Garlic

Hi all. On the day before Thanksgiving I took a large head of garlic that was beginning to go bad and I stuck it in dirt, watered it, and forgot about it. Well, tonight our 5 year old daughter got all excited because it was growing! :) What I am wondering is if it will come true or not, or just grow the stalk? It had a little green shooting out the top when I stuck it in the dirt, but now it has several. I know I am not explaining it right, but I am a newbie and just wanted to experiment. We LOVE garlic! :)

So no ideas on this one? Please help someone! :)

This is my second year growing garlic, so hopefully I can help. If its growing, then next late spring early summer you should be able to dig it up and have garlic. Technically, you're supposed separate the bulb into cloves and plant them individually...I think 4-6 inches apart, water well after planting, then they overwinter in the ground and really start growing in the spring. I think mine normally get about 3-4ft high, and then they will start to get flower bulbs. You are supposed to pick those off so that the energy is not wasted in making scapes(I think that's what they call the blooms) and goes into the bulb to make it bigger. Hope this helps.

Kristie

Hi, and thanks! Right now it is in a pot, and going strong. I didn't think they would be hardy enough for Zone 6 to plant outside? I know none of what we planted last year came back, but then again, they didn't do so well either. I need all the help I can get so appreciate anyone else's knowledge!

I would imagine in your zone the Garlic cloves will be OK outside, But maybe put them in the ground if you can find a space for them, if you do get frosts, then cover them with a mulch to protect them. This is about the right time to plant Garlic for good bulbs next year, they do winter well, if you take them out the pot for outdoor planting, see if you can gently split the bulb into cloves and then plant them, they will already have little roots growing, but dont push the cloves into the soil or you will break the tiny roots, use a dibber/bulb or leek planter, to get the depth you want and fill in the hole, dont put the mulch against the green stem incase it causes rot at the neck,
Next spring/early summer, you should watch for the flower buds, this will indicate that the Garlic has matured and grown into completely new bulbs, scrape away a little top soil so you can see if the bulbs are large enough to harvest, if not, leave till the full flowers starts to show colour, White/Pinkish or green depending on the type, remove the flower-heads and test for size again by scraping the soil gently, to lift the bulbs when ready for harvest, use your garden fork and put it in the ground about 6 or 8 inches away from the green stems so you dont damage the bulbs, I lay mine on the top of the soil for a few days on there sides with all the foliage in tack, so the sun/wind can dry the bulbs a bit for storage, or take indoors and lay them out the same in a coolish place, rub any soil off the bulbs when it has dried around the bulbs, use the foliage to pleat the bulbs into bundles and try not have the bulbs touching each other so they can get air around the bulbs, hang them up in your kitchen as decoration or wherever you want them to store, cut off or pull off one bulb at a time to use them, leave the others to hang till needed. if you are lucky enough to have a good crop, you can also add a few cloves to a nice container of olive oil with some herbs for ready to pour dressings, wait a few weeks before you use the oil, or crush the cloves and freeze them into ice cube containers for later cooking, you just pop out a frozen cube when cooking. never plant any cloves that show signs of mould or disease, it will spoil the bulbs when growing. good luck. hope you have great fun. WeeNel.

WeeNel, you are always so informative and helpful! That is the information I was needing and am very thankful for it! I am loving seeing all the green growing up out of the pot! I will have to buy some more just so I can get them planted outside in the ground! :)

This is my first year at trying garlic and I just planted the cloves in and amongst my rose bed. And it looks like I have some sprout. This should be interesting. Thanks for the additional info WeeNel

Hi doc, we plant garlic in beside the roses too and it keeps the greenfly away from the roses, so you should keep a watch to see if this works for you, it is like the garlic has an oil or something that the roses take up into the roots which in turn gets to the foliage, so the insects dont like it, funny enough, the garlic dont change the perfume on the roses, good luck, OH and another thing good about the garlic, you wont get vampires either, OHHHHHHHHHH, fangs a lot I hear you say. WeeNel.

