Incomparable in the kitchen, there simply is no replacement for garlic. If you’re looking for a well-balanced variety with excellent heat tolerance, look no further. ‘Inchelium Red’ garlic is a vigorous variety that’s famed for its flavor and texture, which only get better as it ages.
Let’s dig in and discuss this tasty garden treat that’s just begging for a spot in your favorite recipes.
‘Inchelium Red’ Softneck Garlic Overview
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What Is It?
This is a delicious variety with incredible versatility.
Mild and bright, with a touch of spicy radish, ‘Inchelium Red’ garlic is a delicious variety with incredible versatility. For those who love rich, aromatic garlic without overpowering spice, this is an ideal cultivar. As pretty as it is tasty, it works exceptionally well when baked into a loaf of sourdough bread.
This softneck variety is easy to peel, and ages beautifully with flavors that intensify with time. The cloves are dense and creamy, perfect for roasting into a spreadable delicacy. Inchelium is an award-winning variety that performs as well in the garden, thriving in climates too warm for many of its contemporaries.
Characteristics
They tend to have larger bulbs and cloves than other softneck types.
‘Inchelium Red’ is a softneck garlic variety of the artichoke type. This type gets its name from the way the cloves overlap one another to resemble an artichoke. They tend to have larger bulbs and cloves than other softneck types. They also have thicker, coarser skins.
This particular variety has excellent flavor with moderate pungency and mild spiciness that intensifies as it ages. The white papery covering is often streaked with reddish-purple, making these bulbs decorative and eye-catching.
‘Inchelium Red’ is a culinary dream. It has won quite a few awards, including the top honors for a softneck garlic at Rodale Kitchen’s taste test in 1990.
Native Area
Long, cold winters and hot, dry summers characterize the native range of this plant.
Wild garlic is said to be native to South and Central Asia. It has been in cultivation for thousands of years in many areas of Europe and Asia. There are records of its use in historic civilizations including Egyptian, Roman, Babylonian, and Chinese. Long, cold winters and hot, dry summers characterize the native range of this plant.
The ‘Inchelium Red’ variety originated at the Colville Indian Reservation located in Inchelium, Washington. It has a reputation for being a high producer, early to mature, and highly adaptable to varying climates.
Planting
Planting time varies depending on your climate.
Garlic has some interesting habits when it comes to growth stages. It likes a bit of cold to get started, and then gradual warming to put on weight. Planting time varies depending on your climate. In cooler climates, you want to get your cloves in the ground before the first frost. September and October are prime planting times for areas that freeze in November.
If you live in a warmer climate, you can still plant in October, but depending on the weather, you might want to wait until November. This plant needs temperatures in the 40-50° F range to sprout vigorously. Any warmer, and you’ll have delayed growth and late maturity.
Prepping Your Cloves (Seeds)
Discard any cloves that are beginning to rot.
To prepare your ‘Inchelium Red’ garlic for planting, remove the outer paper from the bulbs. Discard any cloves that are beginning to rot. Select the larger, more robust cloves for planting.
Small bulbs you can set aside and plant them closer together, even in a pot if you’d like. You can use these to grow garlic greens, which is the top parts of the plant. use these as you would green onions.
Before you put your cloves in the ground, it’s a good idea to sterilize them. This ensures that you aren’t planting your crop along with any pests or pathogens that will ruin your harvest. This is especially important if any mold has developed on your cloves in storage.
There are different methods of sterilizing. They all work about the same, so if you have one of these ingredients in the house, don’t worry about running out to buy anything else. You can use isopropyl alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, bleach, or even vodka will work if you have that on hand.
If you use alcohol, soak the seeds for 20 minutes. In peroxide, you want to use a 3% solution and soak for 10 minutes. If you use bleach, dilute one part bleach to nine parts water (10% bleach) and soak for 10 minutes.
Optionally, after sterilizing, you can soak your cloves in a fertilizer solution, such as fish fertilizer or kelp, mixed with baking soda and water. Soak for 30 minutes or more, up to several hours.
Transplanting
Plant your garlic seeds about four inches deep and six inches apart.
It’s a great idea to amend your soil with compost and fertilizer before planting. This plant is a heavy feeder, but we will get to that in a moment. Plant your garlic seeds about four inches deep and six inches apart. If you live in a cold climate, you can plant them an inch or two deeper.
Make sure that the pointed end is facing upward, as this is where the clove will sprout from. Gently backfill the holes, and water your seeds thoroughly. Cover with a thick layer of mulch or straw for moisture and temperature control.
How to Grow
The growing season is long, about eight to ten months.
‘Inchelium Red’ garlic is an easy crop to grow, as long as you don’t mind the wait. This variety requires 250-270 days to mature. The growing season is long, about eight to ten months. As long as you prepare and care for it properly, you should have a ton of delicious bulbs next summer.
Light
A minimum of six hours is necessary for proper growth.
Garlic needs plenty of sunlight to grow, so find a spot in full sun to plant your cloves. A minimum of six hours is necessary for proper growth. Ideally, aim for eight to ten hours.
Water
Good drainage is important to avoid rot.
Water is a bit more complicated because this vegetable needs a balanced approach. Too much water and your bulbs will rot in the ground. Too little water will cause stress to your plants and result in a lousy harvest.
Good drainage is important to avoid rot. As long as you have proper drainage, your garlic needs between 1/2 and one inch of water weekly. If you are getting regular rainfall in this amount, don’t worry about watering. If you need to supplement, it’s best to water deeply, but infrequently.
Soil
Soil that stays soggy will lead to rotten bulbs and weak skins.
