Growing Garlic

!

Pony, very funny protection against mummies!
Ernie, just what does one do with garlic sponges? I guess they would be somewhat anti-bacterial.

Since Kathy reminded me of this thread, I looked back at it and realized I left something out.

It is best to mulch over the bed in which you have planted garlic. My favorite mulch for this purpose is dried grass clippings, but chopped straw works well too. It doesn't need to be too deep, just a quarter to a half inch is plenty. Since our winters are not that severe, the real purpose of the mulch is to keep the soil protected from the pounding rain, and it does offer a bit of frost protection as well. I didn't get to it this year, and my garlic made it through the cold snap just fine. There is no hope of dried grass clippings at this time, so I am on the lookout for a straw bale someone might be getting rid of.

This message was edited Jan 2, 2010 12:22 AM

Do you think a layer or two of aged compost/manure would do? I don't have either grass or straw either.

I think compost could be an effective mulch, but you need to be sure it isn't creating wet and mucky conditions right around the garlic plants. It really doesn't need to be very thickly applied, as garlic is a very hardy plant. The main purpose in a relatively mild winter area is to protect the soil and keep it friable rather than compacted.

The only time I have seen my garlic have a little difficulty with the cold is at the end of Winter and early in the Spring when the garlic is happily sustaining leaf growth on those milder days and then it gets hit with a cold snap that dips below freezing. Right now, the little inch high sprouts I can see pushing up do not seem much affected by sub-freezing nights except to slow their emergence. This is actually a good thing, because I don't want them to have too much top growth until we are past the likelihood of extended freezes. Even then, they do bounce back, so don't worry about it too much.

Lacking straw for mulch you can cover the planting with that garden fabric to hold down weeds. It lets water pass through but will take the splatter off.

I have some corn stalks. Can I lay those over the garlic beds?

excellent recommendation, Eweed.

When I have aged manure, it is spread over the garlic and shallot beds in late fall, along with whatever leaves I can lay claim to. Works well.

Need to be carefull with the mulch on shallots. Shallots are not very strong growers and to much heavy manuer based mulch can stop the shallots from growimg up through it.

I feel like we should write a book . . . there's tons of good information here. ^_^

Eweed: The manure I use is aged: as in fluffy & light. I've been practicing this for over 25 years without problems, in particular as a mulch over those crops I wish to give a bit more protection to.
Fresh manure needs to be composted or spread out on top of a non-planted area to go through the aging process via the worms/microbes.

Gwen, I think you are better off using the compost/aged manure for for mulch (like that described by Katye above) than the corn stalks. Out of curiosity, how much area did you plant in garlic?

The water permeable garden fabric is a possibility, but I think that would need to be put in place before planting so you could make holes in it to plant through and for the garlic to sprout up through. Otherwise, how would you know where to poke holes for it to come up? Maybe I am missing something here, as I have never used it myself except between corn rows to keep the weeds down. I did put thicker landscape cloth around my first blueberry bushes, which turned out to be a terrible mistake as it just caused misery later when the bush's roots got tangled in it, the grass came up through it anyway..... I don't recommend that stuff for permanent plantings. Regular mulching and periodic weeding is more effective in the long run.

Hmmm - i took "garden fabric" to mean row covers. like Reemay. My sister-in-law throws old blankets over her beds when the fall temps dip early in her Z5 garden. Works for the short term well.

Oh, I see. I agree the light permeable fabrics like Remay would work to protect from frost and could protect the soil from rain compaction. I haven't tried that, so have no personal experience. I do the same thing as your sister in law (overnight blanket coverage) for really hard frosts that occur after my plants have begun to put on growth. By that time they are growing several inches above the mulch and it won't protect the leaves from the cold.

Maury, I have a little less than 30 feet of garlic planted.

You're right, Holly. Depending on one's zone, time of year & chill factor, the blankets can be helpful. We don't generally have to be concerned with the ground freezing, and I am quite happy about that!
Not sure i could deal well with such temperature extremes - it could become very discouraging. Of course, others feel that way bout our sun-deficit.

Holly, if you have a chance, it would be interesting to hear about which varities have performed best for you over the long-run. I do this with tomatoes, but I'm forever growing different varieties of Garlic. It's that "must try them all" mode that proves troublesome...

Gwen, That sounds like a nice amount; enough for a substantial year's supply to cook with and also enough extra to plant for the next year. I have a 4 foot by 30 foot bed devoted to garlic, but I generally supply my family plus other relatives and numerous friends. In my heyday of garlic growing frenzy, about 5 years ago, I planted 2 and a half such beds each year and was roped into cleaning it all over the Summer, getting it to the Farmer's Market to sell and had 10 different varieties to keep straight. It was altogether too much and began to take my joy away. Also, people I wanted to give it to as a gift were uncomfortable, knowing I was selling it, and insisted on trying to pay me. This kind of ruins the warm fuzzy feeling of being generous.

