It begins
Normally I plant these in late fall but I was gone and did not get home until everything was fully frozen I planted after solarizing the beds to wake them up they were all sprouting from being in my crisper all fall and winter. I gave them a bunch of fish and fishbone meal fertilizer to make up the difference
It stopped raining so I got a bunch in last night. Most of mine looked similar to yours with sprouts and roots. Still have a bunch of Spanish Roja I don’t have room for that will unfortunately end up in the compost pile.
Pulled a plant out and it looks ready to me. What do y’all think? This is a grocery store clove that sprouted in October and I stuck in the bed.
Nice head of garlic! It looks great, but I can’t tell by looking whether it’s ready. I like to wait until the individual cloves can be separated without too much trouble, but well before they start to pull away from the stem on their own. The bottom three leaves should be dying.
Can I try separating the cloves now or do I have to wait for it to dry/cure?
They should separate with some effort when you lift them, but as they cure they’ll come apart more. What you don’t want if for them to not have the cloves forming their own skins. At least, that’s they way I figure it!
i have about a doz cloves left over from last summers harvest. theyre starting to sprout so i guess instead of losing them, im going to grow them out.
I missed a few posts as life keeps getting in the way. Yeah those look ready a little small but ready. It’s hard to get big sizes. Maybe 25% of mine are huge. The rest look like yours.
From last year. I pick them when plants are still very green. The third leaf rule. When the 3rd leaf dies, they are ready. This garlic was unbelievably good. It aged well, and had a wonderful flavor… I have 2-3 heads left.
How do you store your bulbs?
This is not just the size of the plants. In the cold climate region, garlic needs chilling requirement, just like fruit trees. Without enough chilling hours, the garlic plants could produce decent sized “rounds” instead fully grown bulbs.
Some varieties suitable for south may not require a lot of chilling hours.
Beautiful!
I have a laundry room behind my attached garage. It stays cooler in there. Heating vent was removed, no heat comes in that room. It usually is a few degrees colder, and dark.
I store the hardnecks in a breathable bin and I braid onions and sofnecks. and hang them.
Once in awhile I get good sized bulbs
Softnecks are smaller but a few are really nice and peel easy…
Transylvanian, Nootka Rose, and Idaho Silver are the ones I started with. All mixed up now. Some are really big for softnecks. Which I save for seed cloves.
I grow the hardnecks because flavor is superior. I like them the best. I grow softnecks to have garlic all year as it stores at least 9 months. I harvested July 1st the softs and right now they are starting to dry out. Almost gone anyway. Which is fine. I can live with that. Sometimes I add new bought garlic seed cloves, but last year I only used my own garlic. I have frozen cleaned hardneck cloves and that works well. I also sometimes dehydrate them for garlic powder.
Those look really good. I’ve never tried growing softnecks. I think my problem was probably lack of air circulation. I just had them in a bucket.
wow now thats alot of garlic! you selling those? what cultivar? im growing georgia fire and romanian red.
Our best source of revenue at our farmers market. More than 80 varieties. Mostly my wife’s effect, so I made a sign: “Margaret’s One Woman Garlic Festival.”
@ Lodidian
Do you amend your soil? Or native garden soil? Any other consideration like drainage etc?
When I plant garlic this fall, I may want to create some kind of mount to have a better drainage. I also have a lot of star of Bethlehem and it is hard to get rid of.
