Garlic Numbers

In a square foot of space what would be the right number of plants to grow,and what can I expect for a total weight approximately of each bulb ? Thank You ! Gord .

The book states 9 per square foot. Page 229 of the 3rd Edition of ALL NEW Square Foot Gardening. Garlic is usually planted in the fall, or as soon as the Mel's Mix can be worked in the spring.

The Search box indicates 176 topics just on garlic! This is one of the oldies but goodies.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t11766-mary-mary-quite-contrary-how-does-your-garlic-grow?highlight=garlic

Gord wrote:In a square foot of space what would be the right number of plants to grow,and what can I expect for a total weight approximately of each bulb ? Thank You ! Gord .

I am a semi-pro garlic grower, and grow all hardneck garlic. It's hard to estimate the weight of each bulb without knowing the precise variety you are growing. The largest hardnecks yield about 6 bulbs to the pound. If you're growing smaller softneck (artichoke) garlic then the number would be twice that or more. Let us know what kind you're growing; I'm always interested. 

Brian

I grow garlic at 4 per square for the Music variety. That gives them room to grow big.

Thank you for your answer about number of plants . You asked about type / We grow a cross breed Purple red russian x Porcelain both hard neck, for twenty years now.                
       Thanks Gord.                      

I plant those 6 inches apart, and they're doing great this year. Most of my plants are over 3 ft tall right now, and they haven't sent out scapes. I don't plant garlic in square foot because I have hundreds of garlic plants, which I do in long rows. 

Good luck!
Brian

Hi Brian, 6" apart is the same as 4 per square. I also plant 6" apart as I grow mostly garlic in my three raised beds and I don't have the grids on them as the grids would get in the way when I fork up the garlic at harvest, over 100 cloves planted. I almost always harvested garlic the first week of July in the past but changed varieties from Porcelain to German White and German Red (now 2 varieties) so maybe the timing will change. Scapes would get harvested at one curl about three weeks before the garlic. It will be interesting to see if the timing changes. Just so everybody knows their timing could be different and I don't wear a watch in the garden.

Dan,

I use both grids and Mel's Mix.  The grids don't get in the way of my harvesting garlic (if they did, I'd temporarily lift the grids up).

Because of the friability of the MM, all I've ever had to do was to gently give each garlic a tug, and the bulb popped right out.  In other words, I pull rather than fork them.

Hi Donna,
I could pull them up as you suggest but I have found shelf life is extended by taking care in harvesting and proper drying and almost get a year if I store at correct temp and humidity. If I grew anything else but garlic I would probably take the time to build three grids but I have a layout stick and if anyone asks I could show them the stick.

Three grids?  I don't quite understand.  

If pulled, stored, and dried appropriately (and depending upon whether you've grown hard- or soft-necked varieties), they should store from five months to nearly a year.  Softnecks store for longer periods.

Hi Donna,

I have 3 raised beds that I grow garlic in. You are recommending a grid for each bed. So 2 naughts are naught, plus 3 equals 3.

I have never seen the advice or recommendation of pulling rather than lifting with a spade or a fork. My hard neck garlic bulbs do have an extensive root system at harvest, I doubt I could even pull one out without lifting with a garden fork first without doing damage.

The other piece of advice I was given on growing garlic is never let the bulbs see direct sun. Maybe being a potato picker born in Maine, this made sense. The green parts are okay in the sun but the underground part of root crops I tend towards minimal sunlight. The exception being onions and they seem to benefit from being in the sun after harvest for a short while.  When I harvest, the garlic bulbs go into a 5 gallon bucket immediately. I have drying racks in the garage. This is what works for me, your mileage may differ.