Garlic planted
 

This may be a bit early for planting garlic, but killing frost finally came and weather is cooling rapidly. Some years I have struggled to plant in the soil, which was already frozen on the surface and I will not wait that long anymore. Today was sunny and dry, so we drove to our hobby farm and planted total of 1133 garlic cloves of 24 different varieties and 8 elephant garlic cloves and rounds.

I have still some small rounds grown from bulbils to be planted to raised beds in my small city garden, but having the cloves planted is a relief and soon I can turn to winter hibernation mode. :)

Sari

Oh wow that does seem really early. I know we have a similar climate but there are some major differences too. Our spring is really late but our autumn is usually mild at least until the end of October. I have planted in November one year, that was definitely too late and really uncomfortable. I guess if the weather is turning early, best to go with the flow.



You're going to have a huge crop! :D8-)

Wow, that's quite a diverse crop of garlic! I planted mine two days ago, just 98 cloves. 25 of them are a Korean type that I'm planting just to keep the variety going in the garden.

Planted my garlic about a week or two early this year as well, 29 September. The overnight lows were getting down to -10 and -12 C pretty regularly and the rains/snow had not yet started so took advantage of a sunny Saturday afternoon and planted the cloves and two short rows of rounds. Will go out in a week or so and cover with chopped leaves. Just about ready to enjoy the 'resting season'.

I guess I should get mine in soon, but it's been rather wet.

Last year I learned that I can plant it nice and close together so that it doesn't take up a huge amount of my garden. It worked out really well :).

Linda

Linda, how close did you plant and what else (fert wise) to get a good yield with a tight planting?


I have varied the spacing a bit and definitely got larger bulbs with bigger spacing. I really need to work on the amount of sunshine too, as even a bit of shade seems to take its toll.

I think they were only about 4" apart! I learned from an experienced gardener and couldn't believe how close the bulbils were when I saw them at a community garden (thought it must have been a newbie who didn't know any better!!!) When you think about it, why would they need a ton of space?

I planted mine in full sun in some aged cow manure and mulched them with bark chips. I was very happy with my harvest, one of the best :).

Linda

we have been getting rain nearly every day, and will continue to do so till the weekend when maybe we see some sun. i just need a break in the weather to get my garlic in. the window is closing on planting here. if the rain continues, and the temps drop into the 30s, it will get very white out, very fast.
planting a little early is not a problem in the northern latitudes.



keith

[QUOTE=salix;716549]Planted my garlic about a week or two early this year as well, 29 September. The overnight lows were getting down to -10 and -12 C pretty regularly and the rains/snow had not yet started so took advantage of a sunny Saturday afternoon and planted the cloves and two short rows of rounds. Will go out in a week or so and cover with chopped leaves. Just about ready to enjoy the 'resting season'.[/QUOTE]


Brian Minter, master gardener in Chilliwack (Minter Gardens) says to plant garlic at Fall Equinox in BC. He makes no distinction between warmer coastal areas and colder interior ones. I have been planting my garlic then for years and always get good returns for the effort.

Thanks for that, G.C. I have met Brian on a few occasions, he has come up to give talks to various groups in the past. My thoughts on the matter are - I want the roots to develop, but not top growth. Our winters are much more severe than yours, and anything above ground will be pretty tatty after exposure to -35 C if there isn't snow cover. Probably would just slow things down to 'start over' so to speak in Spring, but not actually kill them.

If I was younger (or at least more spry), I would experiment with a large number of one particular variety and plant a half dozen a week, starting Sept. 21st and ending October 31st. Perhaps I will do just that next year, using the small cloves from the rounds I planted this year...

Thanks from me too... it is certainly food for thought. I doubt very much that any garlic planted at or after the equinox here would break the ground before winter. Planting earlier might even give them an advantage. I have not seen positive results from planting later than mid october that's for sure.


We had a very wierd year here with almost-July temperatures right through the middle of September, but switching to below normal then instead of a pleasant gradual decline. And that is continuing except for the occasional warmer than normal day. So I will also be planting as soon as possible, may have to wait to mulch later.

I got my beds all ready to plant today but it was too late to plant by the time I finished. Tomorrow is another dry day, but the forecast has a lot of rain - every second or third day, with totals looking likely 80 mm or more by the end of the week. That seems like a lot of rain for the garlic's first week in the ground, I wonder if I should wait? :?!?: They are saying 20 mm for Monday night 'but could be as much as 50mm', which is a bit more than a soaker.

[QUOTE=bower;717074]I got my beds all ready to plant today but it was too late to plant by the time I finished. Tomorrow is another dry day, but the forecast has a lot of rain - every second or third day, with totals looking likely 80 mm or more by the end of the week. That seems like a lot of rain for the garlic's first week in the ground, I wonder if I should wait? :?!?: They are saying 20 mm for Monday night 'but could be as much as 50mm', which is a bit more than a soaker.[/QUOTE]

Do you have a tarp, which you could use to cover the beds during the heavy rains?

