SLC
Senior Member
Posts: 232
Joined: Mon May 10, 2010 9:18 pm
Location: Central Connecticut

3 Questions - Garlic/Weeds

To make a long story short, I planted garlic last spring that said you could harvest in the fall. However, other plants took over and the garlic died off - or so I thought. I put weed fabric in my garden, but in the fall, I pulled it all up. Then about the end of October, the garlic started coming back. I have read most people in the North (I am in Connecticut) plant in the fall and harvest about July, so I left it growing. Now it is spring and my boyfriend tilled up the garden around the garlic.

Here are pictures to refer to for the below questions.
IMG_1754.jpg
IMG_1755.jpg
Here are my 3 questions:

1. I will put the weed fabric down around the garlic patch, but what can I put in-between the garlic to prevent weeds? They are spaced about 3 inches apart. I have an organic garden, so I can't use a spray. I thought of grass clippings, but my boyfriend does put weed killer in the yard so that won't work. I need something I can just pick up easily at Home Depot or something - I wouldn't even know where to get hay - plus I don't need that much. Any suggestions?

2. It looks like the garlic had started to form cloves and then when it came back, each of the cloves is now forming it's own clove, because there are like 8 stems all right next to each other...is that the case? What will happen if I just leave it as is? I have a small garden and I don't have enough room to separate them all out - nor the time right now - I've got A LOT of seeds to plant and veggies to transplant. So....what will happen? Will the garlic even grow properly?

3. Once I harvest this garlic, can I plant new garlic in the fall in the same spot?

Any help is greatly appreciated! :D

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

You are right — I Recognize the way they are growing from whole heads of garlic that I’ve left in the ground accidentally when I harvested too late, the heads had split open and the leaves/tops had rotted off, so I didn’t know they were there.

The cloves NEED to be planted separately to grow properly into entire heads — 6 inches apart is optimum. As close set as these are, they will only form rounds, if that. They may only stay single clove shaped.

If you want to harvest good sized garlic this season, even as underdeveloped rounds, I would try separating at least some of them and replanting them, but you need to dig deep to try to get a lot of the roots up since this will set them back considerably. Start from the outer-most ones — stick a garden/spading fork straight down deep about 4 inches out and lift - watch the angle, don’t stab them. I’m thinking consider the rest of them as lost cause and simply pull them and use as “green garlic” — kind of like “green onions” — as you need them. You could also basically thin like this and see if you get any results.

The heavy growth right now in itself might be enough to suppress weeds. Once you start thinning the clumps apart a bit, you could get in there and hand pull weeds and then mulch or even simply just keep weeding. But one way might be to stick folded up paper between as you create some kind of even spacing. I usually use packing paper — kraft paper or blank newsprint — but people donuse newspaper.


...planting in same spot — I’m having trouble with onion maggots which also infest young tender garlic. So I would not. But if you aren’t having this problem, maybe it’s OK? (In fact, I planted garlic last fall but am not growing onions this season to starve them out. If this doesn’t work, I’ll forgo garlic this fall as well.).

SLC
Senior Member
Posts: 232
Joined: Mon May 10, 2010 9:18 pm
Location: Central Connecticut

Thank you! But, ugh, I knew you were going to say they needed to be separated.

If I don't separate, will they just not grow?

I can probably separate a few, but not all. It is more likely that I can thin them out. Which part of the many-in-one cloves would you say is the best to keep? Like, say, I pull one out that has like 8 tiny cloves on it....should I keep the center one or the biggest one, or....?

Also, when I dig them up, how long can they stay out of the ground for? Like, can I dig them all up and then replant the cloves I want or do I have to do one at a time? Cuz if I dig them all up, they could be out of the ground for a long time.

Or, if I just try and pull up some from a batch, will the whole bunch come up or just the ones I am pulling on? Probably the whole thing cuz they are so close together, right?

When you say mulch, do you mean like the stuff people put around trees and such? Cuz I know I can pick that up easily at Home Depot. If so, is it just regular old mulch or do they make a certain kind for gardens?

Oh, also, as far as I know, no onion maggots, but how would I know? What do they do?



Return to “Vegetable Gardening Forum”