Kathy, you are always so encouraging and complimentary! I truly appreciate that.

Katye, LOL, I have suffered as well from the urge to "try them all" I started quite a few years ago with an unidentified strain that I got from a gardener friend. This was before I knew that there was anything but generic "garlic" to plant. I think it was probably California Early and I kept it going for 25 years. It grew quite well in this region, with nice large bulbs, long storage life ( I still have some bulbs from 2008 that I can still cook with) and was a great braiding garlic. Sadly, it was one of the varieties that I lost to the fungus this past Spring.

The other softneck garlics I have grown successfully are Early Italian (similar to California Early), Inchelium Red (also similar, but with whopping big bulbs, and reportedly a taste test winner in Rodale cooking contests) which was a reliable producer 7 years, Lukak ( a nice, rich flavor ). The only softneck I would not be able to recommend based on my own experience is Nootka Rose ( silverskin variety) which was amazingly pretty with white outer wrappers and rose colored clove covers, but had a sharp flavor that I didn't prefer. I lost all my softnecks to the fungus. i only had my late maturing hardnecks make it through mostly unscathed.

The extra early Asian varieties I grew (Chinese Pink and Xian) had much smaller bulbs, were planted closer together for this reason, and had a very mild flavor. They were fun because they were harvestable in mid June for me, and I might even have been able to pull some even earlier and get a full sized bulb. They both had beautiful purple streaks on the outer wrappers. I grew these for 4 or 5 years.

Asian Tempest is a Korean strain that has much larger bulbs and cloves, hot flavor, and really nice minced into garlic butter or in salad dressing. I grew that one successfully for 7 years also, with a good crop each time. It is the favorite of a neighbor who I gave some to.

I grew Chesnok Red for several years, which is a good baking garlic, and it always did well. I discontinued it because I liked my Armenian variety better and they were fairly similar in appearance and flavor. Both of these are large-bulbed hardneck, with big cloves, easy to peel and have great flavor.

The only other type I have currently planted (and have grown for 7 years) is something someone gave me, and they called it 'Kenyan'. I met a person who had lived in Kenya for a few years, and she was surprised, saying she had never seen garlic in the markets there. So who knows what it really is. It hass large bulbs, is a consistent producer, hot but flavorful,.and is a robust plant.

I bought some Czech Broadleaf from Territorial Seedto plant this year, but have no results of my own to go on regarding that one.


This message was edited Jan 7, 2010 5:34 PM

LOL - Aldi's only sells garlic in net sleeves, 3 bulbs at a time. But it's cheaper than most places, so I get some.

I picked some up 10 days ago, and darned if last night I couldn't find a single unsprouted clove - they have all sprouted!

Think I could add these to the bed?

I got mine this year from a fellow Dgers, Kris (ladybugfan) and so planted what she sent. I waited too long to be picky and choose my own varieties as my local markets were all out when I went to purchase. So I was very lucky to get from Kris!

I have only planted once before and I planted about 90 bulbs of garlic and shallots, mostly garlic. I have several varieties that I spent quite a bit on and not one single bulb was formed. I got lots of growth, waited for the appropriate time, and then when I dug up, not one single bulb. The only thing I've ever been able to figure out is that I did not keep the bed weeded. I won't make that mistake this time!

Ideally I would like some for storage and some to braid and some to give as gifts. I use quite a bit of garlic in cooking - it would be hard to grow enough both for my own use and to give away, but I haven't also never successfully stored garlic. I've bought the braids and the garlic goes soft so quickly. I guess I can't store it in my kitchen if I want it to last.

This year I'm concentrating on getting right what I do grow, so I'm limiting what I put in this year. For instance, no potatoes as they take up so much room and organic potatoes at the store aren't that expensive. Also no strawberries because I don't want to bother with the birds that flocked to the bed last time we planted strawberries! I may do strawberries next year.

I'm concentrating on getting an asparagus bed going, nurturing along the artichoke bed I started last year, and then growing a lot of the things that were successful last year - namely lettuce, broccoli, corn, tomatoes, and peppers. I also want to add a few things for the chickens now that we have them, so I'm hoping to do cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and a few things like that. Also, I want to try and really extend the growing season. so far with this warm weather, I'm tempted to go out there and put in broccoli and lettuce right now! It is really gardening weather today, isn't it?!?

I also have a goal to get everything in nursery pots into the ground this year and not to buy anything until I do. (Since we have zero money, this should not be a problem.)