The ideal soil type for this crop is rich, loamy, and well-drained, making it perfect for raised beds. Soil that stays soggy will lead to rotten bulbs and weak skins. Weak skin can make it difficult to cure your garlic, so it won’t last as long.
Loosen your soil ahead of time. Unless you have naturally rich soil, it’s a good idea to amend it with several inches of well-rotted compost. If you have dense soil that compacts easily, mix in some materials to loosen it like perlite, vermiculite, or leaf litter.
Feel free to further enrich your soil with other nutrient-rich materials. Neem cake and alfalfa meal make great starter food, and aged manure works excellently, as well. Initially, you can mix some blood meal into the soil for a jump start, but don’t use blood meal beyond the initial growth stage.
Temperature and Humidity
Garlic sprouts best between 40-50° F.
Humidity is not that important for growth, but in general, 40-50% humidity is optimal. Temperature plays a major role in the growth process. It’s important to understand how your cloves will respond to shifts in temperature and why these shifts are important for optimal growth.
Garlic sprouts best between 40-50° F. It’s important to store your seeds at the right temperature to prevent sprouting. 60-65° F is ideal for storage. You want to plant at a time when temperatures are about to drop so your cloves will sprout. They will do most of their bulking as the weather warms in spring.
Fertilizing
Too much nitrogen will cause the plant to direct energy into top growth, which takes away from bulb growth.
If you’ve worked plenty of fertilizer into the soil at planting time, you already have a head start in this department. ‘Inchelium Red’ garlic is a heavy feeder, so it will need fertilizer throughout the growing season, but it has specific needs in terms of nutrients.
It doesn’t need a lot of nitrogen beyond an initial dose at planting time. Too much nitrogen will cause the plant to direct energy into top growth, which takes away from bulb growth. In the early stages, give a high nitrogen formula, but once your plants sprout, scale back on nitrogen.
Phosphorus and potassium are the vital nutrients to form plump, hearty bulbs. If you’re using conventional fertilizer go for a 5-10-10 formula and apply it every two weeks. Other great fertilizing agents to use include bone meal and fish meal, which are high in phosphorus, and crushed eggshells which pack a calcium punch.
Maintenance
This softneck variety won’t produce scapes, but you should remove scapes from any hardneck neighbors.
There isn’t much to do in terms of pruning and maintenance beyond watering and fertilizing. This is a softneck variety, so you don’t need to worry about removing scapes. However, it’s important to check your hardneck types for scape removal around midsummer.
Propagation
Since you technically grow it from clove clones, all you have to do is save some bulbs.
Propagation is simple. Since you technically grow it from clove clones, all you have to do is save some bulbs for the next planting season. Store them in a cool, dry, dark environment until you’re ready to plant them. These plants are unlikely to produce viable seeds, and there isn’t much reason to worry because of how easy it is to grow new bulbs from last year’s cloves.
Harvesting and Storage
It’s best to wait until you see the bottom two to three leaves turn brown and die off.
Garlic takes a long time to mature, so don’t jump to harvesting it too soon. It’s best to wait until you see the bottom two to three leaves turn brown and die off. When this happens, dig up a single text bulb. If the cloves have filled out and the bulb is nice and plump, it’s time to harvest.
Before you harvest, withhold water for a few days. This will begin the curing process before you harvest. Use a garden fork to lift your garlic out of the ground. Don’t pull the stalks because you risk ripping them off. After digging them up, brush the dirt off of your bulbs.
It’s important to cure your garlic so that it lasts and doesn’t rot. Don’t wash it before curing it. Brush off as much dirt as you can, and leave the stalks and roots intact while curing.
Bundle your garlic together in groups of eight to ten, and hang them in a cool, dark space to dry. Leave them for three to four weeks. Once cured, you can braid the stalks together or remove the stalks and roots. Peel off only the top layer of papery skin, being careful not to expose the cloves to air.
Store or hang your bulbs in a cool, dark space. A mesh bag is a great storage container; you want air to circulate all the way around. Keep them in the dark, as light will alter the flavor.
Common Problems
Sterilizing before you plant will go a long way toward a healthy harvest.
Garlic isn’t difficult to grow, but there are some issues to keep an eye out for. Sterilizing before you plant will go a long way toward a healthy harvest.
Pests
They don’t typically appear in enough numbers to wipe out an entire crop
Bulb mites are the most serious pest of this plant. The main problem is that they can live in stored garlic and overwinter in the soil. They cause problems in storage as they chew into your cloves, setting them up for mold and fungus to grow. Sterilizing your seeds before planting will help control this issue.
Wireworms are beetle larvae that live in the soil and bore into bulbs. They don’t typically appear in enough numbers to wipe out an entire crop, but their damage can make your garlic inedible. You can plant damaged bulbs again next year, though. Cover crops help to improve soil health and keep these pests to a minimum. Leek moth larvae cause similar damage, and you can deal with them in the same way.
Diseases
Sterilizing your seeds before planting will go a long way toward eliminating these pathogens.
Most diseases that affect this plant are fungal. The best defense is prevention and drainage. Sterilize your ‘Inchelium Red’ seed garlic cloves before planting to help prevent these pathogens. Proper drainage is imperative in staving off fungal diseases.
Crop rotation is a valuable tool in warding off these diseases. Cover cropping is very helpful, also. Planting cloves that are not already damaged is also important, as damaged seeds are a breeding ground for fungus.
Frequently Asked Questions
Garlic is a good companion for brassicas and nightshades. Avoid planting it near legumes, melons, and asparagus, as it can stunt their growth.
No. Garlic and all alliums are toxic to cats and dogs, if the dose is high enough, they can be fatal.
