Garlic Musik Organic Bulbs

A highly popular hardneck variety, Garlic Musik, known as the "Garlic Lovers Garlic," is grown as a bulb vegetable. Garlic Musik produces excellent yields of 2-inch (or larger), pink-blushed white bulbs that contain 4 to 8 jumbo-sized cloves. The buff-colored cloves have a thick, parchment-like, red-streaked wrapper that's easy to peel. The flavor is rich, robust, and complex with a spicy medium to hot kick when raw. Garlic is a good source of allicin, a compound that gives garlic its distinctive smell and taste and appears to have many health benefits.

Garlic Musik is an Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon variety in the amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae). Typically grown as an annual, garlic is an herbaceous bulbous perennial with flattened, linear, grass-like, medium green leaves. Harvest the plant in summer when the lower 4 to 5 leaves are dry and turning brown. Hang the plants to dry for 2 to 3 weeks in a warm area with good air circulation, out of direct sunlight. Once completely dried, cut off the stem about 1 inch from the bulb and trim the roots. Storage potential is 6 months or more.

A good choice for beginner gardeners, garlic is super easy to grow. It grows best in sunny locations with loose, fertile, moist, well-draining soil. Garlic benefits from a nitrogen fertilizer applied at planting and again when shoots are 4 to 6 inches tall. Garlic Musik, a porcelain type, exceptionally robust and cold hardy, prefers regions with cold winters.

Garlic is an excellent companion plant in vegetable and flower gardens. It naturally deters certain garden pests, such as aphids, Japanese beetles, snails, deer, and rabbits, to name a few.

A cool-season vegetable, garlic is cold hardy and can be grown in all USDA Zones and can be direct sown into the garden in fall for a summer harvest. But it can also be started indoors and transplanted in early spring, but the bulbs are typically smaller. Protect plants from heavy frost with mulch.