As a quick aside. At my garlic growing presentation last night there were 17 people. Only four of them reacted negatively to the idea of eating garlic raw to determine how it really tastes. Quite a difference. In the past, given 17 people, I'd be lucky to get four of them to taste it raw.
Ah, progress!
That aside, I'm not sure what is meant by "good for all climate zones."
Garlic must have a cold tempering period of at least two months. Of course, there's cold and there's cold. But at a minimum we're talking sustained soil temperatues less than 60 degrees. Other than that, climate is irrelevent.
While garlic is daylength sensitive it's nowhere near as sensitive as onions. Long daylength onions just wont develop at all in the deep south, for instance.
Not so with garlic. With garlic, hardneck varieties tend to do better under long daylength conditions, and softnecks tend to do better with short daylengths.
But I guarantee a relatively new garlic grower in the south, who plants a hardneck such as Shvelisi or Music, won't notice the difference. And even though the bulbs will be smaller, and the cloves not as plump, it will still taste so much better than the California White available at the grocery that you won't care even if you do notice the smaller size.
As far as ordering goes, savvy growers know to place their orders in March or April for fall delivery. That way you are on the list early enough to assure availability of the varieties you want, and that the quality is high. Most growers ship their better stuff first. Anything left this time of year, by and large, is usually less than top quality. |