1.5 season garlic, have questions

[danwigz]

Hi,

Last spring I was using some farmer's market garlic I had purchased in the fall. I noticed that inside, the bulbs all had small green shoots. Being the inquisitive person that I am, I decided to plant them. Needless to say, I knew nothing (and still know very little) about garlic.

I dug around one of them in the fall, and didn't see any sort of bulb formation, so I covered it back up and let them over winter. I had about a 2-3" layer of leaves/grass over the soil all winter.

Well, it appears that they are starting to grow again, it looks like they are shooting up new green leaves.

Are they likely to produce bulbs? (when?)

Is their anything I can do to help them along?

Any other advice?

Below are a few pictures I've taken.


Thanks,

Dan

[easttx_hippie]

I split three heads of garlic into two planters. One is about 6"x6"x3' long. The other is round with a diameter of 18". I put ten cloves in each of them in January and they all came up. Two weeks later I added six shallots each that are also doing well. I covered the tops of the planters with 6-8 layers of newspaper and then covered that with shredded leaves. They're now 12"-18" tall and beginning to form nice bulbs.

My growing medium is two parts sifted compost (my own), two parts peat moss, and one part perlite. I mix 1/2 cup of blood meal into a gallon of water and let it steep for a few days in the sun. I use that to water my plants once a week for four weeks. I then switch to a mix of blood meal and bone meal in the water for a couple of weeks. By that time I'm ready to sprinkle on some compost tea with added bone meal.

So far.....everything is doing great.

My only advice would be to mulch the garlic and keep it cool. It seems to thrive on cool/cold......mine shot up almost six inches after being covered in snow for two days.

[neoguy]

Originally Posted by danwigz

Hi,

Last spring I was using some farmer's market garlic I had purchased in the fall. I noticed that inside, the bulbs all had small green shoots. Being the inquisitive person that I am, I decided to plant them. Needless to say, I knew nothing (and still know very little) about garlic.

I dug around one of them in the fall, and didn't see any sort of bulb formation, so I covered it back up and let them over winter. I had about a 2-3" layer of leaves/grass over the soil all winter.

Well, it appears that they are starting to grow again, it looks like they are shooting up new green leaves.

Are they likely to produce bulbs? (when?)

Is their anything I can do to help them along?

Any other advice?

Below are a few pictures I've taken.


Thanks,

Dan

[quote=danwigz;164699]

Depending on YOUR growing zone AND the type of garlic you're growing!

Are they likely to produce bulbs? (when?) They are producing bulbs as we write,
though cloves don't start forming til late May, early June.

Is their anything I can do to help them along? Fertilize, fertilize, and again, fertilize. Earlier in February and March I sprinkled blood meal and alfalfa meal around the plants and watered that in. Beginning in March I started watering with fish emulsion, alfalfa tea and a couple of other things about every 7-10 days. I STOP all ferts Mothers Day. Too many ferts after that will adversely affect the over all size of your head.

Any other advice? If you're growing hardneck garlic cut off the scape that forms in late May after it makes a full curl, that will increase the size of the head. Finally, if you don't harvest great heads this year, grow again and again. As with tomatoes, growing garlic is addictive.


I'm just a simple home gardener, there are others here who are more experienced and commercial growers. If, I've offered incorrect advice, please forgive me.

[velikipop]

Neoguy has provide excellent advice. With garlic less is more. The last pic shows a very nice specimen, don't know what all that brown stuff is on the stems of the other two.

[maggie c]

One other thing about garlic, though it doesn't look like you have this problem, is that garlic doesn't like competition, so keep the bed weeded and mulched for best production. Regarding the scapes, for bigger heads you remove the scapes. You can let the scapes grow, and they will produce seeds that you can plant, but that's getting into advanced garlic growing which is beyond my pay grade!

[VORTREKER]

A really good source of info-------
http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/

[danwigz]

Thanks for all the advice.

velikipop, the brown stuff on the first year is old leaves that died last year; should I remove them?

I plan on planting more stuff in this bed later, however it is still too cold for most things here. I put them in their current location because that was the only spots I had open last year.

(i'm tripling my garden space, if not more this year )

Dan

[velikipop]

Dan,

Normally garlic is harvested in the first year when 4 to 6 leaves from the bottom turn brown. If that is from last year then I am assuming that the plant has been in the ground for well over a year, not sure what the bulb will look like or if it will be usable.

Alex

Originally Posted by danwigz

Thanks for all the advice.

velikipop, the brown stuff on the first year is old leaves that died last year; should I remove them?

I plan on planting more stuff in this bed later, however it is still too cold for most things here. I put them in their current location because that was the only spots I had open last year.

(i'm tripling my garden space, if not more this year )

Dan

[tjg911]

fwiw, i don't fertilize my garlic too much. i have rich sandy loam, when i plant i add compost, blood meal and bone meal. i spray the plants with neptune's harvest 2 times in the spring (i have to check my notes as it may be time to do the 1st one shortly) about 5 weeks apart. garlic leaves are waxy like onions and the spray tends to run off so i'm not sure how much good the spraying does so 1 time i'll water it with nh and that's it. my garlic is good sized. i don't water it unless it's been dry for weeks, unlike onions i don't believe garlic wants 1" of water per week. garlic originated in the siberian steppes which is very dry. from what i have read garlic does not require or want much fertilizer tho i have read about others that fertilize a lot.

tom

[Medbury Gardens]

I'm a bit like Tom as i don't fertilize much, in fact i don't fertilize at all,all i do is add plenty of compost before i plant and then make sure they don't get to much water,which is easy for me as i live in a dry climate so its easy to apply want water is needed.
Below are my stud bulbs that were planted last week.

Sorry that's not in inches by the way,we cant buy imperial tape measures down this way

[danwigz]

Originally Posted by Medbury Gardens

I'm a bit like Tom as i don't fertilize much, in fact i don't fertilize at all,all i do is add plenty of compost before i plant and then make sure they don't get to much water,which is easy for me as i live in a dry climate so its easy to apply want water is needed.
Below are my stud bulbs that were planted last week.

Sorry that's not in inches by the way,we cant buy imperial tape measures down this way

You crazy non-Americans and you're measurements not based on 12... or maybe 3... or is it 5280... hmmm maybe its 4? lol.

Anyway, the plants grew from June-now so I'll have to do some digging to see if anythings down their. Otherwise I'll probably just see if they flower (they did nothing of the sort last summer) and hope to get some seeds the old fashioned way.

Dan

[Medbury Gardens]

Originally Posted by danwigz

You crazy non-Americans and you're measurements not based on 12... or maybe 3... or is it 5280... hmmm maybe its 4? lol.



Dan

To right Dan,why make it too easy by having measurements based on 10,100,1000's