Garlic

[Chic Rustler]

Is it too late to plant garlic? Got any tips? Full sun? Partial shade? Heavy or lite feeder?

 

[flowerbug]

I've tried and tried and tired to get garlic to grow. I've been disappointed everytime. We get way to much rain and I don't want to put in raised beds. But look, here is Mr. Green Thumb @Chic Rustler growing garlic in raised beds in the middle of winter somewhere in Texas.

you can harvest green garlic any time you'd like once it starts regrowing, but the nicest stalks will come from cloves planted extra deep and let to grow for a while into the spring. you can harvest it as green garlic up until a few weeks before the tunics in the bulbs start to harden up.

you don't need a formal raised bed to grow garlic. i just heap up the garden soil and that is my raised bed in some of the gardens. that's what i'm doing this year too as the garlic is planted in only part of one garden so the edge will gradually change through the season, but it is a big enough area that the whole thing won't wash away in the rains. if you want some added stability you can tamp the edge down with your foot and mulch over the edge only to protect it from the rains. i don't usually have enough mulch to do that so the clay in the soil has to be enough. that is how i do all my raised areas in the bigger gardens. i like having that flexibility of not having a formal edge when the next planting comes along i can change it how i'd like without too much fussing around.

PM your address early next fall to me and i'll be glad to send you some seed garlic and scape bulbs to get some hard neck garlic going. i only grow a small supply but i'm always happy to send it out to anyone who wants it. it's a pretty hot garlic but does great here, i never mulch it in the coldest of winters and the bulbs can get pretty big with cloves the size of my thumb (always plant the largest cloves with plenty of space and they do well). if you are going to eat it as green garlic you can plant the ones you plan to pull up early in a closer arrangement.

 

[tortoise]

This thread is fantastic. I ordered native Inchelium garlic to plant this fall. It should arrive any day! 🙌

 

[Chic Rustler]

It sprouted! Wow

It was just some old stuff she had gotten from the grocery store

 

[thistlebloom]

i've planted garlic here the day before the ground froze and it did ok. it does depend upon what type of garlic you have and such, but if the garlic otherwise will do ok in your area and soils it should be ok. it may not be optimal, but i think it will be ok.

p.s. green garlic is an easy crop.

I have planted garlic in December, in frozen ground using a pick to whack out a hole to drop the clove in and then stomping the frozen soil chunk back over it. Brutal I know, but it grew just fine and I got a good harvest. I don't recommend this method, but sometimes if you procrastinate long enough you turn into a mad scientist.

 

[CrealCritter]

Ok my fellow SS garlic growers. These garlic "flowers" are dry now. What's next? Toss them in the ground to freeze over winter or pot them and leave indoors and transplant in the spring? I obviously need some guidance 😃

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[sumi]

Sowing time is Feb-March or October. If you live in a wet area plant Autumn garlic in a raised bed or wait and sow in Spring.

Each garlic bulb consists of up to twenty individual cloves and it is these cloves which are to be individually planted. Carefully remove the outer skin from the bulb (not from the cloves) and separate into individual cloves. Select the largest eight or so of the cloves which will be on the outside of the bulb.

Plant garlic in at a spacing of 20 - 25cm between plants and 25cm between rows. Plant one clove per spacing with the pointy end facing upwards and about 2 cm below the surface of the soil. (For Autumn sown garlic it's a good idea to mulch the bed with leaves or straw to protect form severe frost.)

Dig the soil well to about a spade's depth before planting, adding as much organic matter as possible to assist with drainage - garlic will rot in water-logged conditions. Some sand mixed in will help with this too. Garlic thrives on a well fed soil, so in late March and again in mid May, feed the soil with general purpose fertiliser.

Garlic is normally ready for harvesting when most of the foliage has turned yellowy-brown - this will be around mid August time.

We grew ours in full sun and it did just fine. Make sure it gets enough water, but don't get it waterlogged, or it will rot.

 

[sumi]

I believe you can plant it earlier, but for best results it's better to wait a little. Please let us know how works out for you and you too, @baymule

 

[Chic Rustler]

Will do

 

[sumi]

I hope you planted a lot then! It's early season still, just saying…