Is it too early to plant garlic in zone 6/7 Maryland? We’ve had one freeze and several other nights in the 30s, but I think it may be too early in that it may grow too much before winter hits. Should I wait a few more weeks?
Plant it now.
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Got mine in a couple of weeks ago here in Western Montana, and the ground’s not yet frozen. But I put mine fairly deep and put an inch or so of mulch over the top. I’m in Zone 4/5, depending on the year and which way the wind is blowing.
Planted my garlic a week and a half ago in zone 4.
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I’m zone 7 MD and I planted mine last weekend, which is early for me. In my 15 years of growing garlic the weather and how well you weed/feed has a lot more to do with overall success than when you plant. My rule of thumb was not earlier than Halloween but before Thanksgiving and I’ve had lots of luck over the years. This summer was my absolute worst ever, with near complete crop failure. My garlic didn’t like the constant wetness one bit.
Make sure to mulch well to avoid frost heave. I’ve had trouble with that in my loose, raised bed soil.
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Planted my garlic and Egyptian walking onions October 9 and I am in zone 6b.
I usually plant here in 6a about October 15th. I agree with Mike though not that important. I still have one bed to plant as I’m waiting for a bulb to come in yet. I bitched at them today about not getting it out. I wanted to try Dunganski hardneck, and Territorial sent a substitute. They sent Deerfield Purple instead. Which is fine except the bulbs are small and in terrible condition. No more garlic from them. I ordered last minute Dunganski from Gurney’s and said to get it out today or cancel order. I ordered it the 9th. No word back yet. Last year I tried Chesnok Red and man the bulbs are the biggest of any of the others planted last year… Works really well here, and is my new favorite. I saved enough for a good percentage of my plantings this year. Besides the big size, the flavor is great. I’m really liking this one. A very pretty bulb with purple wrappers to boot.
I got Vietnamese from them as a substitute for Duganski, and they’re nice sized bulbs.
Not one sprout came up from mine I planted in spring. It was softneck. I’m trying hardneck this fall but can’t decide when to plant. I’m in 8B and everything says after first frost. We didn’t get a frost until late January last year. Garlic planting has me confused. Any help? Or suggestions would be great! Thnx
Yeah it’s usually a decent place, I’m not happy with the size. I planted a few anyway. I’m going back to my fall back places I know give me good product. Hopefully i won’t need anymore. I planted mostly my own home grown seed this year.
Try to find average first frost and plant a week later and stick to it every year if all goes well. You can plant softneck at the same time. In the south they plant between November and January, so you should be fine planting in that time frame.
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In Michigan, I have had success with planting garlic anytime between mid September and mid December. The mid december planting was dicey because I had to use a lot of warm water to plant 300 cloves in the partially frozen soil, but still got a crop.
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I ordered from The Garlic Store and got the most beautiful garlic bulbs I’ve ever seen. I’d give anything to be able to grow garlic that looked like that. One bulb of Music was so big I couldn’t close my (big) fist around it- but was only 4 massive cloves. Almost hated to plant them- although I know that such big cloves are going to give me some nice plants. I paid very dearly though. I try not to think about it too hard.
I planted last weekend and I’m in the 7A, but if I had cleared the space earlier I would have put them in earlier. Someone in a neighboring plot plants the first of September each year and has big beautiful garlic. Unless you have a really rainy fall that might rot the bulbs, I think in anything below zone 6, planting earlier is an advantage since the winter isn’t really cold enough to do much damage if you mulch well and they are further along when they start growing in the spring which gives them more growth before the summer heat hits.
Even if it is well before the first frost, if it gets cold enough they’ll grow and if it isn’t supper wet they seem to “store” just as well in the cool ground as they would in the house. But I also don’t water my garlic in, so they aren’t starting out wet.
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Yes, I have ordered from them too, and very happy with the order.
I ordered the Transylvania sofneck garlic and it’s the biggest softneck bulb I ever saw. I hope mine grow like that! I like to grow some softnecks for braiding. Most I grow are very cold hardy and get rather big too. Still the Vampire stuff was bigger than any on these braids. This is my softneck harvest, minus the biggest bulbs I put away for seed (now planted!).
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I also had plenty of rain but didn’t lose any planted 3 inches deep in sandy soil mixed with compost. They where smaller than usual due to the lack of sun. Planted mid October Long Island, NY.
My only allium crop this summer was onions, which matured early enough (early August) to avoid much of the wetness.
I did lose both potatoes and sweet potatoes to some degree due to the wetness.
About a quarter of my potatoes rotted out right, and about 30% of my sweet potatoes did the same. Of the ones I did harvest, about half of them looked pretty good, and the other half had a lot of scurf but should be usable in the short term.
I’ve never had scurf before, my soil tends toward being a bit on the sandy side. Usually I’m worried about things getting too dry!
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Lots of places got lots of rain, but central Maryland got it worse than just about anywhere else. We were the epicenter of the mad rains. The river below me usually runs at 30-50 cubic feet per second all summer long save for the occasional blip of 200 after a storm. This summer it never once dropped below 400 cfs from June through now. It was in the thousands of cfs for weeks mid-summer. I’ve never seen anything like it. The town I live in got 10" of rain in three hours one day in July. It destroyed buildings on Main Street. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/05/28/the-second-1000-year-rainstorm-in-two-years-engulfed-ellicott-city-heres-how-it-happened/?utm_term=.00536e850b1f Hopefully I won’t see anything like this ever again.
It’s heartbreaking what happened in EC.
I’m in Clarksville.
I was just looking yesterday and noticed one that is supposed to tolerate wet conditions. Although your problem sounds like a rare thing. Killarney Red. I have grown this and it did well the first year, but the 2nd gen cloves didn’t produce big bulbs so only planted a few this year. A nice looking plant with fan-like leaves, Doesn’t grow tall. Garlic is typical for the type (Rocambole).
http://www.filareefarm.com/seed-garlic-for-sale/KILLARNEY-RED-Bulk.html
garlic is ideal for raised beds. It does most of its growth in spring or early spring, when the soil can be quite waterlogged. But those 5-6 inches are all it needs. One of my beds is on a seep on sloping ground, the soil immediately down slope is completely soaked, but the garlic in the bed thrives.
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