Tamarack Garlic Farm grows and sells gourmet garlic seed and eating garlic. Buy Garlic on our site and have it shipped to you. Tamarack Garlic Farm is a great place to purchase garlic seed stock and garlic for eating. Our garlic is grown in the USA.

1. Growing Garlic
Jason Hovell / Dan Lilla
Tamarack Garlic Farm
www.TamarackGarlicFarm.com
Trempealeau, WI

2. Goals of Presentation:
 Introduction
 Background of Tamarack Garlic Farm
 Garlic Classification Review
 Why We grow Garlic
 How We Grow Garlic
 Garlic Disease Prevention
 About our Garlic Varieties

3. About Us…
 Jason Hovell
 Agricultural Education/FFAAdvisor- 11 Years
 Teach College Level Plant & Soil Science classes-
Western Technical College.
 UW-River Falls, Agricultural Education
 Hobbies/Interests:
 200 Grape Plant Vineyard & Orchard, Greenhouse,
Aquaculture, Restore J.I. Case Garden Tractors,
Trempealeau County Fair Livestock Superintendent,
Centerville Curling Club

4. About Us…
 Dan Lilla
 Technical Education Instructor- 10 Years
 Metal Fabrications, Construction, Woods
 UW-Platteville, Technical Education
 Hobbies/Interests:
 Helps with Family Dairy Farm, Allis Chalmers Tractors,
Icemaker at Centerville Curling Club

5. About the “Farm”…
(Name, Size Scope…)

6. Size & Scope:
 This past year we raised 11 varieties of garlic on 0.8 acre.
 ~ 24,000 garlic plants (425 lbs. seed)
 Raised beds ( 2 rows with ~5.75” spacing)
 Plant Oct./Harvest in July (99% + germination rate)

7. Garlic Classification:
All true garlics fall under the species Allium Sativum
Two subspecies:
Hardneck (Ophioscorodon)
Softneck- (Sativum)
Hard-necked garlics were the original garlics and the
soft-necked ones were developed or cultivated over the
centuries by growers from the original hard-necks
through a process of selection.
-Bob Anderson, Gourmet Garlic Gardens

8. Garlic Classification:
 Latest research* (2003) shows that all garlics come from ten
fairly distinct varietal groups of garlic have evolved that can
be traced back to the Caucasus Mountains between the Black
Sea and Caspian Sea:
 5 very different hardneck varieties-
 Porcelain, Purple Stripe, Marbled Purple Stripe,
Glazed Purple Stripe, & Rocambole
 3 varieties of weakly bolting hardnecks that often produce
softnecks-
 Creole (Spain/France), Asiatic and Turban (both from Far East)
 Plus 2 distinct softneck varietal groups;
 Artichoke and Silverskin (both from Italy, and some parts of Europe)
* Dr. Gail Volk, USDA & Dr. Joachim Keller, the Institute of Plant Biology, Germany

9. How Many?
600 known cultivated sub-varieties of garlic in
the world.
 Most of them selections of only a handful of basic
types that have been grown widely and developed their
own characteristics over the centuries as local growing
conditions changed.

10. Where’s your Garlic From?
 Their individual characteristics have been altered over time by
careful (or accidental) selection and changing growing
conditions such as:
 soil fertility
 rainfall
 temperature
 altitude
 length and severity of winter, etc.
 At Tamarack Garlic Farm:
 1 Softneck Variety-
 NY White
 10 Hardneck Varieties-
 German Red, Chesnok Red, Music, Asian Tempest, Bogatyr,
Siberian, Persian Star, Georgian Fire, Metechi & Great Northern
White

11. So…Why Garlic?

12. Step 1: Prepare to Prepare Soil-
 Soil Testing
“Don’t guess. Do a soil test.”
Dairyland Labs, Midwest Bio-Ag
May 17, 2014

13. Element Tips:
 Iron-
 Having plentiful iron available, will produce vivid colored
bulbs. Good sales tool as eye appeal helps sell the garlic.
Everybody wants large colorful garlic!
 Zinc-
 A soil that is deficient in Zinc INCREASES the Iron uptake of
many crops, including garlic... sometimes to the point of
toxicity.
 Conversely, high Zn availability reduces Fe uptake (reducing
bulb color).
 Other Notable:
 High levels of Phosphorus and Molybdenum also reduce iron
intake (thus decreasing bulb color).

