Garlic plants thriving in cooler weather. Will the bulbs benefit?

There are two types of garlic - hardneck and softneck. We are growing mostly varieties of hardneck garlics.

There are 3-6 different varieties of hardneck, depending on the school of thought. We subscribe to the 6-type classification.

• Rocambole (serpeant) garlic (parchment-like skins, doesn't store well)
• Purple Stripe (mild to pungent)
• Porcelean (thick-skin, full-flavor, stores well)
• Marbled Purple Stripe
• Glazed Purple Stripe
• Asiatic/Turban (sometimes categorized as soft-neck, they are weak bolting hardnecks)

The plants appear to be thriving in the cooler, rainy weather we've been experiencing. The stalk size is large and deep green. We stopped fertilizing last month because the leave size is substantial and want the plant to focus on bulb growth.

In the Rocambole class we have Ontario Purple growing. It's an early maturing, hot flavored variety.

We also have Northern Whites (aka German Stiffnecks, German White) in the Porcelean class. This one stores well (10 months) and has a strong flavor.

Our Marbled Purple Stripe is Belarus and is great for baking, having smooth, mellow flavor. It stores well for 6 months. Love to cook this with olive oil and cherry tomatoes and then smear on toasted tuscan-style hearth bread.

Thai Purple is an Asiatic/Turban variety with medium to strong heat. It's a mainstay of cooking.

How can you tell the difference? Rocambole, Purple Stripe and Porcelean plants have scapes that grow upward and then loop 1-2 times with tip pointing horizontally. The Asiatic/Turban scapes grow upward and then drop 135 degrees.

This (pictured right) is the Belarus plants, just beginning to throw up scapes. It's an indicator of how far along the bulb development is.

To encourage bulb growth, cut scapes after they develop, but select enough plants to serve as seed and leave the scapes in place. Select strong sturdy plants for seed stock.

We also have Korean Red, which may be Rocambole or Asiatic - we are watching the scapes this year to make a determination. Apparently there are two varieties of Korean Red out there, and we don't know which one we have.

Finally, we have only one soft-neck variety - Oregon Blue. We had only a single bulb reach maturity last year and planted all of it this year. We'll turn these bulbs around as seed again next year. It's a popular variety that is more difficult to come by, so we're hoping to establish a good seed stock. Soft-necks are excellent for long-term storage if properly cured, but need hot summers and we don't get hot summers on regular basis. More on that when we pull.