Are you planting garlic this year?

[lovinglife]

Yes one clove will become a bulb. Yes, plant in the fall, and yes more parts are edible. You can cut the greens when young and use as chives I have heard, also if you have a hard neck it will send up a flower stalk, cut that off as soon as you see them, they are very yummy with a mild garlic taste! Plus you don't want that left on your plant. Harvest when the leaves start to die.

 

[Tam]

If so what cool kinds are you going to grow, and what time of year do you plant garlic where you live? I have 5 varieties this year and will plant next month.

We have only planted elephant garlic, very big. We harvested enough garlic to last the year. I have never looked into other varieties sounds like fun. We are in zone 3, in Canada.

 

[ChanellG]

Ok, my organic garlic is in the fridge. Should I just take it out after 40 days, or should I let it sprout first? I didn't remove the skin because I saw something that suggested not doing so helps keep it from being too moist.

 

[lovinglife]

Are you in a warm climate? Do you freeze in the winter? Correct leave the skins on and seperate the cloves right before you plant.

 

[ChanellG]

Yes, it's pretty warm here; I believe I am in zone 9. Freezes can happen, but the don't very often. I will be planting in a container so I will be able to move it if I need to.

 

[lovinglife]

Cool, can't wait to hear how they do for you.

 

[maddie]

I have garlic in containers. I live in a place where the weather is warm and humid and the garlic sprouts on its own.I just plant the sprouted ones in containers.I haven't had a crop as yet I am waiting for one soon. It is always a pleasure to harvest your own produce.

 

[ChanellG]

Cool, let us know how it goes with the containers. Maybe you and I can compare notes. I'm not sure what variety I have, I just picked up a bulb one day when I was shopping at Whole Foods.

 

[ChanellG]

Okay, I took my garlic out of the fridge this past week and separated all the cloves. I put about twenty of them in soil with the tips sticking up a bit and they grew chives overnight! After a couple days the shoots were unbelievably tall!

Not all sprouted at the same time, but it's amazing how tall some were after just a few days! I have to start getting my containers ready sooner than I thought I would.

 

[claudine]

They did? I have put some garlic cloves into my miniature roses soil because I have a problem with these strange worms. It was a few days ago. Now I'm starting to think that maybe it will sprout too

 

[ChanellG]

Claudine, it's very possible those are larvae. You might want to scoop some into a cup and take them to the local nursery. You shouldn't have any worms in your indoor plants unless you brought in soil from outside.

If your garlic was organic it should sprout, but there is no guarantee your soil critters won't eat it. You could always sprout some and then plant it, but you should identify those worms first.

 

[Jed]

Getting there. My garlic is so close to being harvested. My dog Mishka and me in the garlic patch.

 

[ChanellG]

Wow, Jed, just how much stuff do you have growing over how much space total? You must have 100 garlic plants just in that area alone! That's way more than I could manage at the moment.

 

[claudine]

Claudine, it's very possible those are larvae. You might want to scoop some into a cup and take them to the local nursery. You shouldn't have any worms in your indoor plants unless you brought in soil from outside.

I have no idea where they came from. They're white and very fast. And they jump . It's possible they're springtails, but I'm not sure. I was hoping the garlic will scare them off, but it didn't work
Jed - wow, that's a lot of garlic!

 

[Jed]

Wow, Jed, just how much stuff do you have growing over how much space total? You must have 100 garlic plants just in that area alone! That's way more than I could manage at the moment.

There's 300 in this years planting. I used to plant about 1,500, 20 years ago, before I got that garlic disease so I need to keep my crops small and rotate to another garden to overcome the problem.Considering the general thinking is, you will never grow garlic again, I have reduced the problem and now had only 5% diseased plants last year. If I get disease this year, I will post a picture of the infected plants.
I build these enclosed gardens with wire roofs 40 foot long by 12 feet wide and 6 feet high to keep wallaby/kangaroo and possums out. I have four of them and share the areas with my wife. I concentrate on potatoes and garlic and she does most of the other vegetables. We also have a 66 foot long poly tunnel hothouse. Keeps us quite busy.