Transplanting Garlic
 

Well, this is exciting. My finance and I are buying a house, and we start moving in next month (and then the month after that we're getting married... I know we ended up doing things a little backwards, but we found a house we really liked and had to jump at it).

So time to dismantle the garden I've been growing in the backyard of this rental house and get ready to start completely over again at the new place.

The problem is back in October I planted a bunch of garlic, since back then I didn't think we'd be moving this soon. It won't be ready to harvest until May at the very earliest.

Do you folks think it could be transplanted to the new place, or would that cause so much of a shock to it that I wouldn't get a good harvest anyway? I hate to abandon it, but if it wouldn't make it through the move anyway, maybe I should save myself the work.

I imagine you can transplant the garlic if handled carefully, but I would expect some root damage and therefore perhaps some stunted growth.

If you have a good relationship with the folks you are renting from, why not ask if you can leave the garlic there for a few months and come back and harvest it in June.

TomNJ

I, too, would be worried about disturbing the roots. Like Tom said, maybe the new owners would allow you to come back at harvest time...especially if you promised them some garlic in return.

Just dig it up and move it I dont think you will lose any of it.

Just have the other place ready for the garlic move and do it at night or a cool day.

I am always digging stuff up and moving it.:lol:

Worth

In my opinion you should try to move garleigh together with ground. Make pieces of ground as large as you can. You may move 3-4 roots at once. That means more effort, but roots are not disturbed.

I think is better explained above.

I read that garlic is very hardy and can withstand some rough treatment but doesn't like it's roots disturbed. I second Moshou's idea to move with a big piece of ground.
Sue B.

I've transplanted growing alliums several times, as long as the plants were still in the vegetative stage, and not yet beginning to form bulbs. Dig them up carefully, gently remove excess soil (leaving some soil on the root ball) and place the plant in a pail with enough water in the bottom to cover the roots. When transplanting, pull the plant out of the water, transplant gently, and water each plant immediately to prevent the roots from drying. The bulb size was smaller than usual, but at least the plants still produced.

Oh, and the whole "plant large cloves for large bulbs" thing... when I re-planted the smaller cloves produced by the transplants, I got normal sized bulbs the following year. This was for an artichoke type (softneck), I'm not sure how the hardnecks would respond to this treatment.

I too would recommend talking to the new tenants as first recourse, to see if they will agree to let your garlic grow to maturity. Hey, maybe you can convince them to keep growing it, from some bulbs you will give them. Then you would each have a backup in case your crop was lost... and maybe a new garden friend.

i asked that same question last year on another forum, and was told i was pretty much screwed, so i left it. i'll agree with zeedman though, and say that the earlier it is in the vegetative stage, the better. have the ground prepared before you dig the garlic up, and dig the garlic just before you move. the bulbs may not divide this year, but at least you salvage the variety, and should have normal size bulbs the following year. in my situation, we were moving over 500 miles away, the garden at the farm was over grown with weeds and field grass, and you can only do so much. i managed to salvage a few hundred bulbils on a visit by the old place, and planted them this past fall. i should have lots of garlic in a couple years.
if you transplant, let us know how it works out if you can.


keith

Ok, I might try transplanting it then, and it sounds like I'd be better off doing it sooner rather than later, while it's still as small as possible.

I don't think I'd be comfortable asking the landlord and/or new tenants to let it stay until June. I'm weird enough already having a garden at all, and my SO is a bit anxious to get everything put back to the way we found it so we can have some hope of getting our deposit back (seems like landlords can ALWAYS find something to keep your deposit for). We were planning on mowing everything down and maybe even seeding some winter rye to cover it up before we leave (*sigh*).

At least I'm only moving across town, so if I get the new site prepared first, it won't have to stay out of the ground for long.

I'll let you know how it goes.

I finally got time to transplant the garlic about two weeks ago. I cut back a lot of the leaves to hopefully make up for the loss of roots, and then watered them in really well (and then they got a lot of rain).

They hadn't started bulbing up yet. Still looked like fat green onions. I hope that means I was early enough. And I did dig them up and plant them all in the same day, so they were out of the soil for a minimal amount of time.

I hope they at least survive well enough to be planting stock for next year. None of them are especially rare varieties, but it would be nice to not have to order new garlic from scratch all over again this fall.

[QUOTE=Neohippie;264095]I finally got time to transplant the garlic about two weeks ago. I cut back a lot of the leaves to hopefully make up for the loss of roots,
QUOTE]

Neo,

Cutting back a lot of the leaves might not have been a good move. The leaves feed the cloves so you may up with a very small bulb. Let us know how it worked out at harvest time. Thanks,

Uh oh! I've cut back leaves before when transplanting other things. I thought if a lot of roots of a plant gets damaged, it helps to trim the leaves back so that there's less water loss while the roots recover.

Oh well, if I get really small bulbs, maybe I can still re-plant them this fall.

It's common to trim the leaves on leeks when transplanting to the final bed, so don't worry about it too much - they should be ok. :)

Bark called it right. Keep 'em watered to lessen the shock they've been put through. Your big payoff will probably be next season.

You might put some coffee grounds on the new bed or water with kelp and fish emulsion to help the garlic grow and get out of its shock. Seems to really give it s good boost.
Congratulations on the new place and wedding!