Garlic is one of my favorite crops! I have yet to be able to get my hands on any music seed garlic but I've got early Italian, Inchelium Red, Ukranian red, Russian red, Ivan, German extra hardy, northern white, nootka rose, silver white, German white, purple glazer and some unknown from a batch of store bought garlic a couple years ago that i grew out and saved the last couple seasons. We'll see how it goes but they all look great right now, a few inches tall.
@@MK-ti2oo awesome! Sounds like you got a good variety! I wanted To try some others this year but the seed is just too expensive to buy. I’m just gonna keep building this stock up for free.
Hey Chef. Thank you for this video. Several things you mentioned that you told me that I learned on my own through 45+ years of farming/gardening experience. 1. I never plant my garlic until well after 1st frost. Any earlier than that produces to much top growth resulting in winter damage that I am convinced affects productivity. Not to mention i am convinced it leaves a haven for garlic pest’s eggs and allium diseases to winter over. 2. I treat my seed stock with a peroxide solution bath to kill transferable pest and pathogens from acquired seed stock. ( like your idea of cheap vodka also 🤔) A lot of instruction teaches you to use sulfur. That doesn’t work for me as sulfur would tend to make my perfect ph more acidic. 3. I harvest before the plant starts to show signs of “die back”. Leaving it in the ground to long, as commonly instructed, has been problematic for me. I found I have better quality, better form and better presentation from the garlic I harvest earlier. Not to mention WAY less rot. Finally, last year I planted garlic, in my home garden, shortly after harvesting my cannabis crop. This year I harvested the best garlic that I’ve ever EVER grown. Not sure why yet. You touched on it, but I’m am very interested in what the cannabis plants contributed to the soil that produced such an awesome garlic harvest. I actually ended up saving most of the garlic from that plot as the basis for my future seed stock. It produced just that well. Any thoughts on why this produced such a fantastic result is greatly appreciated. I will say my first thought was fertility. I use my own composted chicken litter in excess on all heavy feeders. My garlic has been no different in the past. So I am certain it has to do with the cannabis plants/roots themselves. Thanks in advance for your input. Oh and yes. Great video. 👍🏽Your instruction is spot on vs.all these instructional videos out here teaching newbies wrong. 👊
@@duncand5148 thanks pal 🙏 love it 👊 everything is going to be happier around cannabis plants … I mean just look at them and you get happy 🤣 but it would probably be hard to find any scientific studies on it. Sounds amazing though! My 2 favorite things together… garlic and cannabis. I don’t see how it could go wrong 🤣 I was a newbie… no one taught me anything. I learned it all from trial and error. It took me years to even identify the problems. The only way is learn by doing and not give up 👊 good to hear from you 🙏
@ 🤣🤣🤣Absolutely. I only received very rigid canned instruction early on from my grandfather who farmed and market gardened for over 75 years. For some things, the information is priceless, but for other things it served as a gateway for new ideas and practices to be introduced and applied to those tried and true practices. So I try to maintain a happy balance. A lot of what is being introduced as new today, is actually not. However, I agree. Knowledge through Experience is priceless. Happy New Year my brother. I am so excited for the 2025 growing season. I’m changing several strategies and game plans this year; especially with the way I cover crop. Be blessed and most of all stay safe. 👊
Awesome tips...planted 200 bulbs this year ..red chesnock....music...a polish variety and georgia giant....in chicago area....just threw more leaves and tarps. Supposed to get 20 below....
I’m thrilled to finally have a local grower confirm a later planting works well for them! This year I’m pre soaking all the garlic 🧄 in mushy, straight worm castings. Rich in probiotics and naturally antibacterial, not to mention the balanced minerals, beneficial fungi and growth stimulants; I planted my Elephant garlic first and then moved on to my Sicilian, to continue with the others. I picked this method up from some of my antique Organic Gardening magazines and regret not having learned it to implement earlier. I also pack plenty of those castings into each hole and top them as they’re also going to draw more native worm activity just by being in the ground. Adding my naturally raised cold rabbit and goat manures & wood ash I’m hoping this will FAR exceed last year’s manure & mulch with lime method. Elephant Garlic beds were 2nd season and the rest of the garlic will be in 1st season beds. Again, grateful for your video and hope this change for our land builds my own seed supply to apply the harvesting techniques on a more sustainable quantity -this year’s did not cut it.
Some varieties of garlic are beyond easy to grow. I had a silver soft-neck bulb sitting on my counter that started to sprout. I put it outside and forgot about it. Literally laying on my porch it continued sprouting. Eventually the wind blew it onto the ground (not in the soil) where it got covered by snow. When the spring rolled around, a month or so into spring, I finally decided to put it in the ground. I only dug a tiny hole for the roots to fit in, bulb was above ground. It took off like crazy and grew strong all summer.
