Plopped garlic I got from Albertson's into the ground.....

[tedln]

Francis,

I did the same thing last year. I used Albertsons as my supplier. I didn't know what to do with the bulbs either, but I broke them into individual cloves and planted them before the end of August.

I harvested them in June of this year and this was my harvest.





I feel like I got a good harvest and it was totally by accident.

The onions I know a little more about. I would guess the variety you bought in a bundle will require separation from the bundle. Plant them two or three inches apart. If you simply want green onions, plant them more than 1/2" deep. If you want to leave them long enough to grow decent sized bulbs, plant them between 1/4" and 1/2" deep.

I planted a lot of onions about one month ago. I've never tried growing them in the fall but always have a good spring harvest. The onions I planted last month are almost ready to start harvesting as green onions or scallions. I will leave most to harvest later in the fall as bulb onions.

I will plant onions again in January for a spring/early summer harvest.

Ted

[Francis Barnswallow]

Yeah I just seperated the cloves this morning. I noticed are few more have started to grow stalks.

btw, is it a good thing to plant garlic near marigolds?

[tedln]

Good question! I don't think it is harmful to plant either near each other. Is it helpful? I don't know. I've read some who recommend both garlic and marigolds as repellents for insects. I read a few posts which said to plant the marigolds away from your crops because they are really an attractant for insects and should be used to pull insects away from your garden. I really don't know which is correct. I didn't use anything with my garlic and didn't see anything bothering it in almost ten months.

One thing you might want to try while the garlic is growing through the winter, is clipping a few leaves, chopping them fine; and cooking with them. I tried it and got a good garlicky flavor in dishes from the leaves.

Ted

[Francis Barnswallow]

Ted I heard the marigolds help keep away nematodes because their roots create an acid nematodes hate. Plus I've noticed other people with marigolds in their gardens as well.


As for the garlic, when would be a good time to plant the cloves? I'm also interested in planting onions as well. Keep in mind I'm in Orlando and we only get 2-5 freezes a year.....although last year was crazy cold.

[tedln]

When to plant garlic is a hard question for me to answer. As I said, I planted in August. I simply didn't know any better. I should have planted later. For me, it didn't seem to matter. They still did well. We only get one light snow every two or three years on average. Last winter, we had a lot of freezes and seven snows. It didn't seem to effect my garlic in the ground at all. I planted onions in January and we had three or four more snows after the onions were planted. They did very well also. No rhyme or reason that I can see as for as the gardening rules are concerned.

Ted

[Francis Barnswallow]

Thanks for the help Ted.

[tedln]

Francis, you are very welcome for my limited help. Sometimes my "help" only creates more questions.

Ted

[rainbowgardener]

Here's a guide to growing veggies in FLA. Midway down the page, Table 3 is about planting dates for different veggies in North, Central or South FLA:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh021

It doesn't unfortunately mention garlic, but it does list onions, which are in the same family and says you could plant them anytime between now and December.

[thanrose]

One reason for the IFAS page not mentioning garlic is that it doesn't do all that well in Florida. Take your pick: it's heat or humidity. Yeah, I've done the same, growing grocery store garlic. Never had nice fat bulbs, but did get little ones. Finally decided to grow them mostly for the greens.

Now I just grow garlic chives instead and purchase my bulb garlic.

Tom MacCubbin is from Central Florida. He was the expert on everything you could grow in an edible garden in the lower two-thirds of the state. I'm pretty sure he advised to not grow garlic if you don't want to be disappointed, but I don't have his many books at hand or committed to memory. Yet.

There is a bulb forming garlic called Creole that is supposed to do better for us down here. Two guesses where that comes from. It will probably be a soft neck garlic, and probably a smaller head.

One reason for postponing planting garlic here until Nov-Jan is it is prone to rot in the fall here.

Still fun to grow.

[garden5]

Well, since we plant them to grow through the cold up north, your best bet down south would be to plant them to grow through the coolest time of the year, which would probably be, as someone else stated, around Nov.-Dec.

Maybe FL isn't the best place to grow garlic, but so what? You'll never know unless you try .

[gixxerific]

Yeah.

I wonder if you stuck em in the fridge till it gets cold out side then take em back out and plant them in November...

Any thoughts on that?

Garlic in the fridge will think it is time to go and start sprouting after a month or so, can't remember the exact time frame. Been there done that with eating garlic. You can fridge them up before planting to prime them but not that long ahead I don't think.

[tedln]

Just don't ever store any in a ziplock bag and forget where you put them. I promise you will be looking for a dead body or something equally foul smelling before you find them.

Ted

[gixxerific]

Just don't ever store any in a ziplock bag and forget where you put them. I promise you will be looking for a dead body or something equally foul smelling before you find them.

Ted

Putting this in my notes.

[LindsayArthurRTR]

I meant if you planted them too early, and they sprouted in the ground. Could you dig em up and put em in the fridge until cooler weather.

[gixxerific]

I meant if you planted them too early, and they sprouted in the ground. Could you dig em up and put em in the fridge until cooler weather.

I see, not sure if that would be a good idea either. There would more than likely be root damage and that is not good. Just doesn't sound like a good idea to me, but hey what do I know.

[tedln]

Lindsey,

Almost everything I know, I learned by accident. Try it. If it works, let us know. I'm always ready to learn something new.

Ted