My garlic is planted.

[Mike Maurer]

I was told by someone who grew garlic that you shouldn't plant until after the first hard freeze. So that's what I've been doing for the last two years. However my bulbs are not all that big so I was wondering if I should plant sooner? Also I was sold some Inchellium Red by a SSE member and the bulbs were small hard necked, but he said they were all that way that particular year. I read recent descriptions of Inchellium Red that it is a large soft neck. I think maybe I got the wrong bulb, anyone had experience with this garlic?
Mike

[fortyonenorth]

Planted my garlic yesterday - roughly 50 varieties and a total of about 600 cloves. Still have some bulbils and multiplier onions to plant. Most of the varieties are from saved stock, though I added about 10 new ones and dropped all the silverskins and some of the artichokes simply because I have not the patience to peel tiny cloves.

Sorting through the seed garlic provides a good opportunity to review the results from last year. The majority of the Purple Stripes did very well for me as did Asiatics, and Turbans. The Porcelains were generally small, but the cloves were very nice. I've been disappointed in the Rocamboles, as a group. They haven't sized-up very well, but perhaps they need another year or two to acclimate to my area. I've increased my spacing to 6" this year in the hope that the extra wiggle room will help.

[austinnhanasmom]

"I don't have a lot of experience with garlic, but I thought you only needed to chill garlic if you lived in climate without a cold winter or if you were going to plant cloves in the spring." Could very well be true!! Still learning here. But I wanted to get them growing before it froze and I was hoping the chilling would wake the cloves up sooner...I had missed a few scapes in 2011 (SO glad I finally figured out what scapes are ) or the plants were so set on generating seed that the scapes reformed and I ended up with seed. I figured Mother Nature would have planted in July, so I did as well...put the seeds in Smart Pots where they would receive water from the sprinkler. Not one sprouted...then I was thinking - well DUH - there has not been any cold spells to get the things going. My kids were dribbling in the Smart Pots and removed a bunch of soil and probably garlic seed. I am certain they were wondering what I was doing with all the potted containers and no plants, in mid summer...I recently noticed that a few of the remaining seeds had quadrupled in size, but had no other visible growth. They started as smallish corn kernels and now look like small onions.

I read somewhere that planting after it freezes is essentially planting in the spring.

"I just read that you are supposed to wait a few weeks after planting until the ground is well frozen and then mulch in order to reduce the amount of heaving that occurs from the soil alternately thawing and freezing, so maybe you don't need to be so frantic today." TOTALLY agree!! I read that the garlic is not damaged until 20 degrees F. But, my garlic is now well insulated!! I could see neighbors watching today - wondering what is she doing?? I cannot explain the madness.

Happy Gardening All-

[Suze]

Oops, I probably shouldn't have mentioned my pre-chilling of garlic on this thread. Sorry, Jerry!

I'll just start a new thread when I get a chance so we can discuss that subject there for those who are interested.

For now, I will just say unless you live in a very warm winter climate, like Central/South Texas or Fla, or coastal areas of southern states, there would likely be no benefit or need to pre-chill.

[velikipop]

Inchellium is a softneck always and planting before frost is preferable so that the garlic can sprout and develop some roots before the ground becomes frozen.

Alex

Originally Posted by Mike Maurer

I was told by someone who grew garlic that you shouldn't plant until after the first hard freeze. So that's what I've been doing for the last two years. However my bulbs are not all that big so I was wondering if I should plant sooner? Also I was sold some Inchellium Red by a SSE member and the bulbs were small hard necked, but he said they were all that way that particular year. I read recent descriptions of Inchellium Red that it is a large soft neck. I think maybe I got the wrong bulb, anyone had experience with this garlic?
Mike

[zorro777]

I wasn't so lucky as to have enough dry days in sequence to plant as in previous years. I planted on Sept. 24, Oct. 1, 17 and 19. I planted cloves of Korean Mountain, Chinese Purple, Pescadero, Aglio rosso di Sulmona, Inchelium Red, Broadleaf Czech (Artichoke), California Early White, Sicilian Gold, Thermadrone, Killarney Red, Slovenian, Montana Giant, Delta Giant, Martin's Old Heirloom, Spanish Roja, Mountain Top, Krasnodar Red, Bavarian Purple, Estonian Red, Belarus, Siberian, Persian Star (Samarkand), Metechi, Vekak, Red Grain, German White, Georgian Crystal, Music, Vostani, Rosewood, Russian Giant and Western Rose.