There is truly a whole world of flavor your just starting to get into. If your looking for a earlier crop look at Turban varieties. Creoles are the best tasting in my opinion but are harder to grow than the porcelain variety your growing. Music is a solid yeilder and adds great flavor.
Your videos have truly come so far..great info..could you please tell me where you ordered Your celery sprouts? I cant tell you how excited you got me for this growing season. 😁
Thanks Steve 👊 I bought the celery seedlings from banner green house but they went out of business this year 🤷🏻♂️ I’m not gonna grow it anymore. It was really good for farmers markets. But I’m not going to markets anymore. Just selling to restaurants. And they aren’t really willing to pay high dollar for celery. And it’s not worth the headache for me to grow from seed. You gotta raise the seedlings for like 12 weeks. I call it slowery 🤣
I'm curious about your pricing. I see you're selling Gourmet Garlic for $10 but I'm not sure how many bulbs are in a bag. How much does cleaning seed with "cheap" vodka raise the price per bulb? Can you reuse the vodka and if so, if so, is it indefinite? Are there other cheaper solutions to clean seed (warm water with baking soda)? Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks pal 👊it’s $10 for about 1/2 lb. They didn’t sell great at that price. Then I lowered my price to $8 and they sold much better. Then one of my regular customers at the market bought everything I had for $14/lb 🤣 you could filter the alcohol and reuse it. But I didn’t. I don’t want to store it.. it doesn’t raise the price of the garlic to sanitize it. The alternative is not having a marketable crop and I get nothing. Or I can’t save the seed. And then I did all the work for nothing. There’s lots of ways to achieve the same thing. This is just how I do it. I don’t know how other people do it.
👍👍Another great video Mikey - so you git that garlic all liquored up with that cheap vodka! 🤣 I've never grown garlic in the home garden as we only use very little and mostly just buy garlic powder that seems to last forever and a day.
Thanks Mike! You should try growing it. It’s a world of difference than what you can buy! It literally changed my life forever, I quit my job over it 👊
@@MikeV607 it was! I just couldn’t believe that I’d accept that garlic came in a tub for my whole career, only to find out that there’s a whole world of flavor I hadn’t experienced. My mind was blown the first time I saw how brussel sprouts grow too 🤣
@@chefsharvestfarm Exactly ... One of the huge reasons I'm so 'into' growing vegetables is the freshness flavor. Conventional NpK farming just isn't as nutritious and flavorful as when I was a youngster, not to mention the all too often processing, time, and distance from field to table. And then (not to ramble on too much) is the simple fact that conventional farming is oil dependant and the avg. age of farmers is 65. Family farms are disappearing as factory farms increase while we lose topsoil....I could go on with gloom and doom, but I'll stop here. 😊 Please keep up the great videos!
I hope nobody tries to steal your years of hard work by not having your garlic at home. Thanks for the video! I planted hard neck garlic for the first time this year. I’m going to keep most of my seed stock for the next year and then start selling the following year too. Are you only growing Music? I’m trying music and German extra hardy.
Thanks pal 🙏 my leased property is pretty secure. It’s on my friends 80 acre homestead. I am only growing music. And I’d love to grow some other varieties, but the damn seed is so expensive. I just couldn’t afford it this year. I decided to just continue growing the stock I have on hand. And maybe I can afford some new varieties next year. It’s crazy though, to get the best quality seed stock you basically need to order it nearly a year in advance. I find they ship out the best to whoever orders first.
I feel you on that! I spent just under $200 this year and only got enough to plant 4 rows in a 25’ bed at 9” spacing. I did get some extra large beautiful bulbs though from Keene Garlic online. I don’t order until late August. Where did you get your seed? Also wondering how’s the medical herb market out there? I grow some of the best in the world, this last season was my 16th year full time, all organic in the ground. Even here in NorCal I’m known for having the best quality, I keep 16 strains and I have had some cuts for well over a decade.
@chefsharvestfarm Growing 4 types of Hardneck Garlic this year: Red Russian, Music, Purple Striped, French Rocambole Hardneck. We planted 145 cloves, hopefully they come up in summer and we can store bulbs perfectly.
Thanks for the tips! As my backyard garden develops, I can see that garlic may be one of my main cash crops. One curious question: you say at the end that you hope to offer certified seed garlic in the future. What is involved in the certification of seed garlic, vs. just selling garlic for planting?
You just need to have it tested to certify that it’s pest and disease free. Contaminated seed is how nematodes, and most garlic pest and disease get spread. And once in your soil it’s very hard to get rid of.
You can try planting fennel at the end of rows and maybe a few interspersed, they're absolutely amazing at attracting predator bees that will help protect your crop from pests
@chefsharvestfarm I've never done allysum but I have done mustard and honestly i love it. It pulls in a ton of pollinators and I like collecting the seed at the end of the year. Fresh homegrown mustard seed is an amazing burst of flavor, unlike any you've ever had before. But I guess that's not surprising as that's essentially true of everything in the garden
we're just a little bit further south than you, at the Southern Alabama border with the Northwest tip of Florida, got a lot of great growth on a small patch of garlic. They are planted on the shores of an old sand pit lake and we fortify with a little lime and ash and lots of goat poop compost. Here you can just put those cloves in anytime during the winter months and they pop right up and grow. But last year we did the same thing and lost most because we didn't weed in time. This year we plan to be more diligent. Do you do lots of hand weeding in the warmer months? What all are you doing to keep weeds under control?
