Can I plant the garlic from WeeBee Farms? Yes- for home gardeners the Garlic that we sell can be used for planting if you do a hot-water soak before you plant. We've been growing garlic since 1996 and have selected the 20 best varieties that grow well at our farm in Boulder County. If you have a sunny spot (directly in the ground) with good water access you will probably succeed.
Read the directions here https://weebeefarms.blogspot.com/p/how-to-plant-garlic.html or click on the Info pages link on the right.
What is "Planting Garlic" vs "Eating Garlic?"- the only difference is size. You want to use the larger cloves from the larger bulbs for planting so that you can grow larger bulbs. Of course you should start with local garlic that is organic and hasn't been treated with anti-sprouting agents or bleached (as grocery store garlic may be).
What is the Garlic Disease at WeeBee Farms?
Over the years we have found a few diseased bulbs in our garlic plots
(two diseases: White Rot, and garlic nematodes). Although the diseased
bulbs have been thrown out, there is a chance that a trace could be
present on the garlic we are selling. These could infect your garden
soil (affecting only garlic, onions and other alliums). This doesn’t
affect the quality, flavor, health benefits or storage life of the
garlic we are selling.
We recommend that you don’t plant garlic from our farm if you grow on a
large scale, or plan to sell your garlic. If you do plant it for your
home garden you should do a hot-water soak before planting per our
instructions. This should eliminate 95% of the disease spores. This hot
water soak should actually be done for any garlic that's not grown on
your property. After you do this one year, you can replant garlic from
your own garden without doing the soak. If you acquire the white
rot disease it may take a few years to see noticeable symptoms so it's
best to not take the chance and keep your soil clean.
We are working on trying to eliminate or reduce the disease using organic methods, and have had good success in keeping symptoms to a minimum by using the hot-water soak and dipping the cloves in a special fungal powder and mycorrhizae at planting time. In 2019 through 2022 we had no garlic with obvious symptoms of white rot. That doesn't mean it is gone, since the spores persist in the soil for up to 20 years, and symptoms aren't always apparent. We still find some bulbs with garlic nematodes, which isn't as serious, but is definitely something to avoid.
Why plant your own?
It's very fun and satisfying to grow your own garlic! And the garlic tastes WAY better than any you can buy in a store. Once you start growing you will have your own "seed stock" every year so it's very economical. And when you grow your own you'll eat a lot more garlic and enjoy all the health benefits that garlic can bring...