WeeNel, I really needed a good chuckle this evening, thank you! On the note of the roses, do you think it would help with my succulents and other house plants as well? Or flies in general? We had the worst flies this year I even bought a commercial granual that could NOT keep up with them. Thanks, Misty

for indoor plants I have no idea, however, I know some folks who crush up Garlic cloves and add this to the watering can, leave it to settle, then pour over the soil and foliage of plants, but dont know about your succulents, I cant say that I would grow Garlic indoors very successfully as they do like cooler temps, room to develop and natural sunlight, but hey, why not stick a few cloves into individual pots and see what happens, I would be inclined to use say long narrow rose or Clematis pots, like the pots you would buy the plants in at the garden center, as the bulbs wont grow too close to the top of the soil, also, you are planting a single clove and when mature to pick, they have developed a whole new large bulb that needs room. you could also just stick a clove into the soil beside your plants, maybe bruise it VERY slightly to release some pungent smell to see if that keeps the flies at bay. Here in UK, we also have had the same problem with flies this year, I think we had a milder winter the year before and they didnt get killed off and bread even more than usual. hope this helps, you can let us know if it does. good luck. WeeNel.

Hey, I think I will try the bulb idea just in the pots with the plants. Although, the one I had planted was a decent size in one the smaller pots that I had gotten something else in, and it was sitting in the kitchen for a couple days, and was doing amazingly well. I did put it in the green house today, though. I wander how fast minced garlic would rot if I tried that? I have TONS of that in the fridge, but out of bulbs at the moment. Again, thanks for all your help! Misty

Well, I can comment on the zone...I'm in a colder zone(5) and mine do alright. They actually need the cold weather to grow(I think). And, as weenel said, mulch them well. I used leaves last year, pine needles and leaves this year. I just clear a section in my vegetable garden, dig it up to losen the dirt, plant the cloves 4-6 inches apart, mulch, and water well until it gets too cold to do so. If it helps, here in zone 5 I try to get my in by mid-october and I dig it up around the beginning of June or July. They say when the bottom three leaves or so of the plant turn brown it is time to dig them up. Then, when you dig up your garlic, you can pick some of the largest bulbs, pull the cloves apart and use those to plant your crop for next year.

thanks for the info,kls_01!

Well sure hope you guys dont all get together in one room, all that garlic you are growing and then eating it, I love the stuff so am only joking, I use it such a lot, even chuck it inside a chicken carcass when going to roast it along with half lemon, you will be surprised at how fast your home grown Garlic will be used up, so as KIs 01 said, get the next lot in soon after harvesting your crop next year. best wishes. Weenel.

Well, I'm hoping my tummy will tolerate home grown better than the store bought. I've found that to be the case with other veggies, besides garlic is suppose to repel rose destroying aphids and thrips, so it's worth a shot. I know they don't like the juice. I blend the cloves with water, let it steep, filter and spray my roses. Even the JB's don't like it too well.

Garlic is first separated in cloves and then each clove is sown separately 6 to 8 inches apart in a row, since you have sown the entire bulb you would be getting few small bulbs probably smaller than the one which you sowed, as the nutrition and the space would be divided among all the sprouting cloves.

Thanks for the reminder, Dhaila. Good information. If we are all successful, no one will want to be around us.....LOL grin

No worries about Count Dracula though! :)

Hi Doc, just incase you dont already know, Garlic is just like all other members of the Onion family, some strong flavoured some milder, and their effects, so If you have trouble with your tummy, look for some catalogs that sell garlic bulbs to plant rather than cooking /grocery store ones, and I am sure you will find a much milder bulb to suit your needs, best wishes. WeeNel.

Too right WeeNel. I want to try some elephant ear garlic, but didn't get the bulbs ordered in time. sigh.......

Hi Doc, the Elephant Garlic is one of the milder ones, the bulbs you order are better as they have been specially treated for diseases etc, so you know you are getting better quality, but some folks plant the ones you but for cooking from the grocery store, Good luck. WeeNel.

WeeNel, I'd rather order so I know the source. Some of the veggies in the store are treated with chemicals that either impair growth. Just give me the willies.

I agree, there are so many things that are sprayed on the store stuff, I personally dont go down that road either, also I dont want any diseases added to the soil for the want of buying a few bulbs. Best Wishes. WeeNel.

doccat5 wrote;"Some of the veggies in the store are treated with chemicals that either impair growth."

My solution to that is to buy organic when trying to "start" supermarket produce. Of course, in some cases there isn't a whole lot available, but some health food stores have a really good selection of organic veggies.

