The Bulb is Just the Beginning

The potential behind garlic is huge and break down all the ways we sell and market garlic from our farm from green garlic, to garlic scapes, and elephant garlic along with the many other opportunities there are for adding value to garlic with little to absolutely no processing.
This video was made possible in part through a grant from Southern SARE, and answers the following: How to grow great cover crops, how to establish cover crops, different cover crops, mistakes in cover cropping and more.
The Living Soil Handbook:
www.notillgrowers.com/livings...
OUTSIDE OF United States: just get the book from local retailer because shipping is outrageous and you can instead, support our work through one of these methods 👇
Support our work at notillgrowers.com/support
or
Patreon.com/notillgrowers
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2020-38640-31521 through the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under project number LS21-348. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider.” The goal with this grant is to provide context and technical detail for the four principles of soil health.

[@markjantunen2888]

Had success growing Hardneck garlic in an unheated tunnel. Significantly earlier at each growing stage. Cape Breton, zone 5b. -Bull and Tree Farm

[@kayerhoads3444]

Farmer Jesse!!! Always so awesome!!! Thank you for your content which I've used in my own market garden. Your book is a valuable addition to helping me not make as many mistakes here in Idaho!

[@notillgrowers]

Awe that's awesome to hear!

[@iancolburn4054]

We love garlic in the tunnels. Massive green garlic comes out in march/april and it can be let to mature for big heads to save for field garlic the following year. Also disease/pest free in our area so perfect rotation from the intensive greens that typically fill the hoophouses over the winter

[@jesseparker6314]

Jesse, I’m so grateful for you. Thank you for all the information you share. Jackson, thank you for your investment in growers. You fellas rock

[@jeil5676]

In the thumbnail for this video it looks like you're holding a joint. "Incredible Crop".

[@harlowecustommicrogreens]

Truly enjoy these kinds of crop specific videos.

[@zekew2418]

Hey Jess, I have found that the easiest way to grow green garlic is to leave the end of a bed unharvested and "unscaped" in the summer harvest. You lose the use of the growing area un-till the next spring but the pollinators love the flowers. You will get 1 green garlic stem for each clove in the garlic head you left in the ground, the numbers seems mostly dependent on the variety you grow. They will look a lot more like green onions in size than leeks. I am in zone 5B south central WI outside Madison and do this outside with no protection. I have also grown German Red Variety in my HT over winter with a summer/fall planting, no coverings over winter, they were approximately 6 weeks ahead of outside garlic and 25 % larger. I use the same "deep' compost system for both HT and outside. I have also found that after I harvest garlic in early July, here in WI, I plant into the bed with potatoes. Not sure if it is the garlic roots in the ground, which I slice off and leave as pulling garlic or the late season planting time but I never have a problems with potatoes beetles

[@notillgrowers]

Interesting observation about the potato beetles--garlic has been known to have a repellent effect on certain diseases and pests, so maybe that makes sense. Very cool.

[@garrettscott4094]

I subscribed to this video and now I will never miss an update to this video.

[@missmartpants2269]

You can braid the hard neck, by cutting the hard neck out of it lower close to the bulb but leave the leaves and braid them together.

[@je-fq7ve]

hardneck garlic non-braids: arrange the bulbs on a table the way you want it to look. hold all the stems together in one hand and start wrapping it in jute or colored ribbon from the bottom up add in dry flowers as needed. Clip the top of the non-braid to even it out except for a three long stem that get bent over and wrapped with ribbon to make a hook to hang it

[@rosea830]

That tunnel would come in handy for softneck garlic. I've had winters get so cold that it killed them and I'm a little south of you.

[@eskimo1472]

I powder garlic for our own use and when there's a bunch of extra I add it to sea salt and sell it as a finishing salt at over $1 an ounce. It sells really great and people love it!

[@user-ob1zy5vc4q]

One overlooked cover crop is peanuts. I know they like warm weather and light soil so you have to pick your soil. The vines are used as hay for livestock and they produce their own nitrogen. They are great to plant ahead of corn because they provide nitrogen for the corn and the nuts are also delicious. In areas where they will grow they are really good as a food and a cover crop that really provides both food for humans and nutrients for the plants.

[@jameslang9190]

I have been wanting to grow garlic , and will give it a go this fall. Thanks for all the info you put out !

[@claytonmcglothlin4815]

Great video. Thank you for all the useful information.

[@mariabentele7909]

Thanks for sharing for your amazing knowledge.

[@missmartpants2269]

I love all of the info you psck into a video. I am a garlic lover/grower too. I found a wild patch in my yard a few yeara ago and have been spreading the seeds. I may try to use some as green garlic since I dont think they bulb that well. They are beautiful when all else is still small. God bless!

