Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow?

WOW!  What kind are these, Yolos?

The garlic is looking quite lovely Yolos! Well done!

AtlantaMarie wrote:WOW!  What kind are these, Yolos?

I planted 4 varieties.  Chet's Italian, Inchelium Red, Red Toch, and some type of store bought garlic that is a hardneck just to see what happens.  They are all about the same size except the store bought garlic is much smaller and less hardy looking.

snicker...  big surprise!    I wonder what it is about store-bought....?

My garlic is up and thriving. Amazing, last year I noted my garlic was up mid March and this year it has been up since mid Feb.
I decided my garlic was pretty  scrawny last year and so I have been adding compost and have watered it all as well (very dry here...odd)

Yolos, your garlic looks beautiful.  You have some nice thick stalks there.  My garlic is also doing well.  No disease attacks so far (I made sure to rotate planting areas).   Looks like we might have a nice harvest this year!

Yolo.s
Your garlic looks so healthy! I am so jealous......
I can finally see my garlic after the snow this winter but..... we are getting 4 more inches tomorrow.....so it may be awhile before I see my garlic again....

My garlic is showing!...for now.    

Snowing again...
CC

For the first time we are trying garlic.  As shown in the off and growing post Peggy poked some around her future shade garden.  I stuck some in the flowerbed around by a leaky faucet cause I heard they like it moist.  They are jumping up some already 4 inches tall.  Here is a question we use alot of green onion and regular onion greens in salads and cooking.  What about garlic greens edible??? good??

I plant the small cloves on one edge of the batch.  I use them like green onions as they grow.  They give me early garlic.  All the garlic plant is edible, but can be pretty strong so we usually cook it with other stuff.  There is a garlic chive as well.

Cappy, I hope someone else responds. It was my under standing that garlic needs a drier environment towards the end??? If this is true, maybe the little greenlings can be transplanted?

Some in a wet spot some in a raised bed may the best pod win and we will take notes.

My garlic is having an issue, it seems to be turning yellow starting at the base and working its way up through the lower leaves.

I can't remember if I added compost to the bed in the spring or not, but I probably did. Regardless, I watered it with compost and bunny poo tea today.

Anyone have any ideas about what it could be?

CC

The compost/bunny poo tea worked!  They are completely green again. 
 
I must have forgotten to compost the bed this spring.
All's well that ends well.

CC

This is my third year trying to grow decent size garlic bulbs.  I finally succeeded in growing a garlic bulb that is worth curing.  Following is a picture of one garlic plant and a close up of the garlic bulb.  The plant is approx. 3.5 feet tall, 3 leaves turning brown, approx. total 10 leaves, size of garlic bulb is 3.5 inches across.  The bulbs were planted last October.  The variety of this bulb is Chets Italian.

My question relates to the timing of the harvest.  I still have about 25 more garlic plants to harvest so I want to make sure I am not harvesting too soon.  I pulled this one garlic to test the maturity of the bulb.  When you purchase a garlic bulb at the store, normally you can see the individual cloves bulging around the bulb.  So far, this garlic bulb does not have individual cloves bulging.  Is this because I harvested it too early or because it needs to cure before the cloves are prominent.

Yolos, From the photos, it looks like there are cloves. When it's cured and the outer dirty papers removed, won't you be able to see the outlines of cloves? I'm still a novice on garlic.

Seeing as you have already harvested it then you should take the bulb apart and see what you have.  I would say that any garlic measuring 3.5 inches and planted last October across has to have cloves.

Yolos, is that a hard neck? I believe the ones is the grocery store are soft necks. Do you have photos of your bed with 3 brown leaves on the plant?

I'm with Kelejan. Take it apart and let us know!

CC

My guess is you can wait to pull the rest but stop watering as much as possible and keep checking. That bulb looks good to me and the outer layers will dry down to paper, but it does look like it could have grown more. I aim for pulling when half the leaves have died back.

Thank you all for your suggestions.  No, this is a softneck - Chets Italian.  I will let them go another week or two.  Will wait for more leaves to die off. 

Turan, this bed is very heavily mulched.  I have not had to water it at all.  The soil is moist under the mulch.  Do I need to remove the mulch a few days before harvesting to let the soil dry out.

Yolo, I don't know. It might help the outer wrappers dry and not rot off. "They" say to hold back water the last week or so. I usually have the garlic planted with other stuff so that is not feasible. it cures alright in the end. But I have had some wraps rot off in the ground before pulling.

I planted my garlic (hardneck) and multiplier onions last fall, just like always.  One onion has come up and nothing else.  I dug around and there is no sign of the bulbs having been there.  Strange. 

I have some garlic left that I have been using - would it be too late to plant a few?  (Minnesota zone 4)

gg, I planted some garlic about a month ago around my fruit trees and they are up and running.

Why not try it?
CC

My wife planted some garlic and garlic chives many years ago, and every year around late January/Early February it comes back all over our yard.