BTW, when I planted my garlic, I peeled half and left half unpeeled. At this point (the shoots are 4-5" tall) the unpeeled seems to have a better germination (?) rate. I'm not 100% sure, as they seem to have traveled a bit, my nice straight rows are not straight any more......

True catmad, but since I'm not a real trusting old lady, I prefer to buy my seed from a source I know. We have a couple of organic stores here and I'm frankly not real impressed. I've been doing organic for longer than it's been the new "thing". I am a long time member of Mother Earth, so I got imprinted early on. LOL DH and I can remember when people thought we were totally nuts for going this way. Now they're calling me for gardening advice. LOL

Your my kind of girl Doc, took over the gardening proses from my dad who had me hooked from childhood, so I am an old hand too at organic gardening, I do go to the garden centers etc, have a look for things that may help with a problem, then read the labels, soon as it says keep away from animals and children, or dispose of safely, then it goes back on the shelf. but I know a lot of people dont have the knowledge or the time to try all different old fashioned methods, but the cost alone of all those chemical gardening herbicides, tonics and feeds are enough to put me off from the start, keep up the good work and just maybe we can encourage other to abandon the new methods, sometimes it is just a case of giving it a try and then you understand why or how it all works. good luck and happy gardening. WeeNel.

doccat5 wrote"True catmad, but since I'm not a real trusting old lady, I prefer to buy my seed from a source I know."

Sorry, I was refering to WeeNel's post suggesting possibly planting supermarket Elephant garlic. I've started organic sweet potatoes from grocery starts, but not garlic.
My _seeds_ come form certified organic sources. Sorry I misunderstood. :(

No biggie. I can pick up elephant ear from our local farm and garden center actually. I worked there many moons ago and am gratified to see the organic gardening section is large and doing good business. I push, poked, prodded and SOLD organic gardening ideas and organic pesticides to the customers. It was fun and I had a great time. The store is rather old timey and they still sell vegetables, grass, etc by the pound. Old wooden floors and fixtures all over the place. I did convince the then manager it needed freshened up a bit. So he did have the floors redone and fixed some areas that were squeaky. Plus we gave it a good through cleaning. I did not endear me to my coworkers, but the place looked 100 percent better and certainly smelled better too.

I'm so glad more people are growing organically! I have a major problem with dousing everything in chemicals and (in the meat industry) antibiotics. I don't like to buy anything from the store anymore. Can you even understand the ingredients on most food products??? I don't like to take a pain-reliever yet alone eat chemically altered/treated foods that could sit for YEARS on a shelf and still be EDIBLE????

Unfortunately I am not certified organic - yet. Here in OH you have to document everything you use, grow, etc for 5 years prior to certification. My Dh and I bought our house last Dec. so I have a ways to go before I can even get certified.

Sorry to rant, I just get frustrated. I'm also sorry if I offended anyone. We all have a right to garden as we see fit. This is just where I stand.

Megan

I understand and sympathize. We've been gardening organically for over 25 years, and people use to think we were total nutsos. Since the upsurge of going Green is happening, I'm gratified to see this happen. Now the people that thought we were nuts are calling me for gardening/lawn advice. LOL

I was just wondering what it takes to be considered organic? I'm a newbie and for the first few years I just planted stuff in the ground and watered...no fertilizing or anything. This past year I have been fertilizing with Peters fertilizer 20-20-20 stuff. Is using that considered not organic? I have never put any insecticides on anything....although this year I used a rubbing alcohol/water mix to get rid of aphids. Just wondering what exactly entails being organic.

kis_01 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_food This should give the information you're looking for.

Human waste and sewage sludge? I can understand why organic is such a big thing now.....yuck! Thanks for the link!

Kristie

doccat, you've thrown me. "I can pick up elephant ear from our local farm and garden center actually." Catmad was referring to garlic, not the tropical plant, or was that just a typo on your part? (Hate to think someone might go buy alocasia, or calocasia, and think they can eat it. Oooohh, yucky!) *grin

chickenrancher, you don't need to really be "certified" unless you are gonna sell your crops to the public and advertise your products as such. As for growing organic you can do that from Day One using the suggested techniques for organic growing. I've grown organic produce since I was a kid (we just didn't know at the time that is what it was called!). The farm I now have has been selling produce for over 20 years; when the Gov bought out the term "organic" and started charging a yearly fee for the privilege of using that name I chose to not buy into it. After all, why should I pay money to continue to inform folks how I grow my produce the same way I've always done? No fair, eh? (Now we have to use other words, i.e., naturally grown, no pesticides/herbicides, etc.)

kls, if you first and foremost stop using many of the man-made chemical fertilizers that is a step in the right direction. (And Peter's is not considered an organic product, by the way.) You best bet is to use more natural sources of fertilizers (I prefer the term "plant food" in place of fertilizer). And watch what you use for insect control...why use a broadbased killer that kills every bug in site when you can use something that is more specific for those times you have "too many" of a particular kind of bug/insect. In other words, why use a bazooka when a BB gun will do the job?

