Allium sativum var. sativum ‘Polish Red’
Garlic isn’t for everyone. Some people don’t like the spicy pungency. To them I say: ‘Polish Red.’ It’s a delicious cultivar that has tons of garlicky flavor without the bite.
It provides all the rich flavor, but lacks the pungency, so if you prefer garlic without the sulfuric fire, it’s the perfect choice.
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Of course, garlic lovers will enjoy it, too. I love a good fiery clove, but sometimes I just want a more mild flavor. You won’t find a better option for roasting and eating whole cloves.
Another reason why this cultivar is perfect for roasting is that all of the cloves, including those at the center of the bulb, are a good size, with just six to 10 per bulb. That means no fiddling with teeny tiny cloves.
Our guide to growing garlic provides all the details for cultivating delicious bulbs in your vegetable garden. In this guide, we’ll cover how to grow ‘Polish Red.’
Here’s what we’ll talk about:
What Is ‘Polish Red’ Garlic?
Garlic originated in the Middle East over 7,000 years ago and we know for sure that ancient Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians cultivated it as an edible crop.
‘Polish Red’ (Allium sativum var. sativum ‘Polish Red’), is an artichoke type of softneck. You can learn more about the different types of garlic in our guide.
In brief, there are two kinds of garlic: hardneck (A. sativum var. ophioscorodon) and softneck (A. sativum var. sativum).
Softneck types are those with pliable stalks and parchment that covers the entire bulb.
They’re the ones you typically find at the grocery store, and the ones that are braided together for drying.
The necks tend to be soft enough that when the bulbs are ready for harvest, they flop right over.
Softnecks are usually either classified as silverskin or artichoke. Artichokes are typically mild with larger but fewer cloves than silverskins. They might be white or you may see purple spots or streaks on the parchment.
The name artichoke comes from the fact that the cloves overlap in layers that somewhat resemble an artichoke. They’re often referred to as “reds” or Italian. I’ll let you use your imagination on where “silverskin” originated.
When it comes to our friend ‘Polish Red,’ this artichoke type has a rich, mellow flavor – a strong flavor but lacking the “bite.” You have all the flavor without that punch in the nose that can burn your sinuses. It’s perfect if you love garlic but aren’t too fond of the spicy types.
It has large cloves throughout, even the innermost. If you hate dealing with the fiddly little small slivers at the center of some bulbs, you’ll love ‘Polish Red.’
‘Polish Red’ Garlic Propagation
If you find ‘Polish Red’ at the grocery store or farmer’s market, you can certainly plant the individual cloves. But I highly recommend that you buy from a reputable seed garlic vendor.
This cultivar is often mislabeled in the grocery store and you might end up with something similar but different. Store bulbs are also often treated with growth inhibitors, which reduces or prevents sprouting.
Softnecks can be grown from cloves or scapes, but scapes rarely grow true, so stick to the seed cloves.
Unlike hardneck types, softnecks don’t need a period of vernalization and can grow in warmer climates.
That said, a period of vernalization of between eight and 12 weeks in the refrigerator can improve their performance. Some sellers will chill the bulbs for you, saving you time and effort.
Plant in the fall in USDA Hardiness Zones 8 and up or in the early spring in other regions.
You can choose to either start them indoors for transplanting out, or plant directly outside as soon as the soil can be worked in spring. Bulbs from cloves planted in the spring will generally be smaller than those planted in the fall.
Break up the bulbs so that you can plant each individual clove. Leave the parchment coating in place to protect the clove.
Set each clove about two inches deep in loose, well-draining soil with a pH of 6.0 to 7.5. Choose a full sun location. Space them about five inches apart.
Cover the bulbs but don’t press down the soil, and water well. If you’re planting in the fall, add a three- to six-inch layer of mulch once the cold temperatures arrive to help protect the growing plants from damaging freeze and thaw cycles.
Keep the soil evenly moist in the fall. Winter should take care of itself. By late winter, the greens will pop up, so don’t worry if you don’t see anything sprouting right away.
You can learn more about garlic propagation in our guide.
How to Grow ‘Polish Red’ Garlic
Once you have the seeds in the ground in a full sun location, you can pretty much move on with your life until harvest time.
Your main job is to keep the soil moist during the growing season. Let the top inch of soil dry out between waterings and otherwise try to keep the soil feeling like a well-wrung-out sponge.
Avoid overwatering, though, as it’s a quick way to cause rot.
Feed the growing plants once a month with a mild, balanced fertilizer or a product formulated for vegetables.
I like Down to Earth’s Vegetable Garden food. It has an NPK ratio of 4-4-4, which is a bit high, so I just dilute it by half in water and apply it to the roots.
Down to Earth Vegetable Garden
If you’d like to give it a try, you can buy one-, five-, or 15-pound boxes at Arbico Organics.
I like to plant my bulbs near marigolds to create a pest-repelling powerhouse.
Both alliums and marigolds can repel common garden pests, including nematodes and green peach aphids. Learn more about the pest-repelling properties of garlic in our guide.
I like to intersperse my garlic throughout my raised beds rather than planting them in rows or clusters. But whichever method you prefer works.
If you live in an area that is hot in the summer, apply your plants a good inch or two of organic mulch like straw, shredded bark, or leaf litter.
This helps keep the soil a bit cooler and helps to retain moisture. Mulch also helps to suppress weeds.
