72 Sprouting growing Garlic Delimma.

Gary350 · Fri Jan 18, 2019 10:39 pm

Today I discovered 72 garlic in the house have sprouted. This is the wrong time of the year to plant garlic what should I do?

I put 8" of potting soil in three 5 gallon buckets with the idea to plant 24 cloves in each bucket. I will need to keep these is the house to make sure they get a little water very day but 72 degrees will make them keep growing. Garlic won't grow with no sunlight.

If I plant them in the garden they need to be in a hill so they stay out of the water but they won't grow until it warms up in May it is too cold now.

Next idea, what if I put them in the refrigerator they should stop growing. Tops are already growing. Refrigerator will screw up their life cycle.

applestar · Sat Jan 19, 2019 1:00 am

I realize you have to make sure to plant in raised mounds because of your flooding spring rains, but if you can manage to prep the beds, somehow, garlic can be planted as long as the ground can be worked enough. Bury deep and mulch to protect the tender shoots from freezing. They will send down roots and grow as long as it’s around 40’s °F or warmer, so they will start growing a lot earlier than you might think.

In the south, like Texas and Florida, they can and do plant garlic in January.

If you are getting the same severe dip in temperature in the next few days wait until after — here, we are looking at Monday-Tuesday overnight low of 5°F.

jal_ut · Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:08 am

Here garlic is planted in the fall.

I think you would be OK now to plant it if your ground can be worked. Also I don't think it will hurt it to refrigerate it if you need to hold it for a while. Have fun!

Gary350 · Sat Jan 19, 2019 5:13 pm

It rained all night & all day finally stopped about 4 pm. Neighbor has enough water in back yard for a boat. Not much visible water in my garden but soil is like quick sand. It is 60 degrees today and suppose to turn cold and be 8 degrees in the morning turning to snow. I decided to rake the mulch out so it is 4" deep on the soil surface then I put the garlic on the mulch surface. Next I put 4" of mulch over the garlic. Garlic will need to make 4" long roots to reach real soil. This spot only gets 5 to 6 weeks of full sun June 1 to July 10. Not sure garlic will like this but don't know what else to do.

I feel like I made a mistake garlic should have been grown inside the house a month to get roots started and nurse plants to better health these garlic are not in very good condition, I discovered them almost too late to save them.

Gary350 · Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:48 am

It is 17 degrees this morning garlic I planted are experiencing colder temperature than if I had put them in the refrigerator, but they are getting moisture, well maybe ice not moisture. I still think it would have been better to grow these garlic inside the house in 5 gallon buckets for 3 or 4 weeks just to get them growing then set them outside. Outside garlic will not grow at all until about April 25. If I had plants in buckets they could be transplanted April 25, plants would have a 1 month head start on hot 98 degree weather.

Gary350 · Tue Jan 22, 2019 10:03 am

We are having such a mild winter it is going to be 55 degrees today so maybe garlic is ok planted outside after all. The past 7 or 8 years winter has been colder than usual with snow. I have lived in TN 42 years in the past it was rare to have any snow at all more often than every 5 years and be lucky to get 1" of snow that lasted more than 2 days. February about 15 years ago we bad 80 degree weather for nearly 2 weeks. Joke in TN is, if you don't like the weather wait 2 hours it will be different. OK, I wait an see how garlic does & what crazy weather does.

jal_ut · Fri Jan 25, 2019 10:01 am

The garlic is winter hardy. Here in high dry Utah, the garlic is planted out doors in the fall and it overwinters in the ground and comes up in the springtime. Yes, we always get snow here and sub zero temps at times and the ground freezes, yet the garlic makes it. Ya just gotta try something, and see what works for you.

Gary350 · Fri Jan 25, 2019 10:48 am

jal_ut wrote:The garlic is winter hardy. Here in high dry Utah, the garlic is planted out doors in the fall and it overwinters in the ground and comes up in the springtime. Yes, we always get snow here and sub zero temps at times and the ground freezes, yet the garlic makes it. Ya just gotta try something, and see what works for you.

What I know for sure is, when I plant garlic Sept 1st hard neck is growing tops in a few days, soft neck will not grow tops for 4 weeks. Nov 1st hard neck garlic plants are 12" tall, soft neck is 4" tall but a week later is first frost garlic stops growing for 6 months until May 1st when it gets warmer and is ready to harvest about a month later. I don't expect this garlic to actually grow until May when it gets warmer that is why I think I should have given it help by keeping it warm in the house for a month or 2. Your right wait and see what happens. This summer I am planting garlic in July & hope to harvest it by Oct 30. We had about 300 garlic bulbs this year we still have some left to eat. If I could get a small green house built garlic might grow better in winter.