I mulched my garlic beds with fallen leaves on Saturday, even it is still unseasonably warm. Yesterday we had record high for October, temperature in Vaasa was over 18°C, but sun is already shining at so low angle, that the warmth is just temporary.

Sari

The tarp is a good idea, but we also are expecting wind gusts 120-140 kph... :bummer: It's going up to 15 C as well for this first storm. Too bad it won't be fit conditions to enjoy it! :shock:
I cracked the big bulbs last night so I guess I'll go ahead with those anyway. I might be able to tarp the planted beds if rainfall amounts forecast for next Sunday-Monday are still looking large.:yes:

[QUOTE=svalli;717095]Do you have a tarp, which you could use to cover the beds during the heavy rains?

I mulched my garlic beds with fallen leaves on Saturday, even it is still unseasonably warm. Yesterday we had record high for October, temperature in Vaasa was over 18°C, but sun is already shining at so low angle, that the warmth is just temporary.

Sari[/QUOTE]
It looks lovely while the leaves still have their colour! At least the warm weather makes it nice to do the work.

Planting conditions were so perfect today, I went ahead and planted all I have room for in these two beds - in all about 220 cloves and my largest rounds - 14 varieties.
I was worried about the soil being a bit wet yesterday but besides the wind blowing and the sun shining these beds seem to be draining really well, and the soil condition today was ideal for planting. The temperature didn't reach 10C/50 F and the wind was brisk out of the west but dewpoint above freezing and actually not too bad for planting at all, my hands weren't even cold. :) I guess I realized it is not going to get any better than this, so just as well to plant with confidence that they are getting in on time and that is as good as it gets here.

Really happy to see the updated forecast when I came in, it looks like less than 20 mm tomorrow! That will just help them to snuggle in. ;)

I will keep an eye on the rainfall amounts coming up though and maybe tarp the beds if it looks like we will be waterlogged. One tarp is on my old vegetable garden since 3 weeks ago, I have no idea if it was enough to kill off the vegetation in that time. I cut some trees and threw on top of it to help keep it from blowing away, so I hope it stays down during the storm tomorrow.

my garlic is planted, big sigh of relief.

we had a two day break in the weather. yesterday was sunny and 67, today was in the 50s. i had two short shifts at work, so was able to till an area yesterday, and separated my garlic cloves. today after work i got the garlic in. a few rain drops were starting to fall, and i thought, please not now. wind has been blowing pretty good for several days. i decided to start planting, and see how it goes. the rain stopped, and i was able to finish and remain dry. the weekend weather isn't looking good. planting during snow showers, with temps in the 30s would not have been fun. been there, done that.

in ground are about 120 cloves comprised of my german hard neck, some locally bought garlic that looks like music, and 3 bulbs that were in the catawissa onions. not sure what variety. i also planted about 80 marble sized bulbils from the german garlic. the bulbils should each form a small bulb of garlic next summer from past experience, and full sized bulbs the following year.

done


keith

I got a start on my planting this weekend.
Got two 14'x100' tunnels planted. 4 beds in each tunnel.
Ran out of space but still had cloves, so planted a ~100' bed in my field area

Of note: 20 lbs of Chesnock (large bulbs) planted 450' worth of beds (3 rows per bed, rows and cloves 9" apart).
20 lbs of German extra hardy (large and xtra large bulbs) planted 300' of beds
15 lbs of music (large and extra large) planted 180' of beds

9.5 more field beds (3'x200') to go and one more tunnel. Noreaster possible this weekend, gonna mess up my schedule, as I work during the week and rely on weekends for stuff like planting.

Another note: After soaking the cloves in fish fertilizer for 24 hrs, I had roots and shoots showing on about 25% of the cloves when we drained the buckets.
Normally don't use fish, as it is THE most expensive form of N pound per pound versus other sources and its not even close, but I had some free samples of a dehydrated super concentrate powder that is 15-1-1 and 100% dissolvable. Not sure if was the fert or the duration of the soak (could you get the same results with just water soak for 24hrs).
Not sure that soaking it fert even does anything. The cloves have a waxy surface under the clove wrappers and skins. It seems those are the only parts that are going to absorb fertilizer., not the clove itself.
Plus, after I drain the fert, I do a 10 minute soak in 10% hydrogen peroxide, so I wonder if that washes off the fert on the surfaces anyway.

Mine went in yesterday with help from my son since I've been battling a bad sinus infection -- 102 cloves plus 27 small rounds, and about 18 shallots. I'll let it settle in for a few weeks before I mulch. Feels good to have it done!

Today I received a small package of Havran cloves. A farmer sent me some of his leftover planting stock. I had to plant those right away, since the weather is cooling rapidly. I planted 35 to a raised bed and 64 to Rootrainers, which I buried in the soil in an other raised bed. I am hoping that when spring arrives I can dig the Rootrainers up and transplant the cloves to the field. Coming weekend will be really cold, so planting to the field anymore this fall is probably not a good choice.

Sari

snow as mulch under a tarp?
 

