perennial is pretty simple.  Just plant garlic as you normally would in the fall, and then ignore it for a few years.  Occasionally, that happens by accident.  You intend to harvest garlic, but the stem snaps off or a bulb or two get forgotten in the ground.

The following year, each clove of that garlic plant will send up a new sprout.  When you plant garlic, you plant individual cloves, but since these were never separated they’ll come up as dense patches of garlic shoots.   After two or three years, a single garlic clove will have dozens of garlic shoots sprouting from a small patch of ground.

Individual stems can be pulled off the edges of this garlic mass at any point during the summer and eaten as green garlic.  Normally, you can only get “green garlic” bulbs uncured at the farmer’s market for a few weeks a year. 

They have a milder flavor than cured garlic, and they taste a bit more like a vegetable.  That’s because they haven’t been cured, which dried down the bulb and concentrates the flavor.

As the summer progresses, this patch of hard neck garlic will produce garlic scapes.  We don’t grow the braid-able type of softneck garlic up here in Vermont, so I can’t speak to growing soft neck varieties as a perennial. 

The hardneck varieties have better flavor anyhow, and the only reason soft neck is sold in the grocery stores these days is due to the fact that it can be planted mechanically and is grown without bothering with garlic scapes.

When growing garlic at home, hardneck is the way to go.  If you’re still confused about the difference between types of garlic, here’s a rundown on the difference between hardneck and softneck, and details on all of the 10 types of garlic you can grow at home.

Either way, I think a patch of garlic scapes coming out of the perennial flower bed fits in beautifully.  If you’re not a gardener, you’d never know they weren’t some kind of exotic flower bud.  And in essence, they are just like any other perennial flower bud.

Most people that grow enough garlic to supply their family all winter have trouble using up all the garlic scapes.  There are countless garlic scape recipes, each trying to use up a huge surplus each year.  We make garlic scape pickles, and a good bit of garlic scape pesto for the freezer each year. 

Still, using up a few hundred garlic scapes is near impossible.  They’re cute at the farmer’s market, but that’s in tiny farmer’s market quantities.   Once you’re growing a boatload of garlic, most of the scapes go to the pigs.

When you’re growing garlic as a perennial, the garlic scapes aren’t a problem.  Harvest as many as you like, and just leave the rest.  They’ll bud out, and pop into clusters of tiny baby garlic cloves hanging in the air.

Normally, garlic scapes are cut so that the garlic plant puts all its energy into forming a large bulb.  The bulb mass at the bottom of these scapes doesn’t need any extra mass, so the scapes can do as they please.

In the fall, those garlic scape bulblets will dry down into miniature garlic cloves.  These can be used just as you’d use any garlic clove, or they can be planted as seed garlic. 

In this way, you’ll have an unlimited supply of seed garlic produced right in your own perennial bed.  Garlic plants grown from garlic bulblets may take a bit longer to mature, and can sometimes take an extra year to fully bulb out.

Garlic bulblets from unharvested garlic scapes, dried on the plant in the fall.

While these perennially grown green garlic will supply you from snowmelt through the end of fall, but what about the wintertime?  For winter garlic, I pick out one of these clumps of perennial garlic each spring or fall and divide it up.  A single bundle will have many individual garlic cloves, and once they’re divided out they’ll grow into full-sized garlic bulbs for harvest the following July.

This clump of garlic was harvested in the spring, divided out into individual plants, and then grown out as usual.  Since it was spring-planted garlic, it took a bit longer to mature but was ready a few weeks after fall-planted garlic would have been.

Simply use a shovel to dig up the whole clump, making sure there’s plenty of dirt intact around the root ball.  Carefully separate the individual garlic plants, and plant them deep in fertile soil.

Since there’s already a green top growing from each garlic bulb, you’ll need to be careful not to damage them in planting.   This patch of curing garlic will also need scapes cut to mature properly.

Perennial garlic divided into individual plants in the spring. This will allow for a crop of curing garlic for winter use.

The bulblets harvested from the garlic scapes are also great for planting.  Those bulblets dry down just in time for fall, and then they can be fall planted just like regular seed garlic.