My garlic bulbils were planted on the last three dates. They are Delta Giant, Estonian Red, Killarney Red, Slovenian, Inchelium Red, California Early White, Sweet Haven, Chuck, Alison's, Argentine Red Stripe, Spanish Antolini, Denman, Mountain Top, Tibetan, Frank Sowa, Colorado Black, David M's Supreme Red, Music, Dominic's, Vostani and Montana Giant.

[JerryL]

Suze

No apology necessary. The more info the better.

[Mike Maurer]

Thanks Alex, I ordered some (real)Inchellium Red From S.E.S.E. I should get the right kind this time and I'll take your advice and plant sooner. By the way where is Surrey located in B.C.? I think I have a challenge growing things, you guys up North have my admiration.
Mike

[tjg911]

yes it is called a dibble, that's what i use for accurate depth and saves my finger when planting 200 cloves.

i never chill cloves not sure if necessary in the deep south.

you should plant about 6 weeks before your ground freezes tho i have heard that people in up state vermont were planting in mid december with ok results. garlic is very forgiving of abuse and mistakes.

i don't think it is good to wait for the ground to be well frozen before you mulch as that defeats the purpose of mulching. you mulch to insulate the cloves from heaving when the ground freezes and thaws as it can before freezing solid. by the time the ground is well frozen there can be several freeze thaw cycles, at least here that's how it goes.

i mulch when when i plant, however, because the fu#@*&! squirrels like to dig in the mulch i have to cover the bed with chicken wire that is attacked to 2" X 4" welded wire fencing. that compresses the mulch and this year i'm using the straw from the tomatoes for mulch vs just shredded leaves. so i put down the straw and it is 1" thick and i'll leave that in place come spring. i'm going to add an additional 3-4" of shredded leaves when i get them. i take off the fencing come early december before it snows and covers it, by the the furry tailed rats aren't bothering the mulch. come mid march i'll remove the leaves and then the straw will be adequate tho i may spread a thin layer of leaves for heat absorption.

as far as iding by sight that's not so easy, look at growing great garlic by ron engeland for a good drawing of how the different types of garlic plants look. a good map is essential and i keep 2, 1 for backup. i put stakes between each variety and this year tied twine to the stakes to separate the varieties because even with a good map it is hard to know. come july where one ends and the next starts even tho i know there is X rows of a variety is not so easy and counting is always hard as things seem to shift! russian red is a rocambole but not sure what those other 2 are. porcelains and rocambole plants do look different but i'm not sure they are different enough to be able to tell which is which.

6" spacing is the minimum, 8" is better. anything less than 6" is too tight.

tom

[rxkeith]

Kind of a different year for me.
We moved back to the U.P. In may. Had to leave the garlic I planted in the fall behind.
On our trip down state for labor day, I stopped by the place to see if I could salvage any bulbs. I was too late. The weeds were 5 to 6 ft tall. I dug a few bulbs, but they were split open, and the effort just wasn't worth it. I did manage to save several hundred bulbils. I planted a bunch of those. In a stroke of luck, I received four varieties of garlic from someone I had given some starts to a few years ago. It pays to be generous.
So all told, I have about 125 cloves planted of 8 or so varieties plus the hundreds of bulbils and some catawissa walking onion top sets. I separate my garlic varieties in the row by planting two or three catawissa top sets before planting the next variety of garlic. I still need to mulch, and decide what i want to do with the rest of the garlic bulbils. Couple years from now, I may be selling garlic at the local farmers market.


Keith

[zorro777]

Keith, I'm interested in knowing which varieties you planted both as cloves and bulbils.

Thanks!

[rxkeith]

Hi zorro

Cloves planted are

Music
Chesnok red
Polish Jenn
Georgian crystal
Russian variety not sure which one
a German hard neck one
There are a few others that are mixed in but no longer identified.

Bulbils are the German hard neck one, maybe superior northern white, a italian variety that hasn't done really well for me, and what ever else i could grab from the down state garden.

Varieties that have done well for me in the past are Asian tempest, Siberian, carpathian. I have tried a few soft necks, but results have been inconsistent with them.


Keith

[biscgolf]

anyone have a cheap source for bulk garlic? i'd like to plant roughly 300 row feet...

[Timbotide]

This is my first year to plant Garlic and I am giving these a try.
Armenian
Simonetti
Mary Jane
Marie's Special
Leah
Old Homestead
Penasco Blue
Slovian
Music
Red Toch
Chesnok Red

[eddie46]

My Italian friends told me to plant the first week after the full moon in October 30 yrs. ago. I'm in zone 6 and have beautiful garlic.
Ed