Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow?

Caution: only plant garlic from a reliable source. Didn't really want to revisit our experience, but it's important for garlic growers to understand.

Nonna that is so interesting.
Did that farmers market farm turn out to have the disease?
I have been kind of willy nilly with my garlic up until now and really did not think it mattered.
You really sound like you have an interesting farm.
Any thoughts on why my garlic has not even split into cloves yet?

Like you, and after some ten years of growing garlic, I didn't even think of disease when buying some beautiful and different heads of garlic from a farmer at the farmers' market in Longview, Washington. The garlic was delicious, so I saved some to plant. The next spring, we started finding garlic stalks that didn't look right. After digging them up, I noticed the foul smell, and realized we had a real problem. So, we dug up the entire row and burned them all. Lesson learned. Now, we only use certified disease-free starts from garlic growers we know and trust. Which brings up a new thought: the Chinese Pink is truly a much earlier maturing garlic than any other we've seen in 30 years. Try it....you'll like it! (Territorial has it, too.)

My first year garlic crop in it’s own new box. Think I will rotate it to another box next season. I found two plants that did not look right and dug them out, they were small plants that just quit developing and were soft and appeared to be deteriorating below ground. The crop visibly matures daily and several more bend over each day. THey were planted 4 per square to give lots of space. How many does Nonna plant in each square.

westie your garlic and garden looks great!!

hugs

rose

GWN wrote:plantoid, are these the ones you stratified by putting them in the fridge?

No ..... the ones I stratified in the fridge and planted are only 13 inches tall and escaped the storm damage... I must confess they took off like rockets and am amazed at their speed of growth .

Alison & I managed to collect the stems of the damaged ones together and ran a soft rubber band around the whole square foot of them ( did the same with some long onions stems as well ) .. so far they have stayed up right ..it's fingers crossed that they carry on growing , for this square has bulbs about 1 1/2 inch across four inches below the surface of the MM .

Once the tops start to yellow or I see evidence of a seed head forming I'll gently ease each plant up out the MM so the bulb is showing on the surface and see if it will start to dry or /grow a wee bit more before harvesting

I'll be putting pictures up in the show garden threads later tonight or sometime tomorrow for we've been away and things have really come on far better than I'd hoped.

I'll be putting pictures up in the show garden threads later tonight or sometime tomorrow for we've been away and things have really come on far better than I'd hoped.

That will be great, you have such a beautiful yard.
I am curious whether the fridge/freezer stratifying worked and actually caused them to separate into cloves.
I have read where it is the stratification that causes the since clove to break into several

New, to me, idea for fixing garlic scapes: grill 'em. Over a hot charcoal fire, lay a single layer of garlic scapes that have been rolled in olive oil. Turn and move them around for enough time to pick up a few char marks, and turn crisp tender. Remove to serving plate and salt with a bit of coarse sea salt. Great to nibble on while the steak or hamburgers cook!

And another thing: have any of you ever heard that one should leave uncut one or two scapes in the hard-neck garlic patch as an indicator of maturity? According to the online source, the scape will totally uncurl, stand up straight, and bulbils will show development--at this point, the garllic is ready to dig. New to me, but think I'll try it with the Bavarian Purple group, which is just starting to develop scapes.

nonna
I also read this year that the scape would be an indicator of maturity, so I left a few and dug up garlic before they opened
Now I have a new question.
A few scapes ended up in the compost pile and the flowers are starting to come open as little bulblets, now would these take 2 years to become garlic heads?
Are they like seeds and first develop into a clove and then a head??

GWN wrote:

I'll be putting pictures up in the show garden threads later tonight or sometime tomorrow for we've been away and things have really come on far better than I'd hoped.

That will be great, you have such a beautiful yard.
I am curious whether the fridge/freezer stratifying worked and actually caused them to separate into cloves.
I have read where it is the stratification that causes the since clove to break into several

I stratified the whole bulb for about 12 days at 3 oC on the fridge ( I've been to sleep since then . Then I broke the bulb into cloves and planted them an inch deep , they came up within a fortnight and are now today nearly 15 inches tall .

I stratified the whole bulb for about 12 days at 3 oC on the fridge ( I've been to sleep since then . Then I broke the bulb into cloves and planted them an inch deep , they came up within a fortnight and are now today nearly 15 inches tall .

Interesting Dave
Will be anxious to see what you get out of that. When will you harvest?

GWN, If your compost-pile scapes go on to produce tiny dry cloves, and you have extra space to experiment, yes, go ahead and plant them around 1/4 inch deep. Next year they should send up infant leaves. Leave them as is, or thin if needed until the tiny bulbils each grow into a single larger bulb over the summer. In the fall, select the largest bulbs and replant as you would individual cloves from a fully mature head of garlic. The following summer should give you some heads that will form individual cloves, but they won't be as large as your original mother garlic....that takes another year. Having said that, a fun thing to do with a handful of garlic bulbils is to sprinkle them on an unused square, cover with Mel's mix, and wait 'til spring. They should form a garlicky patch looking much like chives. Use them the same as you would chives for a tasty garlic-infused treat. Of course, used this way, you won't be getting much in the way of bulbs. Experiment, enjoy! Nonna

GWN wrote:

I stratified the whole bulb for about 12 days at 3 oC on the fridge ( I've been to sleep since then . Then I broke the bulb into cloves and planted them an inch deep , they came up within a fortnight and are now today nearly 15 inches tall .

Interesting Dave
Will be anxious to see what you get out of that. When will you harvest?

