Garlic Conundrum, need advice

[mnjrutherford]

VARIETY CLOVES Hard/Soft SUB-TYPE
Carpathian 22 H R
Georgian Fire 12 H P
Romainian Red 13 H P
Rose Wood 13 H P
Russian Red 22 H R
Hard Mix 200 H
Chinese Pink 13 S AS
French 25 S R
Italian Late 31 S
Nootka Rose 47 S S
Oregon Blue 72 S AS
Soft Mix 200 S
Aja Rodena 28
Bavarian Purple 25
Bhsto de Chinchon 11
Blend 92
Faded Name 14
Lost Name 51
Pink Blush 23
Rojo de Castro 26 C
Rojo de Cuenca 28 C
St. Helen's Red 43 S
Virgin's Blush 12
(Sorry, I can't turn this into a table for love nor money. Hope you can understand what it's saying.)

This is what is going into the ground this coming weekend (assuming all goes according to plan). The bulbs are separated, ID tags are made (2 per variety instead of just one) and a rough layout of what will go where is in my head. The numbers represent the cloves to be planted and shows a total of 1,023. There will be about 50 or 60 more joining in the "blend" category.

Virgin's Blush is NOT a "real variety". In using my garlic I came across about half a dozen really nice sized bulbs of really nice, tasty garlic that had a lovely deep pink color at the root and "blushed" up the clove. Not knowing what it was, I'm calling it "Virgin's Blush" until I learn better.

Faded Name and Lost Name are just that. Pugs sent me a TON of beautiful garlic last year and I planted it all. The named varieties here represent those garlics as well as the 4 garlics I received from GRIN. One variety lost the name tag. The tag on another variety was so faded, I couldn't make it out. So, again, until I can get a better name, they are "Lost" and "Faded"

I also planted a goodly bit of garlic I bought from Sam's and Costco. Those are listed in the Soft and Hard mixes. The "Blend" mix is from a bowl where I've been tossing the small cloves that I figure I'm no longer desperate enough to have to use.

I've started a database for all of these to track varietals, what's planted and when, wether it's a hard or soft neck, what is the sub type (porcelain, rocambole, purple stripes, artichoke, silverskin, creole, or Asian), and notes.

I'm estimating that I use at LEAST a bulb of garlic a day so I'm planning on having about 400 bulbs for consumption. I'm figuring about 200 bulbs for seed, and the rest can be traded with folks here or sold at the farmer's market.

If you have any data on these garlics, PLEASE pass it along! As you can see, I don't know a darn thing about most of them. If you are going to want any for seed, let me know so that I can put your request on the guide. I can let you know how things are going through the year.

Any advice, thoughts regarding possible additions to the collection, etc., will be welcome!

[mnjrutherford]

Whole family! YIKES! LOL I have a dear friend to whom I just demoed making garlic dressing. I used about 10 cloves but didn't get quite enough oil into the mix. I'm breathing garlic fire as I type this! There are days with no garlic, but they are rare.

[mnjrutherford]

Garlic, as well as shallots and most of the onions, are in the ground. We got our help and we planted a little more than a thousand cloves of both hard and soft neck. Now we need to get it mulched. I still have 2 and a half rows empty. I'm planning to get another 4 lbs of onion seed to put in. I'm VERY excited about the garlic!

OH! Before I forget, we tilled in 2 bags of blood meal before planting. We have a third bag that we intend to use as a side dressing unless someone would say we shouldn't.

We also got our peanuts in. I'll be saving seed ONLY from pods with 3 nuts.