Growing Tips
- Plant in full sun.
- Keep the soil consistently moist, allowing the top inch to dry out between waterings.
- Apply an inch or two of mulch to keep the soil moist and cool.
Where to Buy
You can sometimes find ‘Polish Red’ available from farmer’s markets or your local plant nursery. Otherwise, specialty garlic stores will likely carry the bulbs.
Managing Pests and Disease
Once in a while, I’ll have a rabbit or chicken dig around the bulbs and cause the plants to fall over.
If that happens, just prop them back up and firm the soil around the base of the stems. They’re pretty resilient and I’ve yet to lose any.
Pests aren’t a big problem for this cultivar and alliums in general. It seems like most pests out there avoid alliums and go for something else in the vegetable garden.
Of course, a few pests have evolved alongside garlic, and these may attack your plants. Allium leaf miners are enemy number one. Trails in the leaves, like someone has been doodling on the foliage are a sure sign of these pests.
Learn more about identifying and dealing with allium leaf miners in our guide.
Thrips, nematodes, maggots, and bulb mites are also possible pests. Our guide to garlic pests talks about all of these and more.
Keep an eye on the leaves to ensure that there are no signs of pests or diseases. Black, orange, or white spores or spots on the leaves are a sign of fungal issues.
There are numerous fungal diseases (and one viral disease) that impact garlic.
Be on the lookout for basal rot, botrytis rot, downy mildew, mosaic virus, purple blotch, rust, and white rot.
Our guide to garlic diseases can help you figure out how to identify each disease and what to do if your plants are infected.
Keep in mind that crowding, poorly draining soil, and overwatering promote fungal diseases.
Harvesting
The bulbs are generally ready to harvest in early summer, about 200 days after planting for those started in fall, and around 120 days for spring-planted ones.
The bulbs will have a faint reddish-purple hue when they are ready.
Once several of the lower leaves turn brown, dig up a bulb and examine it. If it has a faint red or purple hue and has distinct cloves, it should be ready.
This cultivar ripens just before the go-to ‘Inchelium Red,’ which growers use as the benchmark for determining when other cultivars should ripen, and a few weeks before hardneck varieties.
You can learn more about how to harvest garlic in our guide.
Preserving
‘Polish Red’ can store for up to six months, which means those bulbs you pull in summer could still be around come winter. The thick, papery skin surrounding the bulbs keeps them fresh.
Before you can put them in storage, you need to cure the bulbs. Everyone seems to love braided clusters of bulbs. At the farmer’s market near my house, people will pay twice as much for half a dozen bulbs if they come in a braid rather than loose.
If you want to cure your bulbs this way, simply put six bulbs together with the leaves lined up.
Then, separate into three sections and braid the greens as you would hair. Hang this up in a spot out of direct sunlight with good air circulation.
Leave them in place for two to three weeks until the skin is dry and crisp. Then, you can cut the bulbs loose or keep them in the braids until you’re ready to use them.
Otherwise, don’t remove the leaves and lay them out on a screen or on towels on a table or floor in a cool, dry area. Leave about an inch or two between the individual bulbs. Turn the bulbs every few days. They should be ready in two or three weeks.
Once they have cured, you can remove the leaves, brush off any dirt, and store them in a cool, dry place.
Learn more about curing and storing garlic in our guide.
Recipes and Cooking Ideas
The rich, musky flavor of ‘Polish Red’ makes it perfect in recipes where you want a lot of garlic flavor but you don’t want that sinus-burning bite.
I find them perfect for roasting whole, especially for those people who aren’t as fond of garlic as I am.
It’s the best type I’ve found for making soup or bread. Or why not try artichokes slow cooked in garlic and white wine like this recipe from our sister site Foodal.
Quick Reference Growing Guide
| Plant Type: | Allium bulb vegetable | Tolerance: | Heat, freezing temperatures |
| Native to: | Middle Asia | Maintenance: | Low |
| Hardiness (USDA Zone): | 8-10 | Soil Type: | Loamy, loose, rich |
| Season: | Summer | Soil pH: | 6.0-7.5 |
| Exposure: | Full sun | Soil Drainage: | Well-draining |
| Time to Maturity: | 120-200 days, depending when planted | Companion Planting: | Berries, herbs, marigolds, roses, vegetables |
| Spacing: | 5 inches | Avoid Planting With: | Other alliums, legumes |
| Planting Depth: | 2 inches | Family: | Amaryllidaceae |
| Height: | 18 inches | Genus: | Allium |
| Spread: | 5 inches | Species: | Sativum |
| Water Needs: | Moderate | Variety: | Sativum |
| Common Pests and Disease: | Bulb mites, leaf miners, nematodes, onion maggots, thrips; basal rot, white rot | Cultivar: | ‘Polish Red’ |
All of the Flavor, None of the Bite
Whenever someone tells me they don’t like garlic because it’s too strong, I always recommend trying either elephant garlic or ‘Polish Red.’
While elephant garlic is mild overall, ‘Polish Red’ has a strong flavor that gives you all the musky deliciousness but none of the spicy bite.
Are you growing ‘Polish Red’? How will you use your upcoming harvest? Do you have any recipes that you’d like to share with us? Put them in the comments section below!
Are you interested in trying out some other garlic cultivars? Sounds good! Here are a few that might interest you:
