Orlando Garlic Company
Sets
Softneck, then a press
UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions gives Florida garlic one planting window: late fall through early winter. Softneck types such as Artichoke or Creole are what work in this heat. Hardneck wants a long chill Central Florida does not provide. The bulb in the grocery is usually California or imported. Florida is not a garlic state. Garlic is not in the planting table of the Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide. Treat late fall to early winter as the guidance, not a calendar day from a blog. Florida is not a garlic state. Treat late fall as the window, not a blog calendar day.
You propagate by cloves, pointed end up, in full sun and drained soil. Harvest when about half the leaves have dried and bent. Cure in bright indirect light, then store cool and dark. A sealed jar on a bright shelf ruins that.
Press and peel
A swing-basket press handles cloves without a peeling ritual if that is the job. A silicone roll tube gets skins off a whole head. They are kitchen objects for bulbs you already cured or bought. They do not plant a clove in November.
Mash cloves you already peeled. Get this.
Roll skins off a whole head. Get this.
Keeper after cure
UF/IFAS says store bulbs somewhere cool and dark. A vented ceramic keeper is that instruction sized for a counter. Elephant garlic, a bulbing leek, stores on a similar shelf. Do not seal green garlic in plastic and call it cured.
Keep cured bulbs cool and dark. Get this.
Press and peel in one kitchen set. Get this.
A garlic magnet is last
A fridge magnet is a souvenir. Test the steel. An apron is cloth for cooking, not planting. Pack the clove window first, then press and keeper, magnet last.
A door souvenir. Test the steel first. Get this.
Clove, keeper, press, then steel
If it is late fall and you have softneck cloves, planting is first. If bulbs are cured, the keeper is first. If dinner is tonight, the press or peeler is first. If the job is a souvenir, test the steel, then the magnet. Do not buy a press because November is coming and the bed is empty.
Garlic is not in the Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide's planting table, and it is not on the UF/IFAS What to Plant by Month lists. Onions, leeks, and shallots are. The Gardening Solutions garlic page is the source that gives a season. Break cloves right before planting. Pointed end up. Full sun. Drained soil with organic matter. Water and feed on a regular basis. Keep weeds out. A clove competes from a standing start.
A shallow wide pot holds a useful number of cloves and controls drainage in sand. Ground that holds garlic from late fall to late spring is ground that is not growing anything else. That is the real argument for a container off to the side. Elephant garlic wants eight months for best results, cloves 6 to 8 inches apart, covered with 4 to 5 inches of soil. Remove the scape in spring so energy goes to the bulb. Eat the flower head if you want. If you plant late or starve it, you may harvest one round bulb instead of cloves. Leave those in for another year, or cook them as they are.