Shoe

I can understand how you'd be a little perturbed having to now pay to call what you have done all your life "organic". It's sad its come to that.

As I said, the only thing I've used for insects is the alcohol/water mix....is that not good? I was trying to find "homemade" fixes for the aphids. I agree with the Bazooka/BB gun statement. Oh, and if Peter's isn't considered organic, do I want to know what's in it? I've never added anything to the soil, just at the end of the year I rip up all the plants and leave them in the garden and rake up all my leaves/weeds and thrown them in there too. Then, the next year we just till it up and plant again. However, this year I did halfway composted.....well, I threw eggshells and banana peels in there too....didn't bury them or anything, but I figured it was better than nothing. I also used newspapers to cover my walkways and as mulch around my veggies, so that's in there to. I'm very slow at coming around and actually doing things. I'm pretty sure in a few years I'll actually start a compost bin; until then I'll suffice with throwing stuff in there! :)

Back to garlic. I grow garlic outside and I live in zone 5a. It grows very well and when I harvest in June, I always seem to miss a few cloves, because it keeps coming up in the same place over and over again. It doesn't mind cold weather. It grows well all over the world even in cold climates like Wisconsin.
Even though garlic comes up from cloves accidentally left in the row, I also buy various flavors of garlic from Seed Savers Exchange. They have garlic from Georgia (the one that used to part of Russia), from Iran, from the US, from Spain and many others. Some cloves are huge, some are small. Some are hot, some are mild. Some are hardnecked and some are softnecked. It is really delicious and good for you and is easy to grow, as you learned. It likes water and fertile soil but it will just make smaller bulbs if you don't give it enough food and water, but it will still taste great.

This message was edited Dec 8, 2007 9:47 PM

I knew about Seed Savers Exchange but I didn't know they sold garlic!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats great to know. I am trying two varieties this year Georgian Crystal and Inchelium Red. I'm going to save my largest bulbs for replanting but I'm also going to try some new varieties. OOOOH I can't wait. I LOVE garlic. So does my DH which is a good thing.

Has anyone gone to Olive Garden and gotten the Tuscan Chicken with whole roasted cloves of garlic? I get it every time and always ask for extra garlic. I have yet to get it the way I'd like but then no-one believes that I actually want a clove per bite!!!!! Okay, I'm just a little garlic CRAZY :-)

kls, sounds to me like you are doing exactly the right thing then! Yay! You are putting things into your soil that will encourage soil growth (beneficial bacteria, compost/humus, feeding the microbes, etc).

That's what it's all about...feed the soil and the soil will feed your plants.

As for starting a compost bin, you are actually doing that now, just skipping a step others seem to prefer. The stuff you throw directly into the garden will compost itself there. (You also save yourself several steps by not having to build a pile, work it, then when it's done haul it to your garden!)

Pajaritomt, yep, Seed Savers Exchange is a great source of many different seeds. I highly recommend them. (By the way, did you really mean to reference "corn" in your post? or were you thinking of corn and writing about garlic?)

Shoe

chickenrancher, I grew Inchelium Red last year. Yep, it's a keeper! You'll enjoy growing it!

Now about Olive Garden...hmmm, guess next time out I better take my daughter there for our 'Dad and Daughter Day Out"! (She's a pasta freak and I love chicken AND garlic!!) Thanks for the tip!

Shoe

Horseshoe, your welcome for the tip. Anything to help a fellow garlic lover! Also, its nice to hear I picked a 'good' one. But really can there be such a thing as 'bad' garlic? I tried to grow it last year with not much luck. I put it in in the spring because we bought the house in December. I had no garden until we broke ground in the spring but it was worth a try. I got the cutest little single clove bulbs.