[@danielbarkdull8344]

Thanks for the help an knowledge.

[@mariamartins9503]

Great info….always

[@What..a..shambles]

Good video, you're awesome 😁

[@natefox1496]

Thank you

[@koltoncrane3099]

Thats cool they braid garlic. When I toured New Mexico like Santa Fe and Albuquerque I believe they had lots of vendors with braided peppers. It was attractive. Even if you don’t them it’s cool decor. You might could braid garlic and red peppers for a super unique item.

[@gmaster716]

We share a similar approach to gardening , your videos are interesting and up beat

[@gangofgreenhorns2672]

Grew so much green garlic indoors over the winter just to eat.

[@martingriffith7824]

Jesse, could you please send me the times of the year you pick your spring and fresh garlic? My wife and I planted some garlic and want to try the different stages. Thank you very much for your help and assistance. Awesome Videos

[@kevindwyer5163]

Love your videos! Do you have a recipe for the lacto fermented scapes?

[@chrisshepherd8708]

I want to follow you on this with the garlic with season extension. Because where I'm at, in the tip of the middle finger of Michigan, we have a very short season, but it's very cold so that's not a problem as far as of 40 days the garlic needs. I planted 80# of garlic last year already, and if it gets me into the farmers market with garlic earlier then say July that would be awesome.

[@curiouscat3384]

Interesting. I'm just a backyard gardener and shop weekly at a farmers market. I rarely see anyone selling garlic of any age !!!

[@rudyromero5134]

if I were selling garlic I'd infiltrate all the local Asian markets and try and get a contract with them. I'd also try and suit every single individual restaurant or local market and get them on a contract with our supply. I'm new to gardening but this I feel could be a solid strategy. Running a booth at a hot farmers market is solid, we should think about our local markets as well. Personally I haven't sold a dollar yet but just my opinion.

[@jeffkolp3526]

Yea I have successfully grown garlic in a tunnel in zone 5b and now trying it in zone 6a. We will see how harvest is in 6a this year

[@notillgrowers]

When you grew it in the tunnel in 5b did you compare it to field grown by chance? In terms of maturity.

[@jeffkolp3526]

@@notillgrowers maturing was earlier however may have sacrificed some bulb size. My neighbor with no tunnel, similar soil had larger bulbs with no tunnel. Let me know your trial performs

[@MCGDEC]

In 6b planting 2000 hardneck bulbs next week with 4 ft permeable plastic and 2 lines of drip tape. Hope this system works.

[@TheVigilantStewards]

One thing I've memorized from your educational material : I'm awesome because I'm subscribed :D :D :D i'll be sad to lose you as the host

[@stonedapefarmer]

Don't have to worry about it here, but I've seen people in warmer climates fridging their garlic to get the requisite cold before planting it. Possibly worth experimenting with for folks.

[@billastell3753]

Jesse... It drive me nuts when people keep parroting that "elephant garlic is closer related to leeks than garlic". It's not. Someone somewhere made that false statement and it's caught on by folks who haven't looked into the facts. Elephant garlic is big mild garlic. Outside that, the video contained good information. Thumbs up again.

[@notillgrowers]

Hi Bill. Thanks. So elephant garlic is Allium ampeloprasum like leeks. Garlic is Allium sativum. They are all in the same family (Amaryllidaceae), just leeks and elephant garlic share a species (ampeloprasum). That’s the relation

[@billastell3753]

@@notillgrowers I understand the Latin nomenclature but it has been wrongly named. There are no shortage of wrongly named species. I'll spare you the extensive list. Each day science is renaming previously wrongly named species. The only definitive proof is genetic sequencing and that hasn't been done on elephant garlic yet. If you want to, just for fun, tell me the characteristics that would place EG in the leek(ish) line up I would be happy to share the characteristics the put EG in the garlic family. I've been trying to correct this misinformation all aver the internet and hope some day (at no gain for myself) to educate people to the facts.

[@notillgrowers]

Ah okay well I won’t argue with you there. The history of taxonomic classifications is surprisingly messy. Entirely possible they got it wrong

[@southernvtgrown]

✌🏼✌🏼💚💚 from Vermont

[@jchurch556]

Hello Jesse you should look at growing a Turban variety of garlic. The bulbs are usually a good size and beautiful too look at with the added bonus of harvesting 2 to 4 weeks earlier than your main crop of music. Just a thought thanks for all your hard work and information you share.

[@notillgrowers]

I see they are "weakly bolting" which is interesting. I'll check em out. Thanks!

[@jchurch556]

Your 6b growing zone should trigger the scape production but don't look for the strong curls that you see on many strong bolting varieties. With turbans it will be a lazy upside down U maybe the occasional lose curl.