The methods I use keep the weeds down. Tarping for months at a time. And then smothering with compost in the beds and wood chips in the walkways. I rarely need to hand weed my gardens with these methods. If I see weeds I take care of them with a wire weeder at first sign. And if anything gets out of hand I just tarp it. It’s important to start weed free.
Great video Chef have to look for that music garlic. Now if you could get Ginseng growing in East TN instead of hunting it, that's a money maker $$$. lol
@@fins5150 right! Never grown ginseng, and I don’t know who would buy it… but I’ve heard people do that around here… at this point though my client base is a very select few of high end chefs and I’m not really interested in any other sales outlets. It’s just super easy. I drop off crates of veggies to restaurants and that’s it. No packaging or nothing.
@ yeah you can double your money with it at that price… I’d get in to selling it more if I had a bigger scoop. But my tractor is too small. It takes 30 minutes to fill a pickup
This fall was the first time I have planted garlic. So far it has been doing ok, from what i can tell. But i am in zone 7A and are expecting snow this upcoming Monday, then a bunch more Jan 9th (Thursday). Should I be worried??
@@onemishelle don’t be worried! It will be fine. You’ll see what I’m talking about though. The tops will just kind of fall down and look sad. But then once it gets warmer they’ll perk back up! That’s all I try to avoid. But you’ll still get a good harvest 👊
Curious- what price per lb are you getting for your garlic? I know my market will not be the same as yours, but just for frame of reference. I have 1500 cloves in the ground this year (800 hard neck, 700 soft neck)
For the farmers market I put them in these little mesh bags. And put 3-4 heads, about 1/4 lb and sell them for $8 (although I have charged $10). I find this is way better than letting people pick out their own heads. Because I can put 2 large and 1 small head per bag. Otherwise people just pick out the best ones and I’m left with all the small ones at the end. But I sell it to restaurants for $12/lb. Although my goal is to continue building up my seed stock and sell certified seed garlic to gardeners. Seed garlic can sell for $25/$30/lb. amzn.to/4a59ti7
How much do you need? I have a guy with a 20 yard dump truck, a guy with a 10 yard dump truck or I generally have plenty on hand I can sell in small amounts. But it all comes from Monterey mushroom in loundon county. I just send a dump truck driver to go pick it up.
@@chefsharvestfarm Im not sure yet how much I will need. I am in the beginning stages of designing a sub irrigated wicking bed and was concerned about the cost for the fill. I saw how much you were using and figured you might know the cheapest place. I used to go to Monterey myself with a small dump trailer for my in-ground garden, however the last time I tried to go there (many years ago) they had stopped selling to the small guy in favor of selling huge loads to the nurseries. When I am ready to fill my beds I will send you a note and if you have some extra ... Thanks for the reply!
@ yeah I send a guy with a 20 yard dump truck and he charges me $500 for 20 yards. I can give you his number if you need it. Just email me at contact@chefsharvestfarm.com . I don’t want to put his number in the comments.
@@jackzzz2885 I’m not sure… we just planted it about 2 weeks ago. It will probably be ready in June. And then I will assess the quality and yield to see how much I’m willing to sell… I save all the biggest ones for my own seed stock and I sell the smallest ones.
I have not heard of doing this to soak in cheap vodka to kill bugs says a lot for Vodka😂😂 . One way to look at it you now have garlic flavored vodka 😂😂
Based on your vid, it looks like you are pulling TOO EARLY! I think you may be leaving a lot of yield on the table. Those plants still have way too much green on them. I get pulling them early do to conditions, so maybe thats it but it is amazing how much size will increase with just one extra week! I pull when 75% of the leaves are COMPLETELY brown.
Thanks pal 👊 yeah, many of the clips in the video have been collected throughout the entire journey. The images are not all recent. Personally I’d rather harvest a little on the early side than on the late side. I find harvested too late and it compromises the whole crop. But… it’s a journey for sure! Only one chance per year, and I try to improve a little every year. Not like lettuce where I can try 52 weeks a year. Thanks for watching and dropping some knowledge 🙏
@@chefsharvestfarm I was at 12 beds (3 rows per bed) at 200' long at my peak. My first year I pulled to early b/c i was nervous. Now I do it when there are 4 solid green leaves left in the upper half. Garlic is my favorite crop to grow.