Gwen - do you have the ability to grow indoors? As in - do you have grow lights?
I am growing lettuces & scallions under lights, and was considering broccoli for the leaves. Basil will be started soon as will more Cilantro. My Cilantro bed is dwindling out there.

Since we don't know what the rest of the winter holds, i would encourage you to give it a try outside, if inside is not feasible. You could plant in containers if you wanted to be able to protect them, just in case it gets ugly out there. Spinach, parsley, and many hardier greens might do better than expected.

If you can't keep garlic in the kitchen untill at least june and have it perfectly useable you have picked the wrong garlic to save or the bulbs were not properly dried.

California early and the late one both keep well.

well, I guess I'd best pot these up then, because they have sprouted.

Garlic that you buy at the grocery store has sometimes been kept in storage at artificially low temperatures, and when you get it home to your kitchen it thinks Spring has arrived. I think potting them up would be a good idea, unless your soil in the garden is unfrozen. In that case, if you have room outdoors you could go ahead and plant them where they will stay until harvest in July.

Most of the varieties I have grown store until June or later. The only ones that don't are the extra earlies which have smaller bulbs/cloves, and just seem more fragile in general.

Gwen, I do not understand why you wouldn't have gotten a single bulb from a previous planting. Garlic is a survivor kind of plant, and even with weeds should have given you at least some small bulbs. Do you remember what variety you planted (hardneck or softneck) what time of year you planted, and when you dug them up for harvest? I am curious about why such a strange result would have occurred.

What is the difference between hardneck and softneck?

Holly, I planted both kinds but not sure which varieties. It was very odd. I planted in November and began checking the bulbs in the spring. I had all the appropriate green things coming up, some with the curly cues and all (scapes?) and then some of the leaves began to turn brown, as foretold, and everything seemed like it was going along okay but never any bulbs. I kept checking them all summer and finally gave up in the fall when you couldn't find the garlic for the weeds. Other garlic growers in my area can't figure it out either and we all decided it was too much weed competition. There was no other possible explanation. The wierd thing is that they grew so 'normally' in every other way other than forming bulbs.

When you say garlic should store til June, this is for garlic harvested when?

We are having a real deep cold spell. Thank goodness this means for once I should get GREAT SDB iris bloom. But it also means that for now I cannot work the soil. So will pot these. They are really going to town sprouting. Some sprouts are 3 " long.

Gwen July Aug. What a pretty braid is hanging in Lindas kitchen right now and my gh table is littered with reject bulbs that are still firm and fit to eat or plant.

I harvest garlic from the beginning through the middle of July, and I use it all year lasting until the next harvest comes the following July. The extra earlies (Chinese Pink and Xian were the ones I had), planted like the others in October, were ready for harvest by early to mid June, and stored until December or so.

Softneck garlic does not put up a flower stalk, so there is no central woody stem in the center of the leaves. These types are easily braided. The 2 main categories are the artichoke types with several concentric layers of cloves in the bulb, and the silverskins, which have white bulb wrappers and also the concentric clove layers as well as i could discern with the kind I grew.

Hardneck garlic sends up a flower stalk called a scape, which is culicued around, then straightens out when the flower is ready to open. These are edible when they are still newish and tender, and are considered by some to be a delicacy. When dried, the stalk becomes tough, and if you want to braid this kind you have to pound the stalk first to make it flexible enough. I have never bothered, and just braid the other kind and store these loose in a basket.

My garlic is coming up and growing! I've already been out there weeding.

if we don't harvest the garlic the first year, what happens? I'm about to plant all this that's sprouted now that the ground is warm enough.

Why wouldn't you want to harvest? It would be like not harvesting your potatoes, wouldn't it? I think they would rot. But I am definitely no expert!

If you don't harvest, what would probably happen is that each clove in the newly formed bulb would sprout, and the following spring you would have 8 to 10 new plants all crowded together. The ensuing bulbs/cloves would be rather smaller than you would prefer for cooking with. It would be possible to divide them up and spread them out for each new plant to grow with sufficient room around it if you got to it early enough in the year.

well, I planted so very late, was thinking they would need extra time. maybe just harvest a bit later than normal instead?

We arrived in Seattle mid August last year. The garden wasn't ready for much before February. We planted Garlic "late" and still managed to harvest much more than we could use this past summer. Our cloves were smaller, but not too small to use in the kitchen. We planted on schedule this year and he's been out there checking them regularly - everything has sprouted and he plans to lay straw this weekend.

Gwen, that is great! This is your year for garlic success.

Bonjon, garlic can be planted now up to the end of February and still mature this summer. You will probably harvest a few weeks later than Fall planted garlic, and still get a reasonable crop. You'll just have to keep a watch on it to decide when it is ready.

Should I put straw down? Is that for weeds or???