Garlic: DO IT NOW or forever hold your peace!!!!

[garden5]

Thanks for the tip-off, Gix .

Forget about Lowes, Walmart, and HD....they've sent theirs back to the suppliers at least a month ago . The big-box guys don't always get their planting dates right .

I'm interested that you recommend that garlic be planted 4 to 6 weeks before frost. Around here, first frost is middle of Oct. and it's recommended that the garlic be planted about second week of Oct. .

[gixxerific]

The recommended planting time for colder regions is fall, 4 to 6 weeks before the first frost date.

I agree with jal_ut -- translating to mid~late Oct for me.... I think you mean HARD FREEZE, gixx.

Yeah sorry about that. I got that from [url=https://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4DMG/VegFruit/garlic.htm]here[/url] this morning. it was early and I was on my way out the door for work so I was rushed. I was reading the thread than Hispoptart's comment about frost came to me and I thought why would she do that. Than it all started making sense. Sorry about that.

Around here October is good possibly Nov but I think that is stretching it.

[gixxerific]

About the mulching, James said he has to prevent winterkill that may be so in Col as well if it gets very cold there. For my area the main reason to mulch, from what I understand is to prote3ct from the freeze thaw cycles in late winter. Where the ground freezes than thaws than freezes which can separate the roots from the bulb with all that heaving.

And yes G5 I don't trust the big box stores one bit. You really have to know what you are doing there. They will have stuff there so out of season it isn't even funny, knowing that someone will buy it.

[Hispoptart]

Since James and I live in about the same climate I will wait a bit to put it in, need to pull out some weeds and till the area I plan to put it in anyhow.

[rainbowgardener]

Hispo - I'm just curious. If you are going to pull the weeds and then just pop garlic cloves in, why do you need to till?

[Hispoptart]

Hispo - I'm just curious. If you are going to pull the weeds and then just pop garlic cloves in, why do you need to till?

Some of the weeds are really big like the size of small trees. So I am going to pull them and add some grass clippings then till it all in.

[garden5]

Gix, I have one for you: Lowe's is selling lemon and lime tree starts...in late-Aug....in zone 5 Yes, I know that you can get away with it if you have a green-house, but I don't think that there are that many folks around here who do who are looking for citrus trees to justify filling sales space with them. They probably are types not even suitable for container growing, anyway .

[brewski]

Why's that, brewski?

Still way too early for garlic and other spring bulbs here got anothe month, maybe two!

My house is built on an old power station site and apparently it is stated on the deeds of the house???

So don't want to risk it....

[rainbowgardener]

done! planted garlic!

[gixxerific]

done! planted garlic!

Well there you go I got someone to join me.

Not sure but isn't it early for garlic. I'm still somewhat new to garlic and learning but for me I believe it is mid Oct. Not really sure how different OH is from MO.

Just checking RBG.

[rainbowgardener]

I've not grown garlic before, but I'm down to theoretically maybe 4-5 weeks from first frost (hard to believe since it was 93 degrees a couple days ago, maybe it will be later this year). See what happens!

[AkeenGardener]

Garlic does need to be planted before the frosts. It is said to improve the flavour and it does need a long growing season.

Personally I have used the "offspring" from the year before, having started off buying some organic garlic from a supplier. I used that for around 4 years,keeping a few of the globes each year, breaking them up into the cloves and planting them. I felt that the flavour started to disappear after the third year, so now I buy a fresh supply every third year and start the process again.

Its a lot cheaper this way-free garlic for a couple of years...

[garden5]

Akeen, how long before the frost do you recommend to plant the garlic?

[sheeshshe]

OK, I just got my seed garlic from the local farm. they plant their mid to late october. we get first frost sometime in sept. so....? lots of different information here. I hope I succeed well with these.

[hit or miss]

All right! I scored some wild garlic today and am planning to plant some of it toward the end of this month. Question is, I snapped some of the seed heads off to plant, do I plant them at the same time?

[garden5]

All right! I scored some wild garlic today and am planning to plant some of it toward the end of this month. Question is, I snapped some of the seed heads off to plant, do I plant them at the same time?

What do you mean by "seed heads" ? Are you talking about each individual little clove?

[hit or miss]

The cluster at the top of the stalk. They look like little cloves of garlic though.

[garden5]

The cluster at the top of the stalk. They look like little cloves of garlic though.

I never knew that garlic produced little bulbs at the top:?....these sound more like top-set onions.

Someone with more garlic-growing experience will have to come along to help you out with this one.

[soil]

yes you can plant the mini garlic bulbs from the top. I'm going to plant about 200 of them in october. along with our normal cloves.

[hit or miss]

Sweet! Thanks!

[garden5]

yes you can plant the mini garlic bulbs from the top. I'm going to plant about 200 of them in october. along with our normal cloves.