@@ryno856 I will definitely announce once available! But it’s probably gonna be a couple years… I’m probably going to save all of it for replanting next year. My goal is to build up my seed stock to be able to plant that entire plot roughly. But that amount of seed only planted 4 of those beds. But the goal is to grow seed garlic and sell it to people who follow along on TH-cam 👊 thanks for following along 🙏
So you find your office conditions are good for saving your seed stock? I saved seed from last year but it didn’t make it for me. I’m looking to try something different this year.
Yeah. Just room temperature. I tried storing them in my basement before. But it’s too hot and humid in the summer. Especially since we wash over 100 lbs of salad greens twice a week down there. The humidity gets up to 80-90% sometimes. I’m always blowing fans and running dehumidifiers. But it’s not a good place for my garlic.
I’m new to the idea of backyard farming on my land but have watched videos for years and have finally decided to try and make some money doing it I’ve got about 1/3 of an acre planted in elephant garlic and a few rows in purple strip and a German variety and hopefully planning on full time farming I’m a contractor buy trade and have always had a green thumb 🤣🤣🤣 I live on 14.5 acres of flat land in Cleveland TJ not to far from you and you wouldn’t believe the soil I have reach out to me if you’re ever in the area I’d love to work a deal out with you I’d do the labor if I could get your head on experience I’d even do the work on a plot for you here since iit would be a drive for you definitely reach out if your ever passing threw and wanted to take a look at my property and potential I’m only about 5 minutes from the highway 😁😁😁 if you where ever interested in expanding bigger I’ve worked alone building houses and additions for years and would not be afraid of dedicating the long hour and hard labor at farming honestly I’d prefer it 😁
A bee on a pot flower, my 2 favorite things in nature come together 😂
Heck yeah 👊
Garlic is one of my favorite crops! I have yet to be able to get my hands on any music seed garlic but I've got early Italian, Inchelium Red, Ukranian red, Russian red, Ivan, German extra hardy, northern white, nootka rose, silver white, German white, purple glazer and some unknown from a batch of store bought garlic a couple years ago that i grew out and saved the last couple seasons. We'll see how it goes but they all look great right now, a few inches tall.
@@MK-ti2oo awesome! Sounds like you got a good variety! I wanted
To try some others this year but the seed is just too expensive to buy. I’m just gonna keep building this stock up for free.
3:26 love the flowering crops
Me too 👊
Lol, I'm guessing more money is made from the flowering crops.
@@metoo2254 nope! I only sell vegetables. The cannabis is just personal use, and a passion project.
You are doing the danged thing! Awesome saving your own seed garlic for certification! You're a man with a plan! Love it!
Thanks pal 🙏
Excellent video! Thanks for sharing your system.
Thanks pal 👊
Happy New Year, Mikey! Your channel is doing really well and you should be proud of yourself.
Thanks pal 🙏 happy new year to you too!
You know Mikey, you are way too practical for a lot of people. Great insight ma man! Keep them coming Bro.
@@zhuanjifarms5050 thanks pal 🙏
Another great video. Thank you! Thats one happy honey bee! 😉
Thanks pal 👊
Great content, and well produced as well. Greatly appreciated.. Safe and happy NewYear to you and yours.
Thanks pal 🙏 Happy New Year to you and yours too! 👊
Hey Chef. Thank you for this video. Several things you mentioned that you told me that I learned on my own through 45+ years of farming/gardening experience. 1. I never plant my garlic until well after 1st frost. Any earlier than that produces to much top growth resulting in winter damage that I am convinced affects productivity. Not to mention i am convinced it leaves a haven for garlic pest’s eggs and allium diseases to winter over. 2. I treat my seed stock with a peroxide solution bath to kill transferable pest and pathogens from acquired seed stock. ( like your idea of cheap vodka also 🤔) A lot of instruction teaches you to use sulfur. That doesn’t work for me as sulfur would tend to make my perfect ph more acidic. 3. I harvest before the plant starts to show signs of “die back”. Leaving it in the ground to long, as commonly instructed, has been problematic for me. I found I have better quality, better form and better presentation from the garlic I harvest earlier. Not to mention WAY less rot. Finally, last year I planted garlic, in my home garden, shortly after harvesting my cannabis crop. This year I harvested the best garlic that I’ve ever EVER grown. Not sure why yet. You touched on it, but I’m am very interested in what the cannabis plants contributed to the soil that produced such an awesome garlic harvest. I actually ended up saving most of the garlic from that plot as the basis for my future seed stock. It produced just that well. Any thoughts on why this produced such a fantastic result is greatly appreciated. I will say my first thought was fertility. I use my own composted chicken litter in excess on all heavy feeders. My garlic has been no different in the past. So I am certain it has to do with the cannabis plants/roots themselves. Thanks in advance for your input. Oh and yes. Great video. 👍🏽Your instruction is spot on vs.all these instructional videos out here teaching newbies wrong. 👊
@@duncand5148 thanks pal 🙏 love it 👊 everything is going to be happier around cannabis plants … I mean just look at them and you get happy 🤣 but it would probably be hard to find any scientific studies on it. Sounds amazing though! My 2 favorite things together… garlic and cannabis. I don’t see how it could go wrong 🤣 I was a newbie… no one taught me anything. I learned it all from trial and error. It took me years to even identify the problems. The only way is learn by doing and not give up 👊 good to hear from you 🙏
@ 🤣🤣🤣Absolutely. I only received very rigid canned instruction early on from my grandfather who farmed and market gardened for over 75 years. For some things, the information is priceless, but for other things it served as a gateway for new ideas and practices to be introduced and applied to those tried and true practices. So I try to maintain a happy balance. A lot of what is being introduced as new today, is actually not. However, I agree. Knowledge through Experience is priceless. Happy New Year my brother. I am so excited for the 2025 growing season. I’m changing several strategies and game plans this year; especially with the way I cover crop. Be blessed and most of all stay safe. 👊
@ thanks man 👊 happy new year 🙌
Awesome tips...planted 200 bulbs this year ..red chesnock....music...a polish variety and georgia giant....in chicago area....just threw more leaves and tarps. Supposed to get 20 below....
@@tttarms1970 awesome! It supposed to be pretty cold here next week. But not that cold 🥶
@chefsharvestfarm this is the first year I didnt get early chutes....I'm a little worried. I cant live without my garlic. Lol.
@ I think it will be fine, I just planted mine 2 weeks ago.
Nice job on this video. You’re very knowledgeable. Experience shines through! I love garlic too. 🧄
@crewandcashtwins594 thank you 🙏
Very inspiring 😊🎉
@@Godisincontrol325 thanks pal 🙏
@chefsharvestfarm Of course 😁 Your techniques for growing is awesome..
Happy New Years pal. Will catch up when I returning from watching the fireworks 🎆🎉
Thanks pal 👊 Happy New Year to you too! 🙏
I’m thrilled to finally have a local grower confirm a later planting works well for them! This year I’m pre soaking all the garlic 🧄 in mushy, straight worm castings. Rich in probiotics and naturally antibacterial, not to mention the balanced minerals, beneficial fungi and growth stimulants; I planted my Elephant garlic first and then moved on to my Sicilian, to continue with the others. I picked this method up from some of my antique Organic Gardening magazines and regret not having learned it to implement earlier.
I also pack plenty of those castings into each hole and top them as they’re also going to draw more native worm activity just by being in the ground.
Adding my naturally raised cold rabbit and goat manures & wood ash I’m hoping this will FAR exceed last year’s manure & mulch with lime method. Elephant Garlic beds were 2nd season and the rest of the garlic will be in 1st season beds.
Again, grateful for your video and hope this change for our land builds my own seed supply to apply the harvesting techniques on a more sustainable quantity -this year’s did not cut it.
Sweeeet! Love it 🙌 thanks pal 🙏
With garlic it is better to be late than early! I'm in the frozen north and still wait until Thanksgiving.
@ right! That’s what I’ve learned. And it makes it much less stressful because I have absolutely nothing better to do the later I plant it 🤣
@ I appreciate your input on this too! Thank you 😊
Great video thanks for sharing
Thanks pal 🙏
Right on!
Thanks pal 👊
OMG! I want to meet you and tour your lovely garden!!! WOW!
Thank you 🙏 my farms are not open to the public. The only way to see them is on TH-cam.
Great video on garlic happy new years 🇳🇿🙏🏼
Thanks pal 🙏 happy new year
I didn't know anything about growing garlic and planted some in the spring. They're still growing now and Iooking good. I hope they turn out well.
I did the same thing the first time. They didn’t come out well 😏
Some varieties of garlic are beyond easy to grow. I had a silver soft-neck bulb sitting on my counter that started to sprout. I put it outside and forgot about it. Literally laying on my porch it continued sprouting. Eventually the wind blew it onto the ground (not in the soil) where it got covered by snow. When the spring rolled around, a month or so into spring, I finally decided to put it in the ground. I only dug a tiny hole for the roots to fit in, bulb was above ground. It took off like crazy and grew strong all summer.
@@jeffreytaylor6463 easy money 👊
Superbe vidéo
À bientôt
Thanks pal 🙏
There is truly a whole world of flavor your just starting to get into. If your looking for a earlier crop look at Turban varieties. Creoles are the best tasting in my opinion but are harder to grow than the porcelain variety your growing. Music is a solid yeilder and adds great flavor.
Yes, I just stick with Music because seed garlic is just too expensive… I’d rather just continue building up my own stock.
Great video!