Either way, with spring-divided garlic plants or fall-planted bulblets, the harvest comes out just like any annual garlic planting.

In truth, the “cured” garlic for winter use is still being grown as an annual.  In a milder climate, a secondary annual garlic plot might not be necessary, but up here in Vermont we have roughly 6 months of winter.  It gets way too cold to dig garlic outdoors in February.

So why do I keep perennial garlic?  Lots of reasons:

  1. I know I always have garlic that can be propagated if need be.  If my annual patch has a crop failure, I have seed garlic here for the next year.   It’s also handy in case of a zombie apocalypse.
  2. Perennial garlic patches are part of our permaculture pest control strategy.  We plant a clove or two under trees and near fruit bushes, and then just ignore them.  The tree mulch keeps the garlic mulched, and the garlic keeps away pests and trunk borers.
  3. It’s just plain pretty.  Who needs fancy flowers when you can have a beautiful curl of garlic scapes in the perennial bed?

Plant a Perennial Garlic Patch

Garlic greens in early fall. Photo: Nancy J. Ondra

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October means garlic-planting time here in the Mid-Atlantic. Normally, growing garlic is a long-term prospect, as you won’t get to harvest the pungent bulbs until the following summer. But there’s a way you can enjoy season after season of fresh garlic flavor from just one planting: by growing it as a perennial instead of an annual crop.

There’s no big change to make from a growing perspective—just plant your hardneck garlic in October as you usually would, in a sunny, well-drained spot, with the individual cloves spaced about 3 inches apart and 2 inches deep. It’s common for fall-planted garlic to produce some leaves before winter, then stop growing during December into February. It will pick up again when the cold eases and continue to grow through early summer, when flowering stalks will appear. Normally, you’d clip off those emerging stalks to get the largest bulbs possible, then dig up the bulbs in July or August for a single main harvest.

The harvesting cycle for perennial garlic is much different. You can begin picking the flavorful leaves as soon as they start growing in spring, continue as long as they are tender (usually into June), and then start again once growth resumes in September or October. Use the greens as you would chives in salads or cooking, or combine them with (or use them in place of) basil to make a delicious pesto.

Enjoy the quirky curves of garlic scapes in the early summer garden, in the kitchen, or in flower arrangements. Photo: Nancy J. Ondra

Instead of clipping off and composting the emerging garlic scapes, allow them to develop. They’re still tender in their curly stage and taste great when chopped into stir-fry or other dishes. Leave some of the stalks to develop on the plants, and they’ll straighten up and produce small bulblets at the top in late summer. Use the bulblets as you would “regular” garlic—cook with them, scatter them around the existing plants to thicken the patch, or plant them in a new area to start another patch.

Hardneck garlic produces a few flowers but mostly bulblets atop the stems in July and August. Peel them for cooking, or save them for planting. Photos: Nancy J. Ondra

As the tops of your perennial garlic die down, you can dig up a few bulbs in August and September. They’re very small, in general, but you can usually find some that are big enough to peel and cook with. If it’s important to you to have a good supply of large cloves for cooking, plan on having a separate crop of garlic that you grow the usual way. Do give the perennial approach a try, though; it’s a wonderful way to enjoy great garlic flavor practically year-round.

Nancy J. Ondra is the author of over fifteen books, including Grasses, The Perennial Care Manual, and The Perennial Matchmaker.

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How-To

Profiles in Botany: Charles Edgar Dickinson, Jr.

Haters have been around for a long, long time. They existed well before the late great legend of hip-hop the Notorious B.I.G. helped popularize the term to the mainstream in…

cultivation, planting, care in the open field

There are 2 varieties of garlic: winter and spring (1). You can tell them apart by the bulbs.

Winter garlic. It has an even number of cloves in the head - from 4 to 10. They are large and arranged in a circle. And in the center there is always a stem - the rest of the stem. The problem with winter garlic is that it does not store well.