I hate to admit it but while I was busy working 12 hour days through october and first half of november, the weather changed to winter and I have ended up without mulch as yet. Leaves had not even dropped yet in the last week of October but then wind came and snatched them off in a hurry, and it has been very cold - midwinter cold - for days in a row, with days of rain in between. When we got a thaw this week I discovered that the ground was frozen hard, couldn't dig leeks, couldn't get a fork into the ground, and 3 or 4 days rain and above zero before things got a little bit soft.

I took the rainy days this week to clear up the garden of pots hoses and so on, and I was hoping to get some leaves on the garlic beds then but the wind came up and it was pretty obvious, no leaves were going to be gathered or laid in one place on that day.
Now we are into three days of January type cold weather again, with highs of -5 or -6 C and windchills -15 C. I was even glad to see some snow falling today, and about 2 cm forecast each day for the next three, making a small but important cover over my beds.
So with doubtful access to any mulch materials, I wondered if I could take the tarp which is white one side and black the other, and place it over the bed on top of the snow with the white side up. If that would keep the 5 cm or so of snow from melting it would be better than leaving the garlic with nothing on top through our usual winter of freeze and thaw cycles...
Do you think that might work?

If we had a long thaw I could check to see if there's still snow underneath, but we're not expecting too much in the way of warm weather considering how the winter has started so early.

Bower, if it's any consolation, I only covered half my garlic this year. Its been unseasonably cold and windy, snow is predicted for Sunday. On the asiatics and purple stripe I used leaves that I gathered and shredded (took all day but that is another story) and held them down from the wind with asparagus fern cuttings and flattened tomato cages. I left the porcelains to their own devices, unmuclhed. A little varment already dug a bunch up because I "might" have used a bit of organic fertilizer on the last cloves planted.
I didn't use straw that was available to be out of fear of herbicides and lots of weed seeds.

I can't directly answer your question, but what I am getting at it to me it is better to do nothing than to risk compromising your crop. I don't like the feeling of using a tarp that might keep it a little too wet under there but have no scientific rational to explain this. Someone did this with potatoes and it worked great so I am torn about this method. Hopefully someone can chime in while the option for coverage still exists.

- Lisa

Just curious how large your garlic bed that needs mulch is. Any wood chips available?

Hi Lisa,
There would be woodchips galore if I had a chipper/shredder here... but it doesn't make good mulch for us with our short and cool season and our wood loving pests.
Garlic can survive the winters here without mulch, but of course mulch is better.


Our forecast is looking pretty crappy, with highs getting up to 1 C only next week (normals are high of 5C and low -1C, we have been way below normal the past weeks). I doubt the snow cover will melt in a hurry even if it rains. If the wind holds off for a change, I may be able to get some leaves on... on top of the snow.

Where I garden, covering anything with a tarp (or any other solid cover) over winter is risky. Once the tarp is covered by snow, mice will likely nest there over the winter - and dig up anything buried there for food. Some years back, I lost an irreplaceable perennial onion that way; all the bulb tops were eaten.


When I cover garlic at all, I use marsh hay, or hay that I know is mostly weed free. Several farmers in my area grow a timothy & clover hay which I've had good luck with. It rained heavily the day after I put my garlic in, and the ground is still too muddy; so I'll lay the hay down when the ground freezes.

Zeedman, I'm really grateful you mentioned that. I had rats nest under a tarp last summer, and have not checked the garden area I tarped this fall hoping to kill weeds. I don't want that to harbor rodents, even if they help to destroy the unwanted vegetation, but the LAST thing I want is to risk my garlic to winter mice. So tarping instead of mulching is off the table.

Thanks for sharing your experience! :shock::)

It is not really spring here. Still cold and lots of snow in my garden, although the garlic beds are mostly uncovered now, the ground is still frozen. Unmulched... well I don't know if it will be okay or not. Our coldest temperature was about -17 C but it stayed in minus teens for weeks and there was not much snow cover.



So I'm really happy to see the bulbils and rounds all coming up in the greenhouse. I had some small rounds of nearly all the varieties I planted outdoors, and I planted those as a backup with the new bulbils. They didn't get planted until late January! It took me awhile to clean up the mess of aphids on my 'late carrots' experiment, and remix/recondition the soil to plant. So far there's no sign of aphids, and I'm glad to hear they don't like garlic either, so unlikely to be attracted, if or when they do reappear. We had a few really hot days in the greenhouse so far, but I didn't open up, just made sure everything was watered, and the garlic seem to like it so far.


It is a cheerful sight. :D

800 cloves planted this fall...
I'm guessing a 95% success, so far...

I took a little peek under my leaf mulch today and the garlic and shallots are coming up. I need to find rime this week to pull some of the mulch off before it stifles it.

It's really wet here, lots of rain... We just got a couple more inches...
But the garlic looks fantastic! Hope it stays that way.

Glad to hear it, pmc! 8-) I'm going to be really proud of my 'climate change garlic survivors', however many. Alternately very wet and very cold winter for us here. They may want to get used to it. :|