Thank you 🙏
Your videos have truly come so far..great info..could you please tell me where you ordered Your celery sprouts? I cant tell you how excited you got me for this growing season. 😁
Thanks Steve 👊 I bought the celery seedlings from banner green house but they went out of business this year 🤷🏻♂️ I’m not gonna grow it anymore. It was really good for farmers markets. But I’m not going to markets anymore. Just selling to restaurants. And they aren’t really willing to pay high dollar for celery. And it’s not worth the headache for me to grow from seed. You gotta raise the seedlings for like 12 weeks. I call it slowery 🤣
I'm curious about your pricing. I see you're selling Gourmet Garlic for $10 but I'm not sure how many bulbs are in a bag. How much does cleaning seed with "cheap" vodka raise the price per bulb? Can you reuse the vodka and if so, if so, is it indefinite? Are there other cheaper solutions to clean seed (warm water with baking soda)? Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks pal 👊it’s $10 for about 1/2 lb. They didn’t sell great at that price. Then I lowered my price to $8 and they sold much better. Then one of my regular customers at the market bought everything I had for $14/lb 🤣 you could filter the alcohol and reuse it. But I didn’t. I don’t want to store it.. it doesn’t raise the price of the garlic to sanitize it. The alternative is not having a marketable crop and I get nothing. Or I can’t save the seed. And then I did all the work for nothing. There’s lots of ways to achieve the same thing. This is just how I do it. I don’t know how other people do it.
👍👍Another great video Mikey - so you git that garlic all liquored up with that cheap vodka! 🤣
I've never grown garlic in the home garden as we only use very little and mostly just buy garlic powder that seems to last forever and a day.
Thanks Mike! You should try growing it. It’s a world of difference than what you can buy! It literally changed my life forever, I quit my job over it 👊
@@chefsharvestfarm So it was garlic that turned a World Class Executive Chef into an urban vegetable farmer... Well that sounds like it stinks! 🤣
@@MikeV607 it was! I just couldn’t believe that I’d accept that garlic came in a tub for my whole career, only to find out that there’s a whole world of flavor I hadn’t experienced. My mind was blown the first time I saw how brussel sprouts grow too 🤣
@@chefsharvestfarm Exactly ... One of the huge reasons I'm so 'into' growing vegetables is the freshness flavor. Conventional NpK farming just isn't as nutritious and flavorful as when I was a youngster, not to mention the all too often processing, time, and distance from field to table. And then (not to ramble on too much) is the simple fact that conventional farming is oil dependant and the avg. age of farmers is 65. Family farms are disappearing as factory farms increase while we lose topsoil....I could go on with gloom and doom, but I'll stop here. 😊
Please keep up the great videos!
@@MikeV607 yeah man, it hurts my soul every time I see them turning farmland into HOA’s 🤦🏻♂️
I hope nobody tries to steal your years of hard work by not having your garlic at home. Thanks for the video! I planted hard neck garlic for the first time this year. I’m going to keep most of my seed stock for the next year and then start selling the following year too. Are you only growing Music? I’m trying music and German extra hardy.
Thanks pal 🙏 my leased property is pretty secure. It’s on my friends 80 acre homestead. I am only growing music. And I’d love to grow some other varieties, but the damn seed is so expensive. I just couldn’t afford it this year. I decided to just continue growing the stock I have on hand. And maybe I can afford some new varieties next year. It’s crazy though, to get the best quality seed stock you basically need to order it nearly a year in advance. I find they ship out the best to whoever orders first.
I feel you on that! I spent just under $200 this year and only got enough to plant 4 rows in a 25’ bed at 9” spacing. I did get some extra large beautiful bulbs though from Keene Garlic online. I don’t order until late August. Where did you get your seed? Also wondering how’s the medical herb market out there? I grow some of the best in the world, this last season was my 16th year full time, all organic in the ground. Even here in NorCal I’m known for having the best quality, I keep 16 strains and I have had some cuts for well over a decade.
@ right! I bought mine from mainepotatolady.com . I just grow for personal use.
Good job brother. Glad your using AC infinity brand ,)
Thanks pal 🙏 love ac infinity everything 👊
@chefsharvestfarm bro, AC infinity newer fans, are AMAZING. They can mimic outside breeze by randomly ramping up/down fan speed & direction.
@chefsharvestfarm Growing 4 types of Hardneck Garlic this year:
Red Russian, Music, Purple Striped, French Rocambole Hardneck.
We planted 145 cloves, hopefully they come up in summer and we can store bulbs perfectly.
@ heck yeah 🙌 I want to try some other types but just couldn’t afford it this year. Seed garlic is so damn expensive!
@chefsharvestfarm keep up the good work brother, one former chef to another 👍 I love seeing your vidz.
Awesome thx for the vid
@@ParkerBackyardGrowinginGermany thanks pal 🙏
@@chefsharvestfarm its funny to watch you in Knoxville, I live in Germany now since 44 years. I was born about an hour away from you. Newport Tenn.
Thanks for the tips! As my backyard garden develops, I can see that garlic may be one of my main cash crops. One curious question: you say at the end that you hope to offer certified seed garlic in the future. What is involved in the certification of seed garlic, vs. just selling garlic for planting?
You just need to have it tested to certify that it’s pest and disease free. Contaminated seed is how nematodes, and most garlic pest and disease get spread. And once in your soil it’s very hard to get rid of.
