Garlic Planted and New Bulbils

    

   In late August, I splurged and bought some new garlic bulbils from Seeds of Diversity.  It's always a surprise to see which varieties they send.  The bulbils arrived September 16th.  Of the 5 varieties sent, all but one (Persian Star) were new to me.  The varieties from Seeds of Diversity were: 

Russian Giant  – Hardneck – Marbled Purple Stripe – Very hot when eaten raw.  Best grown in cool/northern climates.  Large bulbs, often 3 inches across.  4-6 cloves per bulbs.  Long storing (~8 months).  Skin is brownish-purple.

Pyong Vang Korean – Asiatic Hardneck – Glazed Purple Stripe.  Rare, hot, early to harvest.  Easy to peel, moderate storage (~6 months).  It is best to remove scapes when they emerge. This variety should be harvested when 1-2 leaves have turned brown (unlike most varieties).

Red Rezan – Hardneck – Glazed Purple Stripe – Small plants and large bulbs.  Medium heat.  Pretty cloves; skins have almost an iridescent/gold tinge.  This is a heritage variety.

Persian Star – Hardneck – Purple Stripe – Cold-hardy variety and a Canadian heritage variety.  Late harvest.  5-6 months storage.  Spicey but not too hot.

Mother of Pearl – SOFTNECK – Silverskin – long storage, dense heads, no scape develops, rare variety.  Of the Silverskins, this is the earliest variety to mature.

   The softneck variety was a surprise.  They are typically grown in southern climates and are not usually recommended for northern/cool gardens.  I will give it a try, anyway, and will be thrilled if it grows through to maturity.  

   The new bulbils, as well as Red Russian and Northern Quebec bulbils, were planted in pots on September 23rd.  There are 13 pots of bulbils on the go this Fall!  

Update: September 30 - there are now 17 pots of bulbils on the go.  On the 26th, I planted a third pot of Persian Star bulbils in the East garden.  Today, I discovered an envelope of Georgian Fire bulbils from a 2020 seed trade and an envelope of Red Russian bulbils from 2020 in my seed stash.  Most were still firm.  A few looked like they started to sprout, but I planted them, anyway.  The pots are planted in the corner of the North garden nearest the house.

Georgian Fire (bulbils) – Hardneck – Porcelain – Very cold-hardy, balanced strong flavour (one of the hottest porcelains, very hot when eaten raw), 4-6 large cloves per bulb, large bulbs, long storage (6-8 months). 

Update: October 2 - Okay.  Now there are 19 pots of bulbils.  I might be going overboard!  I found some leftover Red Russian and Northern Quebec bulbils that were harvested this past August, and planted them in pots in the North garden.

 

  The garlic bulbs R. harvested in August this year were very small due to the extreme heat, dry weather, and clay-heavy soil of the south garden.  The smallest was Brown Tempest; I was tempted to plant those cloves in pots like I did the bulbils, they are so small.  Some of the bulbs harvested were varieties originally started from bulbils from Seeds of Diversity in 2016. 

   The garlic patch was planted today (September 25th) in the East garden.  It was sunny, mild, and breezy, perfect weather for working outside.  Planted again this year (all hardnecks) were:

Red Russian - Marbled Purple Stripe - 5.5 rows

Northern Quebec - Porcelain - 2 rows

Central Siberian (started from bulbils in 2016) - Marbled Purple Stripe - 2 rows

Baba Franchuk’s (started from bulbils in 2016) - Rocambole - 1 row

Kiev (started from bulbils in 2016) - Rocambole - 1 row

Brown Tempest  (started from bulbils in 2016) - Glazed Purple Stripe - 1 row

   I forgot to count the number of cloves planted, but each row has 12-15 cloves, so there are about 150-187 in total.

The patch, finally planted...

 

 

...and covered with the first layer of mulch.

Assessing the Tomatoes

    It was a very hot, dry summer and there was a hail storm in August that damaged the tomatoes.  Many of the tomatoes were smaller than usual and/or were so cat-faced that they weren’t worth the trouble to process and they couldn’t be used as slicers.  This was the least successful tomato year we've had since I began gardening, but it was nice to discover some new favourites: Azoychka and EM-Champion.

Click on the pictures below to enlarge them.

Azoychka - True to the variety's description, Azoychka was productive and quite early.  Several tomatoes began ripening on the plants.  They have a really nice, sweet flavour.  It’s a shame so many were thin, cat-faced, and hail-damaged.  I would love to try growing these in a normal summer.  

 

EM-Champion - These were the winners of the tomatoes this summer.  They were among the few tomato plants that did well, having been relatively sheltered against the house (so no hail damage).  They were good sized, well-shaped hearts on a determinate plant.  They were also among the earliest to ripen this year - several ripened on the plant.  It took me two years to find someone who had a few of these seeds to share/trade, and it was worth the wait.  I look forward to growing these again.  

   Without thinking, I cut up the best tomatoes of this variety (earliest, largest, best shape) for seed saving before taking pictures!  The tomatoes pictured below are the "second best" examples from the harvest.

 

 

Ropreco Paste  - Though this is supposed to be an early variety, most of the tomatoes were green at the time of harvest.  VERY productive plants.  I'll save seeds from the tomatoes pictured below.

 

 

 

Maglia Rosa - These tomatoes were on the small side (about half the size they are supposed to be) but the plants were productive.  This variety grows well in large pots, which is a bonus.  I think I liked Candy Sweet Icicle (grown last year) better, but would be willing to give Maglia Rosa another try.

 

 

 

Bellestar - Hail-damaged, smaller than usual, and a harder texture than usual, but I managed to harvest some to use for sauce.

Black Sea Man -  Smaller than usual and mostly green when harvested (unlike most years, when they begin ripening on the plant).  Most of these only suffered minor hail damage.

Mrs Schlaubaugh’s Famous Strawberry - The two plants R. had labeled as MSFS produced very small heart-shaped tomatoes that looked nothing like the large, curved/pointy tomatoes in the pictures I’ve seen.  I don’t know if they were mislabeled, or if perhaps I got wrong seeds in a trade.  I might try growing these again next year.

Valencia - These plants were fairly protected against the house, so no hail damage. Some brown mottling on the bottoms of a few of them.  Globe-shaped tomatoes of varying sizes.  This seems like a late-maturing variety; none of them have begun to ripen yet in boxes (as of September 19th).

Neves Azorean Red, Gary O'Sena, and Kosovo - Unfortunately, due to hail damage and severe cat-facing, most of these were a write-off.  

Early Annie - I didn't see any of these in the garden when I got back to BC, so I assume the ones I started in March didn't make it past transplant stage.