Each fall I've been planting garlic from cloves that I've grown for several years. This has worked out well, except that this year no good large heads were produced. They all looked something like the photo. Any ideas about what might have caused this? The spring and summer seemed unremarkable except that we had a killer frost in May and another in June... one longish hot spell up into lower 90's on many days.
TIA
LAS
This past year I had some in my garlic patch that looked like this. They had competition from grass and not enough water. A few were sick.
I've found the larger the cloves I set, the larger the garlic I get. They are also watered daily throughout the summer, and are kept weed-free.
I set the cloves around the end of October (it was Nov 20th this past fall because I was out of town in October). I dig a trench, put some organic fertilizer in the bottom mixed with some surrounding soil, and set the cloves in the soil just above, so the roots can grown down into the trench.
I cover the cloves to a depth of about two inches. (I stick my thumb into the soil and put a clove into the hole).
When spring comes around and the garlic are growing well, I give them a side dressing of organic fertilizer. Then they are left alone except for watering and weeding until the tops dry out. Then I pull them up and leave them on a table under the porch to dry out.
I think you are right about the small starting cloves. All the small ones I had this year were from cloves that started out small. Maybe they just didn't have any oomph. OTOH, I had many very large bulbs that came from the large cloves I planted. I think I have enough garlic to last me another year.
paracelsus - I'm glad you have plenty of garlic left.
Try keeping the best "heads" and set the biggest cloves when the time is right to do so in your area.
If you still have small heads next year (2012) you might have to start over with fresh stock :(
