garlic indoors
I planted my chesnok red but I'm not sure what survived the early and very strong (2f) freeze for next year. I'm thinking of growing a good cooking garlic indoors. I have a 1' deep container, drilled and set on a lid to catch excess water, lined with newspaper, and filled with good compost based potting soil. What would be a good variety and lighting requirements? If it works there are other things I'd like to grow but I don't have the best track record with container plants.
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applestar
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I have no experience growing garlic to maturity in containers, though I do grow garlic bottoms for the greens during the winter. So I'll leave that for others who have done this. At a guess though, if you can just get them through the winter in semi dormant state without getting completely frozen/killed, you could move them outside to a suitable location as soon as the weather and temps reach survivable levels (20's?).
As for the garlic in the ground, the recent early super freeze was devastating and caught many of us unprepared, but if you planted them deep and mulched them, hopefully they made it through.
I imagine you ARE expecting more of the same deep freeze over the winter, so you may want to pile more mulch -- surrounding with a low border fence to contin the mulch or layering leaves and a straw alternately helps to create higher/deeper mulch. You could also hold the mulch in place with a securely held down garden fleece.
Trick is to remove some of the extra mulch in late winter/early spring when the temps rise to ...say... The Teens and the 20's, and open up the mulch for the emerging shoots by the time the temps are in the high 20's.
As for the garlic in the ground, the recent early super freeze was devastating and caught many of us unprepared, but if you planted them deep and mulched them, hopefully they made it through.
I imagine you ARE expecting more of the same deep freeze over the winter, so you may want to pile more mulch -- surrounding with a low border fence to contin the mulch or layering leaves and a straw alternately helps to create higher/deeper mulch. You could also hold the mulch in place with a securely held down garden fleece.
Trick is to remove some of the extra mulch in late winter/early spring when the temps rise to ...say... The Teens and the 20's, and open up the mulch for the emerging shoots by the time the temps are in the high 20's.