Vanisle's garden chatter - Garlic failure

[Vanisle_BC]

Garlic 2022-23: My fall-planted garlic failed over winter . Never happened before. I blame a too-heavy matted cover of leaf 'mulch'. Now I'm trying to establish new 'seed stock' by spring-planting cloves from grocery store bulbs. Of course I won't know what the varieties are. I usually plant about 200 cloves: Buying that much new stock, come fall, would cost a bit more than I'd like. Many of the varieties I prefer have only 4 cloves per bulb.

[Vanisle_BC]

I grow vining tomatoes up strings, in 4 foot by 3.5 foot sections of raised bed; 4 plants in each. I want to get more produce out of those beds by interplanting with other veges that will mature before they impact the tomato harvest. I'm putting together a list but suggestions & comments are welcome. I'm on the south BC raincoast but we can have hot dry summers.

[Vanisle_BC]

How do most folks start their succession plantings (assuming they don't have unlimited garden area)? Space the first planting so there will be just enough room to raise a second interplanted sowing? Or Raise seedlings in pots/blocks, timed for transplant at anticipated harvest of the first plants; or what? Timing could be a bit tricky. Comments?

[imafan26]

Mine failed too. I planted the garlic in a compost heavy potting soil. It was too wet with the December rain and fungi started growing and the garlic cloves disappeared.
I turned the soil which also smelled pretty ripe out in my front yard and spread it out to let it dry off a few days. I had cleaned up the grass from the pollinator garden and I reseeded it with a pollinator mix, alyssum, and marigolds Those seeds are less fussy. The alyssum is starting to sprout and some of the marigolds look like they are coming up. Or they could be weeds. At this point it is hard to tell. At least I found a better use for the potting soil.

I have missed my window to plant more garlic, but it does not matter. Even when I do get garlic it is only a few small cloves. It is cheaper for me to buy a bag at Costco. I don't use a lot of garlic so a couple of bags will last a year. I do have garlic chives which are easier for me to grow and more versatile if I want to get a garlicky flavor.

[Vanisle_BC]

I've got 6 grocery bulbs now - early January - to plant cloves from. The weather is wet & cold and the soil is soaked so I'm not sure whether to wait a while, in case they rot rather than growing; and maybe get them sprouted indoors before planting out. Any comments? My very first garlic was spring planted but it was very long ago and I don't recall the details.

[applestar]

Jan/Feb is essentially no different than fall planting for northern garlic. I think as long as the ground is not frozen, you can plant (even if it freezes later).

Slightly raised mounded bed (10~15cm/4~6in high) + a moat surrounding it could help the bed stay better drained.

If concerned about rotting etc. you can pre-treat the cloves before planting (I’ve seen diluted bleach water or peroxide water, or dust with sulfur or ash … there maybe other method too).

An option is to put treated/ready to plant cloves in the fridge (veg drawer or bottom of door in plastic zip bag) until they start growing roots (and start growing from top just a bit) before planting.

[Vanisle_BC]

Thanks Applestar. I'm going to put the garlic bulbs in the fridge, maybe till March unless they start to grow before that. A preliminary bleach rinse sounds like a good idea. Being grocery store items, they may have been treated to prevent/delay sprouting. We'll see

ETA: That mounding/moat technique is something I once used to get peas off to a headstart in a wet cold spring. It worked but they only matured at the same time as the ones I planted 'normally' a month later in the warmer weather. Nothing was gained except some cold, wet, extra work in the garden!

[applestar]

I was thinking more for drainage than increasing soil temp….

Unless I’m mistaken, you actually have milder winter temp than I do because of the Island and Ocean effects. So I would consider planting as long as or if you can catch the ground not frozen.

With garlic, it’s important to get that headstart to establish roots. That’s why they’re planted in the fall. In colder regions where ground freezes and air temp gets down in the single digits °F and lower, the tops can get winterkilled so you plant closer to fall frost and plan on mulching to protect the dormant, hardier 4 inch or so young tops and against heaving, but in warmer winter regions, they’re planted earlier and allowed to grow to about 8in to a foot tall to grow through the winter. In those warmer areas, they also plant garlic in January.

So I guess the question is are you considered Zone 8 or 9+? It sounds like you grow the northern hard necks though?

[Vanisle_BC]

I normally grow northern? hardnecks with 4-6 cloves. We prefer to have big cloves in the kitchen; but these grocery bulbs look like softnecks - 12 to 20 cloves each and some v. small. If I can discipline myself I'll try to experiment with different vernalizing & planting strategies to see what happens.

Some people recommend putting the cloves in plastic bags of damp soil in the freezer (not fridge) to get them ready for planting. Hmmm ... Maybe I'll do that with some but not all. Maybe I'll plant some now & put some in the freezer, some in the fridge, for planting in March.

In December we had -10C; I make that about: 10/5 times 9 = 18, away from 32 = 13F? Haha, just checking I can still do that. But oh, no! My computer says it's really 14F. So much for 'close enough' school learning.

As for hardiness zones, I think we're Canadian 7+ or maybe 8 but the criteria are questionable; besides which the US ones are different. Not to mention that 'man can't count on nothin'. (Tin roof leaks, chimney leans etc )

Good grief the sun just broke through! Here I go ..

[Gary350]

I plant grocery store garlic, it grows good. I buy hard neck garlic, its easy to tell garlic with a pencil diameter stem is hard neck. I use to keep garlic in the refrigerator for 2 months to make garlic think winter is over so it grows roots and tops in 1 week, but that does not always work. Now I look for grocery store garlic that is trying to grow tops.

Cold weather has never killed my garlic at 5°f. We have had 5°f several times garlic is always good. Frozen soil has never killed garlic either. Online information says, garlic is good down to 5°f. This year -2°f killed all my garlic.

I sprouted more garlic inside the house then transplanted it to the garden a week ago. So far so good. Wait and see what happens. I grew 98 garlic last year about 50% of it is larger than grocery store garlic.

[Vanisle_BC]

Written in January ...

"My fall-planted garlic failed over winter . Never happened before. I blame a too-heavy matted cover of leaf 'mulch'."

Correction ... It survived the heavy wet mulch and subsequent hard frosts and is now growing well even with nights approaching -10C. Three cheers for garlic!

[pepperhead212]

I was wondering what could have killed the garlic - I didn't think that was possible! Glad to hear it came back!

My garlic didn't even die back from just 2 very cold spells we had, down in the single digits, probably because both times the cold snap was very short, and the warmer weather returned quickly. They are 6-8" now - I remember back when they would die back in the winter, and not pop up again until early March.

[imafan26]

Glad to hear your garlic is thriving. Mine were definitely goners, but I replanted the container with beets and carrots and those are doing fine.