Spring garlic. His teeth are arranged in a spiral, and they are of different sizes - larger on the outside, closer to the center - smaller. And there are many more - up to 30 pieces. And there is no stem in the center. This variety of garlic is perfectly stored - it can easily lie for a whole year until the next harvest.

Winter garlic is planted before winter, spring - in the spring, respectively, their care has differences.

Cultivation of garlic

Garlic is a rather unpretentious crop; in many gardeners it grows almost without care and gives good yields. But still, he has one requirement - the soil must be pedigree. Therefore, before planting on the site, fertilizers must be applied (calculation per 1 sq. M):

Fertilizers should be mixed, spread evenly over the area and dug up by 10 cm. And he does not like urea and potassium chloride.

Place for garlic should be sunny - this is a light-loving crop.

Planting garlic

The timing of planting garlic depends on its variety.

Winter garlic. It is traditionally planted 2 - 3 weeks before the onset of hard frosts, in late September - early October (2), when the soil temperature drops below 15 °C.

Planting pattern is as follows:

Spring garlic. It is planted in the spring, no later than the end of April (3). He is not afraid of frosts, therefore, the earlier you plant, the more likely it is that the crop will have time to ripen - this is especially true in regions with a short summer. The optimum soil temperature is 5-6 °C.

Planting pattern:

The cloves are planted at a depth of 3 - 4 cm, and when they begin to take root, they themselves go deep into the soil by 6 - 8 cm (4).

Outdoor garlic care

Watering. It should be regular, but up to a certain point:

In rainy summers, garlic does not need watering.

Top dressing. As a rule, in fertile areas of this crop, it is enough that they were applied to the soil before planting. On poor soils, it is useful to additionally feed it with phosphorus and potassium - fertilizers must be applied between the rows 2 weeks after planting the cloves:

- Winter garlic is important to cover in the winter - mulch with humus, compost or peat with a layer of about 5 cm, - advises agronomist-breeder Svetlana Mikhailova. - This should be done in late autumn, at the end of November. The mulch will help keep the bulbs from freezing if the winter turns out to be snowless and the frosts are severe. In the spring, as soon as the snow melts, the mulch must be removed so that the cloves in the soil do not get wet.

“Caring for spring garlic also has its tricks,” continues Svetlana Mikhailova. - It happens that in the cold summer, the ripening of the bulbs slows down, and they may not have time to ripen before the autumn frosts. In this case, in mid-August, you can collect the leaves in a bunch and tie them in a knot - then they will stop growing, the plants will direct all their forces to the ripening of the bulb.

Garlic harvesting

Garlic harvesting time also depends on the variety.

Winter garlic. It is usually harvested at the end of July. There are three signs that it is already ripe:

Spring garlic. It is removed later - around the end of August. Most varieties of this group do not form arrows, so yellowing of the leaves and lodging of the tops can serve as a visual signal for harvesting.

Photo: pixabay.com

– It is better to dig up garlic with a pitchfork – this way there is less chance of damaging the bulb, recommends agronomist Svetlana Mikhailova. - You need to dig in dry weather. After harvesting, the garlic, together with the tops, is removed to dry - for about a week it should lie under a canopy.

After drying, cut off the roots and stems of the bulbs, leaving a stump of about 10 cm (if the garlic is to be stored in braids, the stems are not cut).

Garlic storage rules

There are many ways to store garlic, but practice shows that almost all of them are unreliable. The best way is to braid the plants in the same way as you do with onions.

But there are nuances here:

Large heads are stored longer, so the small ones should be eaten first.

Popular questions and answers

agronomist Svetlana Mikhailova answered our questions about growing garlic.

Should garlic cloves be peeled before planting?

No way! Covering scales - reliable protection of teeth from mechanical damage, diseases and pests. Peeled cloves will rot rather than germinate.

Should winter garlic be watered after planting?

No. It will be enough for him to take root in the autumn rains. Over watering can cause tooth decay.

Can winter garlic be planted in spring?

It makes no sense. For winter varieties, it is important that there are low temperatures after planting. And the spring is too warm. If planted in April, the bulbs will grow inferior and will not be stored. And besides, underdeveloped teeth cannot be used for planting - they form roots very slowly and freeze out in winter.

