garlic

[Kageri]

I would like to attempt planting garlic for the first time. I've done some reading but I've never actually seen a garlic bulb or plant. Most of the time I don't even see cloves. Just jarred pureed or similar. My husband loves cooking with garlic though. I was thinking of the purple stripe, chesnok red variety.

We are in zone 5. I found conflicting info over first frost date but the farmer's almanac site says Oct. 7 and the university extension site mostly agrees with that as a 50% frost date. Several sites say plant in oct in northern climates and several sites say plant 4 weeks, 6 weeks, or as much as 8 weeks before frost dates. What is ideal? There is a planting problem if done too early. We are not moving in until Aug 2nd and the current owners would like to come back and get their harvest because it's important for feeding their family of 5. I'm not sure how soon I will have a space for the garlic.

Garden beds are established, weed free, loose, and fertile looking soil with currently healthy vegetables of all kinds. We will have paper pulp or sawdust bedding with rabbit manure, hay with chinchilla manure, and chicken manure to compost or directly mulch with.

[cdog222]

I have only grown garlic for two years now, so my experience is a small sampling size. My average first frost date is 10/17, and I planted my garlic during the last week in each of the last two Septembers. The beds that I have planted them in seem to be of a similar nature to yours. My harvest this year has been sitting on the fireplace hearth for the last couple of weeks to dry. I planted 100 cloves last year, and have 92 or 93 good bulbs to show for it

Some of them didn't poke through the soil last fall before winter set in, but they seemed to catch up to those that did during their growing cycle this year. There is probably an optimum planting date in relation to the first frost date, but with my experience thus far, close is good enough for me

[applestar]

Here's my understanding on the when to plant and what seems like contradictory planting times for north vs south.

In the north, you want to plant when you normally plant spring bulbs and no earlier. This means around first average frost to hard frost and about two weeks before the ground freezes.

In the south, you can plant earlier -- up to around a month before first average frost I believe... maybe even earlier (somebody please provide this info).

The reason as I understand it, is that you want the garlic to set down roots and get established, but you don't want the garlic to grow too much foliage before the hard freeze in the north because young shoots are more winter hardy than the more mature growth.

So in the north, you can let the foliage grow a little bit... 4-6 inches at most. But you want to mulch to prevent freeze thaw upheaval and to protect the foliage. Deep mulch before the deep freeze (especially the more tender varieties like Elephant Garlic especially if you don't get much snowcover during the winter as natural mulch) and remove some of the extra mulch once the ground begins to thaw (sugar maple starts to run).

OF COURSE be sure to plant the northern (long day) varieties and winter hardy German porcelain varieties. Music is a good choice if you want large cloves and edible scapes.

In the south where the winter temps are not severe enough to damage the upper foliage, you can let them get a good head start.

Oh, keep in mind that the garlic will stay in the ground until next summer (I'm harvesting the last of them now) so consider where to plant accordingly. (Yes you are going to start thinking about where you will be planting your early spring crop and where you will be planting your summer crop next year )

[rainbowgardener]

Applestar is the expert. But I have always planted garlic cloves at the beginning of October. My average first frost date is mid-October. But the garlic is not shut down just because there is a frost. First frosts are light and garlic isn't frost tender. It doesn't go in to dormancy until the ground starts freezing. As applestar said, you want the garlic to put down roots and start growing, but you don't want it to get too big. And yes, I just harvested the last garlic today.

[Kageri]

I don't need to do too much planning yet. There is far more garden space than I can maintain. Until I start getting in perennials, much of which will be in an entirely different area that I want rip apart, I can shove my annuals wherever is convenient. Next spring I may be seeding a ground cover or annual wildflowers in large sections just to fill it for now and turn it under when I get there.

[jubileeproduce]

We always start planting on our farm in Oct. and finish in Nov. Hardnecks would prefer to be in the ground during the winter but softnecks can be planted in the early spring and still be fine. Just a little smaller than if they were in the ground all winter. Some people recommend that if your growing in containers you should wait until spring to plant softnecks. We have created a calendar at our farms website. https://www.jubileeproduce.com/garlic-growing-calendar/

[jal_ut]

I plant garlic around last week of September. We usually get our killing frost the first week of September and I need some time to clean up the area and till, then will plant the garlic. Could even be planted in early October, but needs to be in before snowfall.