I've just been out to the gardens , thank goodness for my concrete pathways and high raised beds ..it's raining yet again.... poked my finger down the side of one of the scarified garlic clove stems , it is about 3/4 inch in diameter. They are a good 24 inches tall now for I also checked the height . These may not make a decent size due to the lateness of planting & four months of really crappy weather where temps have remained in the mid 60 oF's for most of it , sunshine has been almost non existant.

The other garlics planted last beginning of Novmber to end of Feb this year are really bulbing up .. left one with the flower on as the witness plant . But it is not developing into a bloom just a bulbus swelling up the 48 inch long stalk . Most of the leaves on these garlics are turning yellow on the tips. So once it ceases to precipitate I'll go and have a grope around the bulbs to see if it is time to lift them or leave them a little longer.

I'll go and have a grope around the bulbs to see if it is time to lift them

Good luck with that.

I thought that it was more about timing vs size....
I read where you lift them sometime after the scapes form and before they seed.
Or are those ones soft neck??

Size does matter , I think ......
We ate the scrapes from this set of garlic a few weeks ago , I'd end up throwing any straight garlic into the compost bin or use it to make bug spray for I'd never be able to break down such an unformed bulb into cloves

Plantoid, the small garlic cloves/bulbs are perfect for pickling. To easily slip them from their coats: bring a pan of water to a boil, throw in the separated jacketed cloves, boil for a minute or two. Remove from water with a sieve, and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Cut the root ends from each clove, pinch it and it should slip right out of its jacket...ready for use. Remember, if you want to make fresh pickles of a combination of vegetables (garlic cloves being a part), and you don't want the uncooked cloves to turn a unappetizing, but harmless, blue-green color from the acid in the pickling solution, you should simmer them for 4-5 minutes (depending on size and wheter you parboiled them for ease of peeling), then drain, cool and add garlic cloves to your pickling solution.

Has anyone grown garlic in pots? How deep do the pots need to be for success? I admire all the pictures shown in this thread. But I don't see any of garlic in pots nor mention of it. I need to put mine in pots if I grow it.

I have not but I think in our region you run into the same problems as when we were discussing planting in the pool. The likelihood of heaving is pretty high.

camprn wrote:I have not but I think in our region you run into the same problems as when we were discussing planting in the pool. The likelihood of heaving is pretty high.

As a new gardener, this confuses me! If I can plant it in a six inch deep SFG box (as it seems people are doing), why can't I plant it in a 12 inch deep pot? I just don't get it!

I know I read to mulch it with straw, too, which is fine.

My problem is that I only have one SFG 4 x 4 box (and that is all I can have due to sun issues). I can't see how planting garlic in that box will work since it doesn't get harvested until well after spring crops are to be planted.

cpl, please don't confuse what I said as meaning you cannot do that. I am not saying that it can't be done, but my experience tells me planting in small pots is not the best idea for garlic to survive the winter. You can do anything you want in your garden.

In a bed that is larger and deeper, the bed will freeze and then if mulched that larger mass will be less prone to temperature variation and there will be less likelihood of fluctuating freezing and thawing and heaving of the soil. If there is heaving this will disturb the planted garlic and any small root system that the grew before freezing. Also, in a small container there is less mass and is more likely to begin thawing during a warm spell, which is not desired. Have you Googled growing garlic in containers in New England?

cpl, When I planted tulip bulbs in pots last year, the instructions had me burying the pots at the edge of my compost pile for the winter for protection. I took them out in spring and they grew GREAT! You could probably do that with the garlic bulbs, but I don't know this for sure. Try it and see.

If no compost pile, a nice pile of leaves or brush would probably do the same thing.

CC

cpl, You certainly can grow good garlic in pots. Just pick the largest pot you have available, fill it with Mel's mix and plant away. Don't know how cold it gets in your area, but even if you customarily get below-zero temps, just protect the pots with, as suggested elsewhere, leaves/compost on and around the pots until you start to see tulips sprouting in your or your neighbors' yards. Then uncover the garlic pots, move them into a sunny area, keep watered adequately, and harves your garlic sometime late June or early July, depending on the variety you plant. I'm a softy, and when I have a few garlic cloves left over from the dedicated beds, I've often pushed them down into flower pots after the plants have been removed for the winter. Go for it! Nonna

I learned something new today.

Kay

There is a problem growing garlic (and other plants) in containers. Small pots have a lot of surface which is exposed to the outside air temps. It can cause the entire pot to get very, very cold. I have grown garlic and onions in pots by using the following method; pour sand into an empty 5 gallon paint (or one of those orange buckets you get at the home improvement depot). Then when the temperatures drop below 35 degrees farenhiet put you garlic/onion pots in the sand buckets up to the top of the pot. The sand becomes an insulator for the pot. You can still water the pot and move it to the sunniest locations. You can even move the buckets out of the snow, hail storms and prolonged rain storms. Hope this helps

That is a great idea cjdnmore! to the forum, I see this was your first post. I always love to see new members here! Are you also a square foot gardener?

Yes, I am a 3 time Square Foot Gardner. By that I mean I have 3 seperate SFG which have evolved over the uears. One garden is in all day sun, one is in half day sun and one is in 2 hours sun. I also grow a lot of plants (mostly Veggies and Fruit) in pots and other containers. I find that I have very good success when I can move a pot or container from one location to another as the plant is growing.

By the way, the bit I wrote concerning growing Garlic and other plants in the cold works exactly the same when you have high heat. The pots get hot and fry the soil, which in turn fry the roots. So use the 5 gallon bucket for the very hot spells as well.