[@trentkotch2511]

Farmer Jesse, could you give us a bit more detail on the garlic economics? 1. You mention a bed nets roughly $1200 at $3 a head would be 400 heads - is that only bulb sales or are you including scapes? 2. You seem to typically have 100' beds. Is that also your 48" wide or do you do a different width for garlic? The old farm seemed to be more of a field than regular bed? Curious here about spacing of 400 bulbs in a bed. (4 rows of 100 bulbs seems like a very wide spacing so is there a interplant?) 3. Do you purchase all new seed garlic or are you saving and replanting? How do you feel that impacts the economics since you need to reduce your yield inventory by a certain amount? Thank you!

[@wheelerryanr]

From a soil quality standpoint: how do you find soil quality to be after growing a bed of solely garlic? How does the crop that follows it grow? It seems that garlic doesn’t have a very extensive root system, and I wonder how that effects soil quality when grown by itself for most of a year. Are you experimenting with interplanting garlic with any other crops?

[@TheSamba37]

I'm also curious about interplanting garlic and it's benefits. I've only ever grown a few here and there randomly throughout my garden and it does quite well for me. I'm curious how that could be translated to market growing.

[@notillgrowers]

So we've done some interplanting trials with garlic and it's not been great. Garlic is a sensitive competitor and the competition can stunt bulb size quite dramatically. I'm not giving up on trying different things, but it's one crop that really does best in my trials so far without any companionship. The soil seems great below it, especially with the added mulch. If you're going to interplant it, give it more space and use something that is very low lying. Perhaps spring radishes or lettuce could work if given enough space for sunlight.

[@sensibel5307]

In austria we grow them traditional in the vineyard between the vines.

[@rainspringing]

@@notillgrowers In South Carolina, 7b/8a, we grow garlic really well from November or December on: between standard brassicas (leave a TON of space between for things like cabbage), chards, choy, lettuces, spinach, beets, carrots, alpine strawberries. Also herbs such as parsley, cilantro, chervil, lovage, etc. We have a few softneck varieties that pretty reliably make scapes! We can also raise hardnecks. Both get time in a cardboard box, inside a fridge, for a few months before plantings. Just about everything gets cozy on both sides each winter with either garlic or onions. Even English peas. They are less happy once the peas get going up, but they still produce enough for home use. Our radishes are, mostly those first months, between our sweet corn each year, but they have gone between onions or garlic. Some of those crops need covers during our freezes. The long garlic is just is the ceiling mark for the height the cover/cover layers needs to be above. (Except next to tall stuff like peas.) The ones that get covered seem to do exactly the same as the uncovered ones, in the slightly more exciting space and height flux beds, like interspaced with kale.

[@stevehatcher7700]

​@sensibel5307 what kind of spacing do you plant the garlic? And what is the vine spacing? Here in Nova Scotia, Canada, wild garlic grows between the vines in some vineyards. The wild garlic is a tiny plant with a single bulb, more like a tiny onion but with nice garlic flavor. Too small and, as a native wild species, too sparse and infrequent to bother harvesting, but a nice little treat when you stumble upon some in the Spring.

[@simonallins6010]

You gave me an idea! Thanks. The voles eat all my garlic. I plant them in a layer of compost with another layer of woodchips on top. Together almost a foot of mulch. So that big white part is probably what they like so much.The little bastards. I will try soil only next year…

[@notillgrowers]

Oh no! Yeah, perhaps it's the blanch.

[@hasenafarms6448]

Thanks Jesse. Garlic is definitely on our radar in the future. Not sure if we can pull it off in a 9A but we’re going to try. Quick non-garlic question. You have several what appears to be bird houses on poles close to your beds. I noticed Steadfast has them as well when we visited their farm. Can you elaborate on their purpose? Do they really work? Thanks again for the content. Will be ordering the book in the near future.

[@charlescourtney4412]

Chill the bulbs for two months in the refrigerator before planting in December. Mulch heavily to keep the soil cool after the plants have emerged and are large enough to not be smothered by the mulch. That works in Florida for softneck garlic.

[@hasenafarms6448]

@@charlescourtney4412 Thank you! Will give that a try!

[@gmaster716]

Jesse Are you brewing any compost tea ? How's your soil out there ? Our you amending with Minerals? I'm having real good success with a combination of bacterial and fungal dominated teas foliar sprayed usually every 3 weeks . Just like to here other styles out there bro Keep crushing

[@notillgrowers]

Less teas and more extracts and slurries these days. Still dabbling with JADAM stuff and some KNF, but trying to keep it practical, so mostly inoculating at planting and not foliar spraying unless I have to. But soil is coming along nicely! Loaded with worms

[@shahagrofarm786]

How much garlic yield will be effected if we don't remove scapes?

