When do I plant garlic

[buckbuster]

When do I plant my garlic? Fall or do I wait till spring and plant with my onions? Can I just buy a clove of garlic from the groc store, or do I need to by from a seed store? Do I peel the garlic or do I leave it in its outer layer? Lots and lots of quesitons I know. any help is appreciated.
brad

[farmerlon]

That's good advice from Marlingardener.

I just prepared my Garlic beds today, and will plant the cloves sometime within the next week.

[gixxerific]

Buck I'm in Mo as well I will planting at different times through Oct. But for us generally mid Oct is the norm. Though the weather can change that a bit here and there mid Oct is good to go by.

Good luck

[Francis Barnswallow]

I planted garlic (the Albertson's garlic topic) about a month ago and I've got the grass-like growth that's around 8 inches high. We finally got our first cold front of the season and it started to "cool-off" (High 82, Low 62 here in Orlando) and it feels great.

How do I know if the garlic is ready to be picked? Do I have to wait until spring?

[TWC015]

I planted garlic (the Albertson's garlic topic) about a month ago and I've got the grass-like growth that's around 8 inches high. We finally got our first cold front of the season and it started to "cool-off" (High 82, Low 62 here in Orlando) and it feels great.

How do I know if the garlic is ready to be picked? Do I have to wait until spring?

Your garlic probably won't be ready for harvest until late spring. It takes about 8 months for the garlic to grow to maturity. I planted some last October and harvested in early June.

[Avonnow]

I bought some Elephant Garlic from a seed company and want to plant it, I know it gets big on top as well. Could you possibly do Garlic in pots, like one bulb to one pot, how much space on top of the soil do the greens take up. I was going to plant a bulb here and there in my raised beds (thinking maybe it will repel something). Any suggestions would be great I would like to plant it in the next few weeks, I am lucky it hasn't spouted already I got it in June (too early to plant I learned) and held onto it until now.

[buckbuster]

Do I need to cover it with straw or anything? how much watering does it take to keep them going trough out the winter?
brad

[TZ -OH6]

Garlic will sprout and grow at cool temps as long as the ground isn't frozen. You want to start them early enough for roots to start growing but not so early to get a lot of top growth. Top growth will freeze dry/die off during cold winters and set the plants back in the spring. Mulching prevents soil temp swings and prevents frost heave from tearing up the roots

If you are using straw for mulch the garlic can grow up through it but if you are using something like leaves you might want to wait untill after the garlic sprouts up (early winter) and then mulch around the plants, otherwise they will get tangled under the mulch when they emerge.

We may seet some light snow falling in November and December, but mostly it is just cold and muddy until the snows and hard freezes in January, so I wait until the end of Oct, early November to put my garlic in and still have sprouts come up before winter hits.


You can plant the cloves with or without skins on them. Most leave the skins on but you can find info on the web about soaking off the skins with super secret home made solutions to improve this or that.

[rainbowgardener]

I took the papery skins off my garlic cloves before planting them as some people had advised. That's easy to do and doesn't require any soaking. The garlic has sprouted and is growing well. When I start being able to collect fall leaves, I will mulch it well and let it over-winter.

[amylong]

I opened my fridge today and saw garlic sprouts?? I know from above that it is suppose to be planted it in the fall..but I was curious, is it bad timing to plant it now and I should wait for fall? thanks for all the advice

[rainbowgardener]

Garlic will sprout and grow at cool temps as long as the ground isn't frozen. You want to start them early enough for roots to start growing but not so early to get a lot of top growth. Top growth will freeze dry/die off during cold winters and set the plants back in the spring. .

You are better off to wait until fall. If these sprouts don't last that long, you can always plant cloves of garlic from the grocery store. I did that for several years. Last October, I had enough of my home grown garlic left over to use for starting more

[jal_ut]

amylong ,

You could plant it now. Expect it to make a round by fall. It won't likely make a large multi-segmented bulb this season. If you leave it in over winter, you should get a nice large bulb about a year from now.

Best to plant garlic in the fall, after frost, and plant the largest cloves. Eat the small ones. It also helps the bulbs get larger if you clip the scapes as soon as they form. Garlic is ready to harvest when the leaves turn brown. You can take some before that if you wish, but it will continue to grow as long as the leaves are green.

[rainbowgardener]

wow... a year?! That must be the difference between your climate/ altitude and mine. I planted mine sometime mid to late Oct and have been harvesting recently, so more like 8 - 9 months (since they probably could have been harvested earlier, I was just trying to wait for the ground to dry out). And they were full size bulbs segmented in to cloves.

[DoubleDogFarm]

You could plant it now. Expect it to make a round by fall. It won't likely make a large multi-segmented bulb this season. If you leave it in over winter, you should get a nice large bulb about a year from now.

I believe what James is saying is that planting now has no advantage. Planting a few months early just adds to the length of time, because you will not get a segmented bulb this Fall and it will start again next Spring.

Plant late August thru earl November if ground isn't frozen.

Eric

[amylong]

Thanks for the feedback, maybe I will hold off until october to plant in the fall along with other fall stuff.

[mattie g]

Thanks for the feedback, maybe I will hold off until october to plant in the fall along with other fall stuff.

Definitely hold off. As others have said, planting garlic early provides no discernible advantange, so it's better to wait until things cool off.

[bluehrs]

I've always planted on Thanksgiving, plus or minus a few days. I'm in Zone 10 and always get full-size heads on most of my varieties. I might try planting my seed-grown onions and shallots a little earlier this year.

Brandon
https://www.squarefootgardener.com