You can try planting fennel at the end of rows and maybe a few interspersed, they're absolutely amazing at attracting predator bees that will help protect your crop from pests
Awesome! I’m actually planning to sandwich in the garlic with flowering mustard and sweet alyssum this year to attract predators 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
@chefsharvestfarm I've never done allysum but I have done mustard and honestly i love it. It pulls in a ton of pollinators and I like collecting the seed at the end of the year. Fresh homegrown mustard seed is an amazing burst of flavor, unlike any you've ever had before. But I guess that's not surprising as that's essentially true of everything in the garden
we're just a little bit further south than you, at the Southern Alabama border with the Northwest tip of Florida, got a lot of great growth on a small patch of garlic. They are planted on the shores of an old sand pit lake and we fortify with a little lime and ash and lots of goat poop compost. Here you can just put those cloves in anytime during the winter months and they pop right up and grow. But last year we did the same thing and lost most because we didn't weed in time. This year we plan to be more diligent. Do you do lots of hand weeding in the warmer months? What all are you doing to keep weeds under control?
The methods I use keep the weeds down. Tarping for months at a time. And then smothering with compost in the beds and wood chips in the walkways. I rarely need to hand weed my gardens with these methods. If I see weeds I take care of them with a wire weeder at first sign. And if anything gets out of hand I just tarp it. It’s important to start weed free.
Great video Chef have to look for that music garlic. Now if you could get Ginseng growing in East TN instead of hunting it, that's a money maker $$$. lol
@@fins5150 right! Never grown ginseng, and I don’t know who would buy it… but I’ve heard people do that around here… at this point though my client base is a very select few of high end chefs and I’m not really interested in any other sales outlets. It’s just super easy. I drop off crates of veggies to restaurants and that’s it. No packaging or nothing.
@@chefsharvestfarm used to be able to sell it by the pound to companies in JC area for good money. Why it popped in my mind lol
@ yeah you can double your money with it at that price… I’d get in to selling it more if I had a bigger scoop. But my tractor is too small. It takes 30 minutes to fill a pickup
@@chefsharvestfarm 😁👍
❤nice
Thank you 👊
How often do you water? I'm in south Texas. My crop last yr wasn't bad but they we smaller than golf balls
I don’t irrigate them. We get sufficient rain in Tennessee over the winter and into spring.
This fall was the first time I have planted garlic. So far it has been doing ok, from what i can tell. But i am in zone 7A and are expecting snow this upcoming Monday, then a bunch more Jan 9th (Thursday). Should I be worried??
@@onemishelle don’t be worried! It will be fine. You’ll see what I’m talking about though. The tops will just kind of fall down and look sad. But then once it gets warmer they’ll perk back up! That’s all I try to avoid. But you’ll still get a good harvest 👊
Curious- what price per lb are you getting for your garlic? I know my market will not be the same as yours, but just for frame of reference.
I have 1500 cloves in the ground this year (800 hard neck, 700 soft neck)
For the farmers market I put them in these little mesh bags. And put 3-4 heads, about 1/4 lb and sell them for $8 (although I have charged $10). I find this is way better than letting people pick out their own heads. Because I can put 2 large and 1 small head per bag. Otherwise people just pick out the best ones and I’m left with all the small ones at the end. But I sell it to restaurants for $12/lb. Although my goal is to continue building up my seed stock and sell certified seed garlic to gardeners. Seed garlic can sell for $25/$30/lb. amzn.to/4a59ti7
I grow my own garlic and increase my supply each year, but it looks nowhere near as good as his! Great job.
Thanks pal 🙏 I saw noticeable differences once I started sanitizing the seed and soaking in fertility.
where do you get your compost and wood chips? I am also in the Knoxville area and am looking for a source.
How much do you need? I have a guy with a 20 yard dump truck, a guy with a 10 yard dump truck or I generally have plenty on hand I can sell in small amounts. But it all comes from Monterey mushroom in loundon county. I just send a dump truck driver to go pick it up.
Oh and I get wood chips from getchipdrop.com
@@chefsharvestfarm Im not sure yet how much I will need. I am in the beginning stages of designing a sub irrigated wicking bed and was concerned about the cost for the fill. I saw how much you were using and figured you might know the cheapest place. I used to go to Monterey myself with a small dump trailer for my in-ground garden, however the last time I tried to go there (many years ago) they had stopped selling to the small guy in favor of selling huge loads to the nurseries. When I am ready to fill my beds I will send you a note and if you have some extra ... Thanks for the reply!
@ yeah I send a guy with a 20 yard dump truck and he charges me $500 for 20 yards. I can give you his number if you need it. Just email me at contact@chefsharvestfarm.com . I don’t want to put his number in the comments.
@@chefsharvestfarm OK thanks!
