Re: Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow?

cheyannarach 4/23/2012, 3:15 pm

I'll do it Plantoid! I will throw it in the fridge tonight and wait to plant. Thanks for sharing and I will keep you posted!

kbb964 4/23/2012, 4:48 pm

I'm in ! I have a spare bulb and will refrigerate tonight !

elysia 4/23/2012, 5:07 pm

Never in spring but based on this great info - I think I will make some room and go for it too. Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow? - Page 2 802240

Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow? - Page 2 802240

Nonna.PapaVino 4/23/2012, 6:00 pm

Quiltbea, your 'mistake' isn't that bad. Yes, your bulbs may be a bit smaller than expected, but if you planted them in nutrient rich soil, and side dress them in late March, early April, you will get some bigger cloves. If you like the taste of your garlic, save the one or two largest cloves from each head and eat the rest. Funny thing about garlic is that it settles in to your climate after a year or two. We never get the big bulbs from a new variety until the second, or even third, year.

tomperrin 4/23/2012, 7:44 pm

What on earth am I going to do with half a square of garlic?
I just recently tasted organic garlic for the first time - it was delicious. But seriously, I may have a hundred bulbs for all I know. It's doing well, planted the first Monday after Thanksgiving. We might use a bulb a month, if that.
Tom

**camprn** 4/23/2012, 7:50 pm

I'm hijacking this thread for a minute. Nonna, do you grow shallots too?

cheyannarach 4/23/2012, 8:23 pm

Haha, here goes Camprn with the shallots again. Laughing

Nonna.PapaVino 4/23/2012, 8:34 pm

Yes, Ma'am, I do, but not as seriously as I do garlic. Got a French grey, and something that's got a reddish covering (name lost). Am trying an everlasting onion this year. Hope it's more successful for us than the Egyptian top-setting onion, which I keep as an oddity, but don’t use much. And you?

**Turan** 4/23/2012, 9:12 pm

cheyannarach wrote:All the pots I use are the ones you plant straight in the ground so hopefully that will help with transplanting them. I am planning on getting a few cattle panel trellis put up and doing the cukes, squash, and melons on that (my father in law says I am wasting my time on the melons but I still gotta try). I had to work this morning 6-2 so I am itching to get out of here to go plant my garlic and onions! Oh I could do the taters too!

I have never had good luck with melons either. But I am trying them again this year. Who knows, this year maybe we get an extra month of summer, I smelled the 'Balm of Gilead' this evening and that is usually in late May. Are you useing peat pots or those cow manure pots? I gather either one needs to be broken up around hte plant to let the roots grow out freely. I like the cattle panel idea, but am worried about big leaves in a hail storm.
Any rate... squash are around 90 day crops, hard to over lap that with garlic not planted yet.

**camprn** 4/23/2012, 10:18 pm

Nonna.PapaVino wrote:Yes, Ma'am, I do, but not as seriously as I do garlic. Got a French grey, and something that's got a reddish covering (name lost). Am trying an everlasting onion this year. Hope it's more successful for us than the Egyptian top-setting onion, which I keep as an oddity, but don’t use much. And you?

Do you find your shallots tend to grow larger as the years go by? I would love to get my hands on some grey shallots.

Nonna.PapaVino 4/23/2012, 11:44 pm

I know they do grow larger in Mel's Mix, at least 1 square of it. Perhaps they're like garlic: the bulbs will be larger the second and third years. It's as if they acclimate to their new home, and grow more vigorous. Years ago, I bought the first garlic we ever planted from an old fellow here in St. Helens. Bulbs were so much bigger than those found in the markets, it made a believer of me. Then I bought some from a commercial grower, and the new garlics weren't as large. Being cheap, though, I saved cloves from the new batch, planted them the next year and got much larger bulbs. BTW, the original strain turned out to be very similar to (or was) Chet's Italian, a soft-neck variety with good flavor.

quiltbea 4/23/2012, 11:54 pm

@tomperrin......If you like garlic, plant 3 or 4 or more squares of it in October, around Columbus Day for your and my areas, and let them overwinter under a layer of straw. In summer after you harvest them in late June or early July, you can then use the same squares for late bush beans or fall brassicas so you won't be wasting the space. I had enough garlic from 3 squares to last me til March of this year in the kitchen. I think 5 squares would take me thru the whole year so that's what I'll plant this October.

