Hi y'all!
I picked up some garlic cloves to plant in the garden this fall. Does anyone else do this? Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Deb
Does anyone grow Garlic?
I've grown garlic for a couple of years now. I plant around Columbus Day and harvest when the plants start to dry out in June. Garlic likes a rich soil and lots of drainage. It starts growing right away and stays green all winter and grows again in the Spring.
I tried some last year for the first time, and will do so again this year. I never grew it before because I've heard you are supposed to harvest it in July, and I just didn't have the bed space to keep it there that long. I found a variety that is earlier, which you can harvest in June or even late May, so that is what I tried last year.
Ther farmer up the road plants his garlic in November (and harvests in July). This earlier garlic says to plant in October. I did that last year and I think it was too early. The fall growth was phenomenal, but depsite about 8 inches of shredded leaf mulch over the winter, I lost about two-thirds of the plants. So this year I will plant a bit later.
Yankee, I'm surprised you plant so early and have such good luck. What variety do you grow? I wonder what I did wrong...? Well, I'll try again this year and see how it goes.
i have Silverskin Garlic "Silver Rose", Artichoke Garlic, "early Italian Purple", and Silverskin Garlic "Nootka Rose". It seems like all of these types might be more suitable to a milder climate. Any advice?
I bought 10 different kinds and I have no idea what is growing. I have some luck with elephant garlic being that it is really a leek and leeks grow well for me.
Wow, ten different kinds! Just curious, Yankee, do you grow enough to get you through the whole year, or do you still buy some to supplement? We use a TON of garlic, so I'm not sure I could ever supply enough myself in my small garden. i may just have to find some more room somewhere.
By the way, the early kind that I grew last year was Chinese Pink. Had to go look it up!
I decided to buy a garlic "sampler" because I didn't know what kind to buy which turned out to be 2 bulbs of ten different kinds. I don't use tons of garlic - but the last bulbs tend to dry out before I get to use them. I wish I had a root cellar to store things in but there is no way I have room for one on 1/10th acre. Since I had the basement insulated - it stays warmish all winter so veggies dry out fairly quickly. I'm trying to come up with some better winter storage idea.
"...I wish I had a root cellar to store things in..."
Oh, I hear ya on that one! I would LOVE a root cellar. My basement is too warm, and rather humid also. I went to a day-long seminar with several workshops over the summer, and one of them was about root cellars. I left drooling over my packet, lol, and wishing I had room and the means to build one.
Did you get information on building an above ground root cellar?
If I recall correctly (and my memory is horrible these days!) most of the info was about below grade cellars, or at least mostly below grade. I don't remember any above-ground one, or none that was easily and/or iinexpensively built. I think if there had been a reasonably-priced, fairly easy way to build an above ground one, I would have looked into it more.
The man who gave the talk came from a long line of local farmers, and grew up and still lived on the family farm, which had a very large underground cellar. So I think that even though he gave lots of good info, the majority of his experience was with the underground cellars.
He did cover small cellars, such as burying a cooler, but I think it had to be buried rather deeply - deeper than I was willing to dig myself, lol.
I tried regular and elephant garlic last year. The regular was premium, but the pachyderms were disappointing. Nevertheless, I'm trying again this year with cloves from a garlic specialist instead of grocery-bought bulbs.