I'm not the only one that just saw he's growing weed right like that be was really enjoying some flour Sprint trichomes instead of pollen😂😂😂
Happiest bee in the world 👊
It’s pronounced moo-sic.
But great video as always Chef!
Thanks pal 🙏 however you say it, it tastes good 👊
@ It is delicious! It grow it for home use.
Great video, thankyou. Instead of vodka I'd use Hydrogen Peroxide 😂
Thank you 🙏
Do you sell bags of garlic?
@@jackzzz2885 I’m not sure… we just planted it about 2 weeks ago. It will probably be ready in June. And then I will assess the quality and yield to see how much I’m willing to sell… I save all the biggest ones for my own seed stock and I sell the smallest ones.
5:00
Thanks
I have not heard of doing this to soak in cheap vodka to kill bugs says a lot for Vodka😂😂 . One way to look at it you now have garlic flavored vodka 😂😂
@ yep! Alcohol is a very common way to sanitize lots of things 👊
Based on your vid, it looks like you are pulling TOO EARLY! I think you may be leaving a lot of yield on the table. Those plants still have way too much green on them. I get pulling them early do to conditions, so maybe thats it but it is amazing how much size will increase with just one extra week! I pull when 75% of the leaves are COMPLETELY brown.
Also, get some Felco 2 pruners to trim the stem! Those scissors must kill your hands by the end of the day.
Thanks pal 👊 yeah, many of the clips in the video have been collected throughout the entire journey. The images are not all recent. Personally I’d rather harvest a little on the early side than on the late side. I find harvested too late and it compromises the whole crop. But… it’s a journey for sure! Only one chance per year, and I try to improve a little every year. Not like lettuce where I can try 52 weeks a year. Thanks for watching and dropping some knowledge 🙏
@@chefsharvestfarm I was at 12 beds (3 rows per bed) at 200' long at my peak. My first year I pulled to early b/c i was nervous. Now I do it when there are 4 solid green leaves left in the upper half. Garlic is my favorite crop to grow.
@@chefsharvestfarm
I agree. Earlier is better than later. Plus your garlic looked mature and had big heads
@@TheLegitGrower awesome thanks for the feedback! Maybe I’ll make some follow up videos to share the progress.
So i how do i get you to farm my place in Ohio North of Cincinnati
@@huntingkc1 that would cost you a lot 🤣
was that a bee on a weed plant 😆🤣
@@christopheroneill7498 it’s my Asian sticky salad 🤣
Am i the only one who noticed the bee on the weed bud??
@@greenmoneybag8935 I noticed 💨💨💨
@ Nice 👌👌 got yourselfs a like and follow for that one👌 and for the good tips ofc!
@ thanks pal 👊
I want to buy seed
@@ryno856 I will definitely announce once available! But it’s probably gonna be a couple years… I’m probably going to save all of it for replanting next year. My goal is to build up my seed stock to be able to plant that entire plot roughly. But that amount of seed only planted 4 of those beds. But the goal is to grow seed garlic and sell it to people who follow along on TH-cam 👊 thanks for following along 🙏
So you find your office conditions are good for saving your seed stock? I saved seed from last year but it didn’t make it for me. I’m looking to try something different this year.
Yeah. Just room temperature. I tried storing them in my basement before. But it’s too hot and humid in the summer. Especially since we wash over 100 lbs of salad greens twice a week down there. The humidity gets up to 80-90% sometimes. I’m always blowing fans and running dehumidifiers. But it’s not a good place for my garlic.
@ perfect. I’ll try that this year. Thanks. Your content is great.
I’m new to the idea of backyard farming on my land but have watched videos for years and have finally decided to try and make some money doing it I’ve got about 1/3 of an acre planted in elephant garlic and a few rows in purple strip and a German variety and hopefully planning on full time farming I’m a contractor buy trade and have always had a green thumb 🤣🤣🤣 I live on 14.5 acres of flat land in Cleveland TJ not to far from you and you wouldn’t believe the soil I have reach out to me if you’re ever in the area I’d love to work a deal out with you I’d do the labor if I could get your head on experience I’d even do the work on a plot for you here since iit would be a drive for you definitely reach out if your ever passing threw and wanted to take a look at my property and potential I’m only about 5 minutes from the highway 😁😁😁 if you where ever interested in expanding bigger I’ve worked alone building houses and additions for years and would not be afraid of dedicating the long hour and hard labor at farming honestly I’d prefer it 😁
That’s awesome! You sound like you’re ready to get growing!
@ I’m trying 😁
Growing it is the easy part. Figuring out where to sell it is the challenge.
3:27 Missed opportunity to have this appear at 4:20.
It’s always 4:20 here 👊
What was that honey bee dewin? Punny er not here i come.
Living her best life 😉
That bee looked messed up
I think he was stuck, it’s sticky 🤣
Can you sail me sum seed for 50 acres
No sir, I only have about 1 acre in total. It’s is not possible to grow 50 acres worth of seed garlic on 1 acre.