Dividing Garlic clumps

Thanks Clark. Picked up some German Extra hardy, now if it will only stay warm enough to let me plant it before the ground freezes…

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Thanks for the post Clark. It made me notice some Garlic i misses harvisting this summer. Here we are planting them out

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Glad to see some rain today Mike so the garlic will get started off right. It’s been very dry for this time of year.

Never planted this much of a new to me variety of garlic before but will be putting another 15 pounds in the ground this weekend. I know I need to hustle before the weather turns bad. I will keep back a pound of the smallest stuff to eat if there is enough. I have a garden area that’s half an acre that I’m wanting to plant up with something. The garlic won’t even plant a small part of that. Size of bulbs is very good so I know this German hardy garlic was a wise choice! In 2 years I will have an excellent new garlic field that will be about 20 times this amount. If it does well here there is always someone wanting garlic.



New Garlic patch is not coming together as quickly as I had in mind. The dirt is very hard due to lack of moisture and organic material. Most of the organic material that I tilled in a couple of years ago was consumed by the worms. My new plan is to build rows of dead and living trash weed stocks (greens and browns) and roll soil on top of those to feed the worms. In the spring I will plant a crop of green beans or endame soy beans on top of those rows that cover the compost. Beans will fix nitrogen for the following year. In between the mounds where the beans are planted will be garlic. Next summer I can then roll the garlic stobs and bean stocks in and till all of it. I can add decomposed hay if I’m still short organic materials. If all else fails I will till and plant as is.

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I did not get all the garlic planted before freeze up but the fantastic news is the garlic I ordered showed up in great shape. Good solid garlic will keep until spring or whenever I get a chance to plant it. Winter is not over yet and if there are warm days the garlic will get planted before spring.

Clark, I have had success planting into (or perhaps I should say thru) frozen soil before. I use a sturdy trowel to break through the top few inches which are frozen, put the clove in the hole and recover, using loose soil first. Quite a bit slower than with thawed soil but it did work; I got as good a spring regrow rate as cloves planter earlier in unfrozen soil. When I could, I did water them in on the first warm day after the planting.

Of course, if you have have a large area, this may be too time consuming to do.

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Steve333,
Finished planting my garlic today since it was a nice warm day. The garlic should have plenty of time to grow and make an excellent crop by summer.

I still have this sitting in the basement. I picked mine back in July. I planted the biggest cloves in November. I’ve had issues with rabbits eating all the shoots if i plant too early in the fall.

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Warmwx,
That’s a lot of garlic ! I’m hoping for a wheel barrow full but I suspect you harvest a couple of wheel barrows full! What type is that?

I bought some bulbs at the local health food store 5 years ago?..locally grown. Not sure the variety…some sort of hardneck purple (the cloves still are brown/purple skin after you peel away a few layers…the cloves themselves are white). Each year i’ve had more and more to plant…now i’m overrun. …seems to store well. Basement is in the low 50Fs right now. I cut back the amt of cloves i planted this fall because i just don’t need this many.

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Garlic is mostly up now and looking fantastic! Let’s hope it’s a great garlic year.

Doesn’t this garlic weed itself? I always forget that part.

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Pulled a garlic stalk today since it just rained and the ground was soft enough. The flavor is very good. Feel really good about the results. Looks like it will be a nice harvest.

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If I buy some locally grown garlic for eating, can I plant the bulbs from that ( i’m going to assume it’s organic )? I tried some imported Chinese garlic once, and it must’ve been treated with something, as nothing happened. You plant the bulbs in the fall, and then harvest the next late summer? After that, you can just leave some of them in the ground and they will automatically reproduce?

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Do you want hardneck or softneck garlic. Hardneck produces scapes which are good eating.
The individual garlic cloves get planted in the fall or early spring depending on location. When plant starts to die in summer (bottom leaves turn brown) the bulb is removed completely. Cloves get replanted in fall or spring.

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Danzeb is right the elephant garlic can stay in the ground. Technically a lot of the other garlic can stay in the ground eg. Pioneer garlic.

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Wild Garlic is something I allow to multiply on my property. My grandfather grew an awful lot of this garlic called pioneer garlic or Indian garlic. Here is some in a wild location on my property. It loves growing wild and going to seed because it’s superior genetics allow it to grow and compete against weeds where other garlic would not have a chance.


This wild garlic is very different from wild onions which the Indians ate in large quantities In the spring.
This next picture below is what tame garlic looks like when it’s going to seed for those who’ve never seen it.

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Some named varieties look like that but others look like your first picture.

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Local garlic is just starting to be sold at the stores. This is likely not been treated with chemicals. I find it’s not available the rest of the year. Would it be possible for me to plant some now, or will it all day off?

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