Garlic is one of the most widely used spices for cooking across many different ethnic groups, yet it is one of Hawaiʻi’s most rarely produced spices.
One of the challenges, explains Jensen Uyeda of the Dept. of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, is that garlic requires a cold winter to overcome dormancy and is typically planted in the fall in most mainland U.S. states – before snowfall or winter chill. But this temperature change doesn’t occur in Hawaiʻi.
Thus was born the Hawaiʻi Garlic Production Project. Extension recently held an educational workshop at the Urban Garden Center. Jensen, Kylie Tavares, and Sharon Wages provided both commercial farmers and home gardeners with hands-on information on the production of garlic in the islands.
This project, funded by the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture, has involved more than five years of growing garlic at CTAHR’s Poamoho Research Station and Lalamilo Research Station, which Jensen, Kylie, Sharon and others have identified as ideal production areas.
The project team’s first years were spent identifying varieties with potential for production in Hawaiʻi. The current objective is to overcome production bottlenecks, such as access to seed material for planting and creating value-added options in order to make the crop economically viable. Over the next few months, the Extension team will conduct this same workshop on Kauaʻi, Maui, and Hawaiʻi Island.