Can someone explain garlic to me.

[btrowe1]

I did a first time planting of about 25 cloves.This past Fall, Planted Oct, They started to grow I mulched them for the winter and pretty soon (Late March/April) I figure they will begin to grow again,at least I'm hoping they will.

Just what should I do.. remove the mulch? leave the mulch? What the heck are scapes and loops, pick the bloom before it blooms.. I"m gonna need some help here... Spring plated garlic?? Can I plant it now, frozen deep ground but loose loom on top?? Strange winter not much snow again.

I feel good in knowing there are A LOT of really good gardeners on here who can guide me on what I need to do.. Thank you as always..

[DoubleDogFarm]

I did a first time planting of about 25 cloves.This past Fall, Planted Oct, They started to grow I mulched them for the winter and pretty soon (Late March/April) I figure they will begin to grow again,at least I'm hoping they will.

Just what should I do.. remove the mulch? leave the mulch? What the heck are scapes and loops, pick the bloom before it blooms.. I"m gonna need some help here... Spring plated garlic?? Can I plant it now, frozen deep ground but loose loom on top?? Strange winter not much snow again.

I feel good in knowing there are A LOT of really good gardeners on here who can guide me on what I need to do.. Thank you as always..

I would just leave the mulch. The garlic leaves will push up.

Hardneck garlic produce scapes. Flower stocks. They don't grow straight up, but spiral. They should be removed after about 1 1/2 curls. Redirect the energy to bulb formation.

[kimbledawn]

Then after you remove the scapes you either make pesto out of them or chop and saute them with something good.

[tomc]

Just what should I do.. remove the mulch? leave the mulch?

I'd leave the mulch on. garlic have small feet, mulch helps keep soil moist where the roots are.

What the heck are scapes and loops, pick the bloom before it blooms.. I"m gonna need some help here...

Hardneck garlic makes a head with bulbils (seed) in them. Softneck garlic, I don't grow. Anyway for hardneck garlic the bulbil producing stalk grows in a loop. That seed head takes strength away from (and size away from) the root we eat.

The virtue of those bulbils is they are usually free from soil born disease. Which is why some folks let a few grow and plant them in the spring, every year...

Spring plated garlic?? Can I plant it now, frozen deep ground but loose loom on top?? Strange winter not much snow again.

See paragraph above.

[Gary350]

Leave them like they are. When they start to grow feed them nitrogen every 2 weeks and water until June. Harvest in hot weather probably the end of July for NY.

[PunkRotten]

What percent of N would you suggest, Gary?

[btrowe1]

The scape part can be cooked up and eaten yes? Are they good and garlic tasting??

[rainbowgardener]

The scapes can be eaten however you would eat garlic. In my experience, the scapes are garlic flavored, but milder. I would put scapes in a salad, where I would not use raw garlic.

[tomc]

The scape part can be cooked up and eaten yes? Are they good and garlic tasting??

Yes they taste good and mostly garlic-y. I dunno how to describe the difference, it is still mostly garlic.

[Hieron]

I have a related question that I might as well not make a new topic for:

I also planted garlic for the first time this past fall...about 20 cloves in a roughly 2' x 4' x 2' rubbermaid container. They grew and remained alive and green through tons of cold weather, but finally died back maybe about a month ago. Maybe the 2 inches closest to the ground are still green now; the rest is pale and wilted.

My reading tells me that when the leaves die back, that's when you harvest. Can I assume that my garlic is going to grow back when it warms up and then die back again late Spring or so? I guess I'm wondering if the mild winter tricked my garlic into thinking it was done when the bulbs are in fact hardly formed (I dug around one a bit to check), and if they won't grow any larger now. Thanks for elucidating this for me!

[SOB]

They will start to grow again when the weather warms up. Then this summer when they start to dry up and die it will be time for harvest.

[Hieron]

They will start to grow again when the weather warms up. Then this summer when they start to dry up and die it will be time for harvest.

Awesome; good to know something went right with my garden last year lol. Thanks for the info!

Mike

[btrowe1]

Hieron, Yours are container grown, mine our garden grown, we"ll need to keep in touch at harvest time and compare.. I guess mine is a hardneck variety, its a real garlic, not an elephant type, I read on here they're more related to leeks??

[tomc]

All kinds of garlic, scallions, onion, leek, chive, walking onion, day lili, are all allium.

For all their differences they are more alike than not.

[WinglessAngel]

Hello and long time no see, I believe I remember a few names on here from my visits long ago. I am contemplating starting a garlic patch myself but am wondering how it will do if I allow about half to go to seed and spread on their own? I am a novice here on the garlic scene but I use so much of it, would love to be able to grow it myself. I did a similar trick with my onion sets I planted last year and didn't harvest any and let them go to seed and volunteer back this year and so far they've been doing great. NE Ohio located here. Would I in theory be able to do the same with hard neck garlic varieties? I do know that they need good rich well drained soil, my field garden is perfect for that, good water table and gets lots of sun. Also, when to plant is eluding me a bit here as well. TIA!

[jal_ut]

WinglessAngel, look for the threat titled "Advice for first time onion grower? " We just had a good discussion about onion culture.

I believe for garlic, if you want nice multi faceted bulbs, you should plant nice large cloves in the fall. Harvest the garlic in summer when the tops start to turn brown.

Save the largest cloves for planting next year for the largest bulbs. Cut the scapes off when they make one circle and eat them.

If you want nice bulbs, I will not recommend leaving it in the ground for growing next year. Nor will I recommend going for seed. Nor will I recommend planting garlic seed. (Unless you want to do it for the experiment)

[WinglessAngel]

WinglessAngel, look for the threat titled "Advice for first time onion grower? " We just had a good discussion about onion culture.

I believe for garlic, if you want nice multi faceted bulbs, you should plant nice large cloves in the fall. Harvest the garlic in summer when the tops start to turn brown.

Save the largest cloves for planting next year for the largest bulbs. Cut the scapes off when they make one circle and eat them.

If you want nice bulbs, I will not recommend leaving it in the ground for growing next year. Nor will I recommend going for seed. Nor will I recommend planting garlic seed. (Unless you want to do it for the experiment)

Good to know! Thanks, the onions I'm not so much worried about as they've gone bonkers lol. Long time no see as well. How do I go about drying the harvested garlic then for replanting the following year and I did spy earlier that store bought garlic was fine to plant? Sorry for all the q's, would I be ok trying to plant a few now as well?

[rainbowgardener]

I have always planted store bought garlic, except that last year I had so much, I saved some of my home-grown garlic to replant. So now I have the second generation of what used to be store bought.

I'm not for sure about spring planting garlic, not having done it, but I expect that by fall this year, what you would have is one big round of garlic, larger than the clove you started with, but not separated into smaller cloves.

Incidentally garlic always seems just amazing to me. OK there's a plant that grows this fleshy bulb to feed itself (that just happens to be garlic flavored, which makes sense because it helps keep pests away). That part I understand. But then the plant also produces a paper like substance and manages to wrap each bulb segment in paper!!

[WinglessAngel]

Ta, thanks for the advice! I'll just wait until fall then and find some nice bulbs from the store to start off with and start growing my own strain from the store to start and keep saving it to grow thereafter.

[TZ -OH6]

Garlic can get twisted up under mulch, especially if you use leaves, so at least check them in the spring and pull the mulch back a bit if you have too.


Scapes are the best part of early summer. Sauteed with a little butter or olive oil, they are like garlic-flavored green beans.

They can go on top of pizza too.

[WinglessAngel]

Thanks for the advice!