[@dimajs4]

Is there any way to get the book in europe? Is there a digital version to get?Thanks for all the info you provide.I am very interested in growing garlic and you gave me a bunch more reasons to do it next fall

[@notillgrowers]

Yes it should be available wherever book are sold but honestly I would not buy it directly from us because the shipping is outrageous!

[@dimajs4]

@@notillgrowers The book is found in a greek book store. Awesome.Thanks!!!

[@kylesnyder3757]

What variety of garlic do you plant for green garlic?

[@notillgrowers]

We plant music and German green for hard necks. Nothing fancy

[@leeannandrews932]

I'm in zone 7. I ordered elephant ga

[@leeannandrews932]

Garlic last year & just received it when should I plant it. I wanted it for fall & winter crop. But no that didn't happen what should I do

[@notillgrowers]

If you plant garlic in the spring you won't get bulb garlic. Plant it in the fall (we usually plant in mid October to early November). We've planted in 6b as early as October 1st. If you receive your garlic now and it's in good condition, you may be able to store it until fall plating.

[@cliveburgess4128]

What about cutting them and letting grow back?

[@notillgrowers]

I suppose if you could cut them right about the roots that could work. Not sure what the quality would be but in theory if you leave the root in it will grow back so 🤷‍♂️

[@tonycawdron581]

Hi Jesse What time of year is this?

[@Samb1600]

wouldn't green garlic beds in the tunnel over winter work really well?

[@notillgrowers]

Oh yes 100% they do

[@Samb1600]

@@notillgrowers so then winter tunnel green garlic harvest could start mid-late march? and you wouldn't have to keep the tunnel open during the winter since you are not trying for the bulb? thanks!

[@notillgrowers]

Absolutely. If you have a really big march market for them, which can be a little tricky as farmers markets are slow to pick up but restaurants can be a great outlet.

[@thedailymarketfarm-johntay602]

I sell green garlic for $12 a lb to restaurants

[@browntownorganics2172]

Great video as usual. My first year growing garlic (music) The end of the leaves are turning brown. Is that normal for the stage it’s in right now?

[@notillgrowers]

You're in Virginia right? Yes more than likely normal. If it's just the tips, that's fine. If it's a large portion of the plant and it hasn't put on a scape yet, it could be a sign of disease, but my guess not seeing it is that you're fine. If the plant starts to brown really fast, that could be a sign of disease and you'd want to take it to the extension office for testing.

[@browntownorganics2172]

@@notillgrowers yeah Virginia. Thanks

[@Vicariously_gifted]

Anyone grow garlic with landscaping fabric?

[@michaelsallee7534]

a cold worm tunnel used on beds rather than a cold tunnel

[@Bobsmith-ot6si]

🙏👍😊❤️

[@seano1642]

Dry it and sell Garlic Powder!💪🏻

[@ginabean9434]

Mulch: yes and no. Garlic conservation depends on humidity and mulch keep lots of humidity to the feet so I'm not so sure.

[@notillgrowers]

Thanks for the comment. Assuming that your talking about root diseases (?), if your soil doesn't drain well it won't grow great garlic either way--mulched or not. Drainage is critical. That said, what works here in KY may not work everywhere--always do some small trials!

[@ginabean9434]

​@@notillgrowers Absolutely, context is everything. Just to avoid primature rot, I found that dry conditions are preferable and sparsing the mulch can help to some extend. I'm in wet conditions: not ideal, but still manageable. Thanks for your videos 👍

[@dandan8333]

Thanks, you just confirm what to plant into a questionable tunnel. If rewarded 1300 per bed X 4... then, in that location it would PAY to plant it! From garlic, turmeric, ginger, and onions would bring in a nice basic funding for the farm, with plenty of space for expansion. May have to learn to sell on the net like co farmers do abroad with excellent results; in Guangxi. Truthfully, if/when this land could be farm cropped like your farm appears... I'd feel extremely satisfied to take a photo. At that time, it would be easy to return home to my lifestyle and find a farm manager in NC. Living downtown of 8 million citizens with dirty fingers from any of our family clan farmsteads (75+) nearby. Great reasons to keep on , keeping on like our uncle/auntie @ 100 young. Have a great day!

[@indica_dogo868]

The damn Chinese have the cheap garlic game locked up.

[@zekew2418]

AS long as you like toxic metals in your cheap garlic.

[@markjantunen2888]

Had success growing Hardneck garlic in an unheated tunnel. Significantly earlier at each growing stage. Cape Breton, zone 5b. -Bull and Tree Farm