Nonna.PapaVino 4/24/2012, 12:03 am

CampRN, you can get grey shallots from Territorial Seeds: http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1325 .

elysia 4/25/2012, 5:09 pm

As I mentioned before, this was an impulsive experiment last fall before I had my boxes built so we only planted a five cloves to see if it would work... Now that I am armed with some helpful hints (courtesy of this site) and actual garden boxes I am going to be a garlic-growing fool (shallots too! Yippiee!). Just in time too as I recently discovered the beauty of garlic confit...

Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow? - Page 2 Garlic10

Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow? - Page 2 Garlic10

Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow? - Page 2 Garlic11

subsonic 4/25/2012, 9:42 pm

My first time I planted it to late
you really need to plant in the fall and have some time for it to root and establish before winter comes on,
Besides that garlic is really easy to grow

Nonna.PapaVino 6/7/2012, 8:54 pm

We have just harvested some of this year's new garlic! The earliest we’ve EVER harvested (no longer a need to slit last year’s cloves and remove the green sprout)! This new-to-us variety is called Chinese Pink--from Territorial Seeds. Tasty, VERY early, worth planting again. We’re currently eating the small heads, saving the biggest cloves to replant. Let’s see: 8 oz. costing around $12.50 last fall; yield 48-50 heads—I’d call that a bargain. No, it's not one of the hot, spicy garlics like we use for salsas later in summer, nor are the pseudo scapes what we want to eat, but, oh, fresh garlic is so welcome!

cheyannarach 6/7/2012, 9:34 pm

Yummy good to know and happy to hear NonnaPapaVino! I think mine (spring planted Embarassed

) stopped growing, but I lost about half of my plants from the hail we just had today twice, so I will just have to try again in the fall. It was a sad sad day for a garden Sad

**RoOsTeR** 6/7/2012, 9:59 pm

but I lost about half of my plants from the hail we just had today twice, so I will just have to try again in the fall. It was a sad sad day for a garden

Oh no!

So sorry to hear that Cheyanne. We are under tornado watch again this evening, but so far the weather seems relatively calm.

Nonna, congrats on the garlic Very Happy

Would love to see some pictures of the harvest!! Mine is starting to fall over within the last few days.

**camprn** 6/7/2012, 10:17 pm

RoOsTeR wrote:Mine is starting to fall over within the last few days.

Mine is not quite falling over but it is looking like it's beginning to yellow at the lower leaves... It's really early... at least 2, if not 3 weeks early for that... Shocked

cheyannarach 6/7/2012, 11:03 pm

Rooster, it's a pretty sad sight but I did get most of the tomatoes and peppers covered Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow? - Page 2 43549

Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow? - Page 2 43549

So they should be okay, the kohlrabi, lettuce, beet, carrots, onions, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, brussel sprouts, peas, beans, radishes, sugar snaps, potatoes,squash, and flowers are in very very very rough shape. My aunt in Sedalia got hit yesterday, glad you didn't.

On the bright side my corn sprouted and was small enough not to be affected. And I haven't planted my cukes, most of my squash, or any of my melons yet.

Nonna.PapaVino 6/7/2012, 11:14 pm

Cheyenne, so sorry to hear about your loss to hail. Have you dug around one of the plants to see if it had headed up yet? If they're not completely shredded and flattened, they may pull out enough to still give you a harvest. If headed up, dig half and leave the other half to see if they'll regrow enough to give a harvest or at least cloves to replant for next year. That is, if it's a variety you want to propagate. Good luck. Nonna

cheyannarach 6/8/2012, 10:00 am

I'll go out and dig around them today, I will report back later, I suspect they haven't though, after I planted them they really took off then they just stayed the same size for the last few weeks, I need to plant them in the fall.

Nonna.PapaVino 6/8/2012, 10:35 am

Planting in Sept. won't hurt. Do you mulch them there in SD?

cheyannarach 6/8/2012, 11:08 am

No mulch, I should but I don't. I don't like how messy it makes things, lol.

**camprn** 6/8/2012, 7:26 pm

I cover mine, usually with leaves. Last year it was pine boughs.

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Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow?