Mulch for garlic
 

I just planted my garlic, which is actually about 3-4 weeks late, but temps were high, in the 80s, when I would normally plant it so I waited. Temps are still in the 50s and 60s during the day, with only a few in the 40s, so hopefully I will be OK. Last year they grew in the fall and I don't think that is really recommended. They were at least 6-8 high going into winter. The problem now is that I forgot to get mulch. I have a small amt of chopped straw mulch that I used over part of it, but they are out for the season where I usually get it. I have a few leaves that were partially chopped in the mower from my yard that I haven't put out for pick up yet, so I could use those. Mostly maple leaves. Any other suggestions? I do have some cedar mulch that I use in flower beds but I have never seen that type of stuff recommended for veggie gardens and I can't be sure what is in it for chemicals. Should I just pile a thicker layer of soil and compost on top? It is a mixture of soil and compost that I bought locally for my raised bed, already mixed together.

At this time of year, drive around the neighborhood and you will find that many nice people have left out nice bags of leaves for you! :D

No rush either; I generally don't mulch my garlic until the ground has frozen.

leaves are fine, and free. chop them up if you can, so they stay where put. chopping will also prevent matting from occurring. one year, i had several inches of leaves on my garlic, that i did not remove soon enough, and discovered my garlic had sprouted several inches beneath the mat. i may have broke off some stems before realizing what the situation was. wood shavings would prolly work ok too. we have places here that make wood products, and saw dust is available.



keith

Not cedar shavings.

SueCT, I have been reading this thread today after each reply. I saw, "I just planted my garlic, which is actually about 3-4 weeks late, but temps were high, in the 80s, when I would normally plant it so I waited."

Just a few days ago in Texas the highs were record breaking in the upper 80s, but I planted elephant garlic a week ago. The temperatures in Texas are supposed to be a lot different than those in Connecticut. Tonight's low is supposed to be near freezing.

A friend in a different zone in Texas is already planting sugar snap peas.

The weather really makes me wonder what to do.

I use straw like you usually do, but as others have said, leaves will work great too!

Leaves and grass clippings will be fine.

Linda

Leaves work but be sure to chop them as finely as possible. If left whole they form a mat as Keith noted and the sprouting garlic can't penetrate, so they grow horizontally under the mat. If you can't chop them well, then remove the mulch in late February or early March just before the shoots break ground.

I find grass clippings to be the perfect mulch for garlic and onions. I begin collecting my clippings a few weeks before planting and spread them out in the garden about 2" thick to dry. Don't pile grass clippings too high or they will decompose instead of dry and turn slimy and stinky.

As for timing, I usually plant garlic out in the first half of November (my climate here in the mountains at 2,600 feet is quite similar to yours) and immediately mulch. This keeps the top growth to a minimum and usually does not break the mulch. I once planted out on December 13th in NJ and the garlic were bigger than another bed planted on November 1st. Go figure.

TomNJ/VA

My garlic and elephant garlic were planted about 2 weeks ago and a few green sprouts are breaking the surface of the bed. Was 70F today, front is passing through now and it is expected to be around freezing by daybreak tomorrow. Crazy weather.

Last year I had used extra bag of pine bark nuggets and I'm glad I did. It was a very cold winter. Did not lose even a single clove. This year I planted in mid Oct and just this week I covered the sprouted garlic with leftover straw. Fingers crossed that they know how to adapt to this crazy weather, its been in the 70's and 80's here too. I was in a tee shirt until yesterday.

I envy those living where the growing season extends into November. It was delightful to have these extra weeks before frigid temps set in.

- Lisa

The weather seems to get crazier and crazier. Temps this week here were still in the mid 60s, but it can turn quite cold pretty quickly. From what I have read, the ideal situation is weather and timing that allows them to put down roots before the ground freezes but planting late enough so that there is little or no top growth. I wondered if my small to medium sized bulbs this year had anything to do with the bulbs sending up too much growth last year and then getting frozen. Anyway, I think this timing will turn out to be pretty good. temps are starting to go down into the 30s every night, and even forcasted to down to 25 one night but 50s during the day. I am hoping this is the weather that allows for the root growth but less top growth this year. I get concerned about snow and getting busy with the holidays, and not getting the mulch down at all, which is why it is just easier to put it down now and not have to worry about it. My mower does not do a great job of chopping the leaves, and I ended up finding a place that has some chopped straw left, so I will probablly pick up a bag of that and put the leaves in the remainder of the garden to break down. I am concerned about the matting. Not much grass growing either any more. I didn't think about the neighbors leaves, lol. I am sure they would be find with my stealing some if I did need them. :)

I can't believe weather has been similar to Texas. :)

Thanks for all the suggestions!

IMO so far, kelp makes the best mulch as it doesn't prevent the garlic from coming up as it shrinks and dries in spring, and doesn't have to be removed. And no weed seeds in it.
I mulched some with leaves and that was fine, only but a few grass seeds got in it.
Mostly mulched with grass clippings last year and I was less pleased. First the birds got into it and tore it apart looking for bugs. I put it back and then realized, it was matted down and keeping the sprouts down. So I took it off. Also I think because of the light color it was keeping the soil colder in spring. Kelp and leaves are dark so will tend to absorb heat which is good for us here anyway.

We are having very warm weather in November as well. Hard to believe my garden is still pretty green, highs up to 60 F or more is not normal for us this time of year.
On the other hand, very wet weather and lots of fog, taken with the short days, not much risk of the garlic breaking ground. I just checked and saw no sprouts. I planted early this year, just a week into October.

Mulching garlic
 

Rather than starting new thread, I am hijacking this old one. Yesterday was finally sunny day, so we took the day off from work and drove to our hobby farm. There was already thin layer of snow on the ground, but it is supposed to get warmer, so that snow will be gone in couple of days. My farther-in-law had raked leaves on his yard, so we loaded all the leaves on an old tractor trailer and moved it to next to my garlic beds. Now I have thick layer of leaves on the beds for winter protection. I will remove those in April, when the sun is shining from higher and will warm the black plastic, which is used to suppress weeds during summer.
I am hoping that high winds will not blow off those leaves. The leaves were quite wet and heavy, so light wind will not move them, but a storm could easily blow them away. Last year, I covered the leaves with light weight row cover, but it broke to pieces when I was removing it spring time and the edges were still attached to frozen ground. This year the garlic bed is in a different spot, where the winds cannot blow as hard, so I decided not to cover the leaves with anything. If the top leaves stay frozen, those should keep the leaves on place, even if we do not get a lot of snow this winter.

Sari

Svalli, what a beautiful picture.

I haven't panted garlic yet. The high temperature a couple days ago was 94F = 34C.

Hmm. I don't mulch at all. It could cause big trouble in the Spring
being often very wet when the snow thaws.

The bed is prepped, raked, and near weed free now. I'll be planting
next weekend.

I'll mulch next Spring after a good thaw. After a nice sunny dry week
when I see healthy growth. But all climates are different. Even chopped
leaves are a death sentence anywhere near my garden beds.
Probably use straw like last season.

Mulch for garlic
 

Looking good! I planted mine a couple of weeks ago, and as soon as it gets colder and more leaves fall, my bed will get a heavy layer of chopped leaves. For now I’m hoping the garlic roots are getting a strong foothold before winter halts their growth.

I learned that chopped leaves tend to stay put better than whole ones. And while I do a thick layer late in the fall, I will gently rake some of it off the garlic bed once it thaws in the spring, leaving just enough to cover the drip tubing and suppress weeds. It has been working well and by fall, most of the leaf mulching will have broken down.

Straw has gotten pricey around here as so many homeowners are buying bales to use as part of their lawn decorations... and even if it is labeled seed free, I still spend half the summer pulling out sprouts...

I'm using PH's method this year, I'm surprised no one has mentioned it. DeWitt Sunbelt woven landscape cover 3 foot wide. Holes are 9" apart. I going to throw a couple inches of straw over that.[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171105/2320a1d7b9ab6bcde557d8e3b7c15e8e.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171105/ac874725b37b61547390bba3aa449f0f.jpg[/IMG]


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All our strong winds recently have been from the south - wrong direction for our west facing beach. But the wind has switched and strong westerlies SW and NW yesterday and today, so max chance of a good haul of kelp from the beach after that. Will check it out tomorrow morning and see if I can get enough for all my garlic beds. If not I will go with leaves as a second choice.

[QUOTE=pmcgrady;670641]I'm using PH's method this year, I'm surprised no one has mentioned it. DeWitt Sunbelt woven landscape cover 3 foot wide. Holes are 9" apart. I going to throw a couple inches of straw over that.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/QUOTE]

I have 1 meter wide black plastic over the beds, which works as summer mulch. This is now 3rd season for the same plastic sheets. I'm planning to use the woven stuff, when these sheets get too worn to be reused.

I was looking for straw, but the smaller bales are quite expensive and the grain crops have been bred to have so short stems that those are mostly mulched directly to the field with harvester and not baled at all. I am also a bit worried, if baled straw could have residue of broad-leaf plant killing herbicides. I am not sure, if my worries are totally groundless, but reading about the aminopyralid contaminated gardens has got me to be more cautious.

A company in Finland sells mulch made from industrial hemp. That should work well, but it is also quite expensive to get. I would like to grow my own and shred it with the wood chipper to get mulch. Maybe next spring I will try to get seeds to plant a small patch to try it.

Sari

I was hoping for a frost to simplify pulling plants to make room for my garlic.

Decided not to wait any longer and pulled some plants, added some compost and put in Mexican and Elephant Garlic.

Thinking of passing on mulching since everything will be snow covered soon anyways.

I came across this link where they compared mulching to not mulching...

[url]https://goingtoseed.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/mulched-garlic-vs-unmulched-garlic/[/url]

Personally, I am afraid to skip the winter mulch since I only plant 110 cloves and even a 30% winter kill like they had would be a huge hit.

If I were growing on a larger scale, or had some way of knowing we were going to have heavy snow fall early in the winter and that there would be no mid-winter thaw, then I might consider skipping it.

[QUOTE=svalli;670673]I have 1 meter wide black plastic over the beds, which works as summer mulch. This is now 3rd season for the same plastic sheets. I'm planning to use the woven stuff, when these sheets get too worn to be reused.

I was looking for straw, but the smaller bales are quite expensive and the grain crops have been bred to have so short stems that those are mostly mulched directly to the field with harvester and not baled at all. I am also a bit worried, if baled straw could have residue of broad-leaf plant killing herbicides. I am not sure, if my worries are totally groundless, but reading about the aminopyralid contaminated gardens has got me to be more cautious.

A company in Finland sells mulch made from industrial hemp. That should work well, but it is also quite expensive to get. I would like to grow my own and shred it with the wood chipper to get mulch. Maybe next spring I will try to get seeds to plant a small patch to try it.

Sari[/QUOTE]


I am wondering about using Halloween decoration bales because of the potential for contamination too.

I'm also not using bagged leaves left out for municipal collection because of possible contamination from treatment for emerald ash borer which has migrated to my area.

One of the bales is actually sprouting grass while I muse over this. Not a great weed barrier, but the price (zero) was great.

- Lisa

I'm also afraid to skip the mulch and risk losses. Although I've seen garlic do fine without mulch at the farm, the microclimate here is more extreme. We get a lot of freeze and thaw cycles every winter, so I can't really count on the snow. I think some of my losses last year could have partly been blamed on the quality of mulch as well, which was different on different beds and a bit thin in some places. Dryer bits of kelp mulch were not as good. Even leaves did better. So I need a nice even layer of fresh kelp. The leaf mulched bed didn't lose a single clove, either, although it wasn't that thick maybe inch and a half.

I also think that smaller cloves, rounds or 2nd year cloves are more vulnerable, maybe because they're not planted as deep.

Also, at a small scale, removing mulch in spring is a small price to pay for survival vs loss where the snow cover is risky. Although in my garden, I could probably have it removed with no effort, by letting the ravens go to it. :lol: I only worried they may pull the garlic too.

That is a great link EPawlick. Lots of discussion about different experiences.

Put my garlic in two weeks ago and covered with a thick layer of grass clippings. I switched from spoiled hay to grass clippings a few years ago as we cut two acres around the house and have a lot of clippings! Plus it has absolutely no weed seeds, is easy to handle and spread, and is soft enough for the young garlic plants to easily penetrate in early March. I always leave the mulch on throughout the growing season for water retention and weed suppression.

Two 50' beds, each having three rows of garlic spaced 6" within the rows, and the rows 12" apart for a total of 570 plants.

TomNJ/VA

[QUOTE=bower;670740]I'm also afraid to skip the mulch and risk losses. Although I've seen garlic do fine without mulch at the farm, the microclimate here is more extreme. We get a lot of freeze and thaw cycles every winter, so I can't really count on the snow. I think some of my losses last year could have partly been blamed on the quality of mulch as well, which was different on different beds and a bit thin in some places. Dryer bits of kelp mulch were not as good. Even leaves did better. So I need a nice even layer of fresh kelp. The leaf mulched bed didn't lose a single clove, either, although it wasn't that thick maybe inch and a half.

I also think that smaller cloves, rounds or 2nd year cloves are more vulnerable, maybe because they're not planted as deep.
.[/QUO TE]

My garlic plot is so small that I'll probably not chance leaving it without mulch.
Once the red maple leaves drop, I'll add some leaf mulch... Should be a hard frost soon.

What works well for me is to rake the leaf mulch off to the side as soon as it thaws, apply some blood meal, let the sun warm the soil for a couple of weeks, apply a balanced fertilizer (8-8-8), then rake the leaf mulch back onto the bed. I added the blood meal application to the routine last year and had one of the best garlic crops in years, so I will do the same this year.

Well I didn't get much kelp - not enough for all the garlic this time. But then I scored a massive load of leaves, from a place in town where it's mostly maples. So all my beds have a really deep mulch of maple leaves this time, even the ones that got some kelp. :) I just thought, why not. Pile it on. I've never had so much. :cute:
I have some chicken wire I had laid over the beds, on the faint hope of discouraging moose from walking on it, or failing that, just limit the destruction of their tracks. So that got flipped and laid back over the leaves. Not a bad setup for a windy place. 8-)

We went snowshoeing today and I got to check my plantings. There is about a foot of snow on top of the garlic. I'm glad we got this natural mulch this year for the coldest time of the winter. Last nigh it had been below -20°C (-4°F) and next couple of nights will be quite cold too.

Hopefully two months from now it starts to look different and there could be something peeking from the ground.

Sari

That looks excellent, Svalli! They should do really well this year. :D
We normally have a lot of snow down by this time, but we are having the strangest winter ever. Thaws at least twice a week, sometimes lasting 2 or 3 days, with rain and southerly winds. It's definitely a challenge for the garlic, so I'm glad I got lots of kelp and leaves. All the discussion about mulch was helpful and I hope it's enough. The raised beds seem to be draining well and the bulbil container too, no ice water on top.

But I kept back some of each kind of bulbil just in case, which I planted a couple of days ago in the greenhouse, as a backup plan. :)

Thanks bower. We got one good rainfall couple of weeks ago, so the snow cover shrunk a bit, but since then it has been snowing more. I do not like to shovel the snow, but so far it has been good for plants. I covered my raised beds here in the city, where I have planted cloves and bulbils, so that the melting snow will not form ice on top of the soil. The garden should be now well protected.

Sari