Porcelain Garlic 'Music'

​Here in the Carondelet Garden, we plant our garlic in the fall as one of the last chores of the growing season.  A little prep work goes a long way to getting a great garlic harvest next season.
 
Garlic is absolutely one of the easiest of all crops to grow in the Carondelet Garden.  It takes a while since the garlic is planted in the fall to give it a good start and time to produce a quality bulb.  Fall planting gives the garlic time for the roots to begin to grow and when the winter freeze comes, the garlic goes dormant.  Spring comes and the soil warms and the garlic starts right back up where it left off.

This year we have planted a type of Porcelain garlic called 'Music.'  Music displays more color than most porcelain garlic varieties. The flavor is rich and strong but not overly hot; however, it is sweeter when baked.

Porcelain garlic
Porcelain garlic is a type of large, attractive hardneck garlic. The plump cloves, usually four to seven to a bulb, are easy to peel, delicious to eat, and store longer than most types of garlic. Let’s learn how to grow porcelain garlic. How to Grow Porcelain Garlic Growing porcelain garlic is basically the same as growing any type of garlic. Porcelain garlic performs well in most climates, with the exception of extremely warm regions such as southern California, Florida, and Texas. It is well suited for cold weather and tends to be larger when grown in chilly northern climates.

Plant porcelain garlic in well-drained soil sometime in the fall (between September and November) when the soil is cool. Before planting, dig in a generous amount of compost or well-rotted manure.

If you want fat, plump garlic, plant the fattest, plumpest porcelain garlic bulbs you can find. Cover the area with 3 to 4 inches (5 to 7.5 cm.) of mulch after the ground freezes. Straw makes a great mulch for porcelain garlic. As part of your porcelain garlic care, provide about an inch (2.5 cm.) of water per week when bulbs are forming in late spring and early summer. You may not need to irrigate if your climate is rainy in spring. Pull weeds as they appear since these rob nutrients from the bulbs. Harvest porcelain garlic when the lower leaves start to turn brown.