Is it possible to plant spring garlic before winter?

It is possible, but spring varieties, when planted in autumn, take root worse and often freeze, therefore, they will give a crop much less than winter ones.

Why does winter garlic turn yellow in spring?

There may be 4 reasons:

- cold spring - in such a situation, the leaves begin to grow, and the roots cannot yet extract nutrients from the soil;
- lack or excess of moisture in the soil;
- acidic soil;
- Fusarium disease.

Sources

  1. Fisenko A.N., Serpukhovitina K.A., Stolyarov A.I. Garden. Handbook // Rostov-on-Don, Rostov University Press, 1994 - 416 p.
  2. Pantielev Ya.Kh. ABC vegetable grower // M .: Kolos, 1992 - 383 p.
  3. Group of authors ed. Polyanskoy A.M. and Chulkova E.I. Tips for gardeners // Minsk, Harvest, 1970 - 208 p.
  4. Shuin K.A., Zakraevskaya N.K., Ippolitova N.Ya. Garden from spring to autumn // Minsk, Uradzhay, 1990 - 256 p.
  5. Yakubovskaya L.D., Yakubovsky V.N., Rozhkova L.N. ABC of a summer resident // Minsk, OOO "Orakul", OOO Lazurak, IPKA "Publicity", 1994 - 415 p.

The doctor named a way to restore the scent after COVID-19

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COVID-19 can deprive a person of smell and taste for a long time, but these senses can be returned. According to doctor Alexander Budik, certain exercises can help people suffering from such consequences of the disease. For example, you need to try to smell one sharp aroma for 20 seconds, and then another smell.

Neurologist, neurophysiologist Alexander Budik spoke about a way to return the sense of smell and taste after a person has had a coronavirus infection. His words are broadcast by radio Sputnik.

Smell and taste problems are very common with COVID-19. Scientists cannot yet say for sure why this happens, however, with a coronavirus in humans, the composition of saliva is disturbed.

“Therefore, the taste substances are destroyed faster, they do not have time to reach the taste buds,” the doctor explained.

The second theory says that the olfactory and taste receptors are damaged, and their recovery takes a certain time - from several days to months.

“Either sensitive cells that perceive olfactory substances are damaged, and the mucous membrane is damaged. Either nerves are damaged, the conductors along which information about the perceived olfactory sensation runs, ”added Budik.

He emphasized that he recommends training to restore the sense of smell - every day for 20 seconds to perceive intense, rich aromas. Among them, the doctor listed cloves, garlic, cinnamon and cardamom.

“The body begins to pay increased attention to the organ that is actively involved in the work, and all resources go to this place in order to quickly restore the work of this organ,” he explained.

Vitamin A nasal drops and omega-3 supplements throughout the week may be of additional help.

The restoration of the sense of smell will entail the return of taste sensations - they return in parallel. The better a person has a developed sense of smell, the more shades of taste he distinguishes.

On December 31, RIA Novosti, citing Japanese doctor Koichi Hirahata, reported that the consequences of the coronavirus could be worse than COVID-19 itself.

Almost 87% of recovered patients complain to doctors about depression, and 83% about "fog in the head". The consequences of coronavirus infection also include headache and body aches, difficulty breathing, insomnia and lack of appetite. Some coronavirus survivors have experienced hair loss.

However, mild COVID-19leads to serious consequences mainly (by 80%) among middle-aged people - from 40 to 50. Women suffer from them one and a half times more often.

In mid-December, the UK's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced five new symptoms of COVID-19. In addition to the main signs (fever, cough, loss of taste and smell), experts pay attention to shortness of breath, pain and tightness in the chest, confusion, inability to wake up and blue lips and face, writes the Daily Express.

Earlier, Natalya Pshenichnaya, Deputy Director for Clinical and Analytical Work of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, noted that the loss of smell and taste can help doctors determine what form the coronavirus will take.

According to her, such symptoms are mainly complained by patients with mild coronavirus. “Often, the attention of patients who do not have fever, shortness of breath, debilitating cough is focused on this,” she told Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

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