Round Head
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Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2018 1:32 am

2018 Deformed Garlic

Hi,
I am a new member. I would like to make an intro and also share with you all some problems with my garlic this year.
I am from Eatonville, Washington state, USA and not new to gardening.
This year I produced a bunch of deformed garlic (both softnecks and hardnecks).
I usually seed in mid-october and harvest in mid-June through July.
I have been growing the same varieties of SN and HN for over 10 years.
Every now and then I get one or two of these deforms.
But this year, 75% of my harvest were deformed.
The only changes that I made this year was that I seeded late; I seeded in January.
And I applied more fish emulsion fertilizer and wood ash than previous years as to supercharge them.
I feed them once every two weeks.
Scapes were harvested in May as usual.
Then in June I noticed smaller secondary scapes being formed so I cut those off immediately but they continue to pop up until my harvest which was this week, July 08.
It seems like the cloves are forming scapes.
Anyone with this experience?
Here are some pics to share. Thanks
Attachments
Cloves Forming Scapes
Cloves Forming Scapes
7 Scapes
7 Scapes

Round Head
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2018 1:32 am

More pics.
Attachments
IMG_0752.JPG

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

How strange! I can’t say that same thing has happened, and my garlic growing performance has been spotty, which I attribute to most of the garden being too shaded during the colder months — solid House shadow due to low sun angle. I have been trying different spots in the garden to find where I CAN grow garlic well.

My garlic this year has been worse than usual, a section of them yellowed and flopped way too early and I had to dig them up. I had attributed this to “another bad spot”. But reading about your odd garlic has made me wonder if it has something to do with the weird spring weather we had here, causing them to “mature” too early.

Yours look like the cloves had split. The tops are pushed apart. Do you think that despite your planting late in January as opposed to previous fall, you had milder winter or warmer spring that made them grow faster? If you have had the odd temperature dip in late spring like we did here, do you suppose the garlic had matured enough to think the period of cold was the “winter” and they were in 2nd year? I wonder if the excess wood ash had encouraged blooming (scapes).

...all speculation at this point... I hope others with more garlic-growing experience will have definite insights.

Welcome to the forum!

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jal_ut
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7447
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

"I usually seed in mid-october and harvest in mid-June through July."

All I can suggest is do what "usually" works.

I have been gardening a long time, yet it seems we can still get some surprises. We plant, grow, learn and enjoy!



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