GARLIC!!!!!

I planted garlic on May 14th and it's already turning brown and falling down. I pulled sample and they are not ready. Do you trim the tops to keep them going or do I have something else going on?

OCFAFC.

Someone more knowedgeable than I will be along to help you.

Kelejan

Garlic doesn't like the heat, just like onions. Mine are done for spring. You can pull it and let it dry, then replant for a fall/winter planting, or plant very early in spring, maybe Jan/Feb. That way it can bulb before it gets to summer.
Jo

In my zone, I planted my first garlic crop in october. I was surprised that it grew in winter.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we ALWAYS plant our garlic in the fall, before Halloween. Garlic needs to overwinter and build a root system in order to bulb up. Again, in NW gardens, after the garlic shoots show up and around the third week in March, I side dress my garlic with a good compost, and begin watching for weeds and remove them as they sprout. Six weeks after the first side-dressing of compost, do it again. Rarely do we have to supplement water, but if you are in a drier area, watch that your garlic patch gets enough moisture. When scapes start to form on our hard-neck garlics, I cut them (about 6" long), trim and steam them as a tasty vegetable. (Removing the scapes helps the plant form a bigger bulb.) We start looking for garlic maturity when the lower 5 leaves turn brown. I check to be sure the heads are ripe, and the outer "skin" has not started to split, then we dig, cure and store the garlic. Please remember, if you plant more than one variety of garlic, even though all were planted at the same time, different varieties mature earlier or later than others. After one or two years of growing and harvesting your own garlic, you'll become adept at knowing just when to dig. Like making a pie crust, practice makes perfect. Nonna

Thanks everyone!

I planted my garlic last fall and although it grew ok most of the bulbs were on the small side. Did I do something wrong? I have included a picture to show the size of the bulbs. These are Early Italian variety.

Though not familiar with the Early Italian variety, the bulbs look well formed to me. If they are supposed to be larger, consider how close together they were planted--the smaller bulbs maybe had to "fight" more for nutrients. Something I've learned is that the first year I plant a new variety, they don't head up as well as they do in subsequent years. Guess sometimes they need to adjust to a new home? Also, when you break apart the bulb for planting, only plant the largest cloves, they'll give you the largest bulb. Did you use Mel's Mix? I'm too new to SFG to have planted my garlic in MM, but will do so this fall. It'll be interesting to see if there's a big difference over the traditional row garden. Nonna

Auntij, compared to the grocery store variety I have grown in regular soil yours would be a delight to harvest. Is it partly that early varieties don’t get quite as large as some others. With just a little minor tweaking my guess is soon you will be well satisfied with most of your harvest. I need to vastly improve my garlic growing and have been looking over producer sites like 2 sisters and we grow garlic both grown nearby. They plant the largest cloves and eat the rest. Most sites are out of most varieties. Is that just because the harvest is concluding and they have not updated the online inventories. Is there some secret to buying online seed garlic. Can they harvest in July and still have the seed stock to us by October planting time. I assume it would be good to try several kinds and the stiff neck for scapes would do well in zone4. Thinking of trying 6-8 kinds and probably 3 bulbs each so there are plenty of large cloves to plant then eat the culls. I don’t want to overstock my garlic supply then see some go to waste. What do you garlic aficionados think.

I planted garlic twice. Once in the spring and once in the fall. The fall definitely did better. And that is here in So Cal.

I just got my garlic from Filaree. Should I plant it now or wait a while(& if I should wait, how should I store it)? I am in the Inland Empire, zone 9. It is still hot here, 95-100 all week and dry. We rarely get hard freezes and don't even expect to get frost til dec.



How many per square?



I am excited and have space for it now, as I just got a new bed filled and only half planted plus have space now in my 4x8 that I have cleared out over half of it.



I slected the following varietes from Filaree that I understand should do well here, keep well and are not too hot:



Mild French (Silverskin)

California Select(Silverskin)

California Early (Atrichoke)



Anyone else grown these? This is my first attemt at garlic.

Never have grown the varieties you received from Fillaree, and this will be the first year we'll be using the SFG grid for our garlic and onion sets. Here in western Oregon, we usually plant the individual cloves deep enough that the soil covers the pointed tip of the clove by 1-1/2 inches, with about 5 inches between cloves. As complete as Mel's mix is for nutrients, and provided they get adequate moisture, you can probably expect pretty big bulbs to form from each clove. (Some varieties tend to grow larger bulbs than others.) If you part of the country gets very hard freezes, cover your garlic bed with a mulch, but remember to remove it first thing when spring weather starts to warm up the soil. Personally, I've noticed larger bulbs when I add a bit of bone meal to the compost I stir into the soil where the garlic and/or onions are planted. YMMV. Nonna

I found some info about growing garlic in warmer weather. http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/growing.htm

I'm going to plant mine 4 per square.

Hope it helps!

Margarita

Lindacol wrote:I just got my garlic from Filaree. Should I plant it now or wait a while(& if I should wait, how should I store it)? I am in the Inland Empire, zone 9. It is still hot here, 95-100 all week and dry. We rarely get hard freezes and don't even expect to get frost til dec.



How many per square?



I am excited and have space for it now, as I just got a new bed filled and only half planted plus have space now in my 4x8 that I have cleared out over half of it.



I slected the following varietes from Filaree that I understand should do well here, keep well and are not too hot:



Mild French (Silverskin)

California Select(Silverskin)

California Early (Atrichoke)



Anyone else grown these? This is my first attemt at garlic.

Thanks for all the great info and link! Garlic is something I definitely want to try.

Just think of Gilmore, the garlic capital. It is up near San Fran and very cool weather. I've talked to professional growers there - they store them in the ground! That really blows my mind...and it saves them on storage space/containers, LOL.