Thanks for clearing this up, Soil. So, does all garlic do this, or is it some kind of fluke?

[TZ -OH6]

I grew wild garlic the last two years and then pulled it up. The leaves are OK for chives, but the bulb leaves a nasty taste behind. It also self seeds all over the herb garden and yard from the bulbils.


Not all garlic produces bulbils. Only the hardneck varietes, which put up edible scapes (flower stalks). Grocery store garlic is almost always soft neck. Hardneck from the grocerystore will have a woody core in the middle surrounded by the cloves.

I start my garlic well after frost hits. You want just enough time (a few weeks) before the ground frezes for the cloves to set out roots, but not put up much top growth. The roots hold the cloves in the soil to prevent frost heave and give the plant an early start in the spring. If you plant too early and get alot of top growth harsh winter weather will kill it back and then the clove will be low on energy to put up new growth in the spring.

If you are going to mulch with leaves instead of straw you may want to hold off until early winter when a bit of the top growth is up. That way you can mulch so that material surrounds the greenery and it can grow up through the mulch in the spring. If you mulch before the sprouts come up they will tangle, and yellow under the mulch and you will have to pull the mulch off to free the plants. Garlic can usually grow up through the strands of straw though.

[Gary350]

I have never been able to grow garlic or onions all I ever get is green tops.

Someone gave me some garlic tops it is a bundle of tiny little cloves about the size of peas, I want to plant these. There are no garlic and onion sets in town to buy this time of the year.

I saw in a thread months ago that garlic and onion need lots of nitrogen. Being a root crop I am suprised they don't need potash and phosphorus.

I am planning to use some of my best compost. Lots of good information in this thread, plant 2" deep, plant 6" apart, plant after first frost, harvest in the spring.

Any more suggestions???

[applestar]

I have read that garlic and onions bulbs are merely below-ground portion of their leaves. So they're not really "root" crop. They're members of Lily family.

[philm00x]

had my garlic in for a couple weeks now. hopefully I'm lucky and they'll produce, and not die off like my other crops. I planted cloves from a head of store-bought (and as has been said already, is likely a softneck variety) garlic, since this is my first time planting garlic and didn't want to try out more premium varieties, yet.

[soil]

Thanks for clearing this up, Soil. So, does all garlic do this, or is it some kind of fluke?

not quite sure, most of the scapes get cut off and made into garlic scape pesto. I accidentally learned that you can plant them. I pulled one plant out to see how they were coming along. noticed the scape but it was very small so I put it aside. well a few weeks maybe even a month or more later I am cleaning up and come across this garlic. well I noticed the scape came out and flowered. now I was expecting something like an onion seed. instead I found tiny garlic cloves. being the curious seed saver that I am I planted them. they didnt turn out to be the biggest garlic in the world but I liked the flavor a lot so I kept them. planted some of those cloves and now they are pretty much normal garlic size. I'm hoping that if I keep planting the biggest cloves I will be caught up with my other varieties that come in at 4-6 inches diameter. if not garlic is practically effortless to grow here. plant in the fall, harvest in the summer.

[garden5]

OK, so you have to leave the scapes on, with hardneck varieties, in order to harvest bulbils....got it .

[soil]

a very hard thing to do as scapes are DELICIOUS. at least to me lol.

[applestar]

I've never had garlic scapes. Now I can't wait for next year since I ordered scape producing Music garlic to plant later this fall.

[garden5]

I've never had garlic scapes. Now I can't wait for next year since I ordered scape producing Music garlic to plant later this fall.

Me neither. I think when I grow garlic, I'll go with a hardneck variety just to sample some of these scapes. For some reason, I imagine them tasting like strong garlic chives. Does the presence of scapes affect (reduce) bulb storage at all?

[TZ -OH6]

The scapes take some energy from the plants so what you can do with your largest plants, those that will produce the largest cloves needed for the next years plantiong, is to take off the scapes soon after they start to go up. take the restoff for eating when they loop and are still tender. The plants you leave for bulbil formation will die off in the garden and the papers around the cloves will rot away so you should be ready to use those cloves first while the others are curing.

[gixxerific]

Just got my garlic today, Music and Chesnok Red.

I didn't know a pound would be that much well it is. Now to figure out where I'm going to put all this. There is quite a bit after they will be separated.

Now the long wait, I have to wait a bit to plant than wait a whole lot longer to harvest. But it will all be worth while.

[garden5]

TZ, thanks for the tips.

Gix, yeah, it can be a different experience ordering seed by weight.....the first time you will always get a surplus. A buddy of mine got 1/4 pound of beans and it was enough to put a good size patch of beans in 3 gardens. Moral of the story, convince your friends to buy seen by weight so you can get some free crops .