14. Step 2: Prepare Soil
 We chose a cover crop of red clover/oats
 Buckwheat another popular choice…
 4 Year Crop Rotation-

15. Cover crop tilled in-

16. Bed Shaper
 Used same toolbar for cultivating and harvesting.

17. 2014-15: 16 Raised Beds, ~ 330’ long, 46” wide bed top, 7” high beds

18. Waterwheel Planter Assembly

20.  Took 2- 7 Hour Days to plant 24,000 plants.
 Planted first weekend in October (w/ Full Moon Cycle )

21. Root
Development-
Oct. 15
Oct. 25

22. Then we waited…
 Field sat idle from Mid-October –Mid-March, but we kept
busy…

23. And Spring Came…
4/1/15 4/17/20154/1/15
3/10/15

24. Removed mulch
4/25/15 4/27/15

25. Cultivate, Hand Weed, Repeat-
5/6/15 5/25/15
5/27/15 6/7/15

26. Pick Scapes Mid-June
 Flowering Structure of garlic plant.
 1. Removing puts more energy into bulb formation.
 2. Taste Great!
 When to pick scapes?

27. Market for Scapes?

28. Harvest
 This year we harvested
July 3-4, 8-10th.
 When to harvest…

30. Drying Shed-

31. Diseases
 Most garlic diseases are either soil- or seed-borne
and usually can be controlled with proper rotation
and planting disease-free seed.

32. What to watch for…
 Garlic Bloat Nematode
 Invasion of the stem tissue occurs first,
causing stunting and pale leaves,
followed by rotting of lower stem and
bulb base.
 Controlled by proper crop rotation with
non-susceptible crops for four years,
removal of infected plants, and planting
disease-free seed.
Appear stunted, turn yellow, dry
prematurely and are easily pulled from
soil.

33. What to watch for…
 Botrytis
 Fungus attacks leaves following periods
of warm, wet weather and bulbs in
storage.
 Main symptoms include water-soaked
stems, and in severe infections, the bulbs
may rot.
 Control by promoting air movement
through field so foliage does not remain
wet. Rapid drying during harvest,
followed by good aeration during storage,
also minimizes problem.
 Use planting stock free of the disease.
Botrytis bulb rot of garlic.

34. What to watch for…
 White Rot
 Most active when temperature is cool, in
northern climates it usually attacks in
spring.
 Symptoms include premature yellowing
and dying of older leaves, stunting, and
leaf tipburn, followed by destruction of
root system, shoot dieback, and bulb
rotting.
 Control by rotating out of allium crops
for many years (white rot has been know
to persist in soil for ten years),
destroying infected tissue, and planting
disease-free seed stock.
Yellowing leaves of
garlic plant caused by
white rot infection
Close up of white rot
on base of garlic stem

35. What to watch for…
 Fusarium
 Plants may or may not show symptoms in
the field or at harvest, but bulbs may rot in
storage.
 May show reduced emergence, yellowing
and/or browning of leaves beginning at tips.
Other symptoms include reduced bulb size,
decay, poorly developed root systems.
 Control by avoiding rotations with other
Alliums (onions, shallots, onions, leeks),
store bulbs at cool temperatures and low
humidity with good ventilation, and avoid
storing damaged bulbs.
U of M photo

36. About Our Garlic
 New York (Polish) White- Soft‐neck variety
Relatively mild flavor that keeps well in storage.
 Great Northern White-(Porcelain) Great all-
purpose garlic, especially good for Sautéing, baking,
& grilling. The heritage of this unique garlic can be
directly traced to northern Germany. It could
possibly be the most cold-hardy variety known…
 Music- (Porcelain) The flavor is good, sweet and
pungent, very hot when eaten raw.
 Georgian Fire- (Porcelain) Raw taste is strong with
a hotness that is not at all unpleasant. Great for salsa
and salads! 4-6 cloves per bulb.

37. About Our Garlic
 Siberian-(Marbled Purple Stripe) Delightfully
flavored garlic, a bit on the mild side and with very
little heat.
 Chesnok Red-(Purple Stripe) From the Republic
of Georgia, superb for cooking, holding its flavor
and offering a distinctive, lingering taste for the
garlic connoisseur. A good roaster.
 Persian Star- (Purple Stripe) Pleasant flavor with a
mild spicy zing. Good all-purpose variety that
produces reliable yields year-after-year. Milder
than Chesnok.
 Metechi-(Marbled Purple Stripe) 5-7 large cloves
that will blow your socks off. Stores for a long
time. Excellent flavor for cooking and easy to peel.

38. About Our Garlic
 Bogatyr- (Marbled Purple Stripe) Probably from
the Ukraine, a rich and interesting flavor, very
pungent with a more pleasant lingering aftertaste.
This is a hot one!
 Asian Tempest- (Asian) Breathtaking if eaten
raw, when baked is somewhat sweet with a bit of
a baked sweet garden pepper flavor.
 German Red- (Rocambole) The flavor is very
strong, hot, zingy and sticks around for a long
time.

39. To Contact / Order Seed:
“Our mission at Tamarack Garlic Farm is to produce and provide the best garlic
in the Midwest, through using a combination of hard work and using innovative
and sustainable agriculture practices. We pledged to do this without the use of
pesticides and herbicides.”