Garlic tricks anyone?

[MotherBrugger]

I need some expert advice. I have tried garlic twice, and both times killed it. What am I doing wrong?
I know this about me...I have a propensity to 'over' water. Or was it the soil? I did enrich but it is a sand bed base. Is there too much alkaline in soil?
Can anyone help? This delicious bulb keeps going up and up....and UP in price and I'm sick and tired of the supermarket acting like it's some endangered species. Help!!!

 

[journey11]

Not an expert, but I'll try to help! Are you planting fall or spring?

Probably my worst garlic foes are the chickens. I have a hard time keeping them out of it, scratching it up and all.

It likes rich, loamy, well-draining soil. If you can, stir in a good dose of manure/compost. I poke mine in just until the very tip is left showing at the soil line, but you can plant them up to an inch deep. I've found I lose a lot of them if I plant mine in the fall (which is supposed to be preferable for bulb growth), but if you want to you can also start it in the spring and just let it go. Don't harvest it all every year and it will continue to multiply and make a good patch.

 

[MotherBrugger]

Thanks very much Journey. Does it want full sun? We get intense summer heat, and lots of humidity/rains from June through October. I can cut in sand (lol, plenty of that!) for better drainage, but wondering about sun. Our summer temps are between 88 and 93/94. Any more advice on this then?
edit: The soil was definitely an issue then too, I was leaving too much sand in mix! Added: I would like to plant this spring, if I get enough help here.

 

[journey11]

Full or partial, although hard summers may dry them out. They'll dry out anyway when they are ready to be harvested and the tops will brown and fall over. LOL, I didn't think of that -- maybe you should go dig up those others and see if they did anything?

 

[vfem]

Here's my experience... and I'm not an expert by any means!

We have high humid summers and garlic likes LONG cool spells. I over winter my garlic by planting in October and harvesting in June when the tops brown and flop over. They like full sun, but if you have a shorter cool season, they can still grow with at least 6 hours of sunlight. This can prolong your growth until harvest time. You may even want to try to get them in in September if you could.

I also found heavy planting mediums or right in the ground when you have clay isn't the best option and slow growth, and get smaller bulbs. They like some sandy soils, or rich loam, so we do raised beds for ours. I like to pop mine into several scenarios to see what happens. I also get really sad little bulbs that don't cure well outside our raised beds.

I get very happy healthy garlics when I plants after I grew beans in an area.... and my garlic I pop inbetween my strawberries also do very well. My strawberries seem to thrive too!

Hope you find some of the helpful.

 

[oberhaslikid]

Iam in zone 6. I plant my garlic cloves in October and they are in the ground all winter come Spring they start growing.

When mine try to go to seed in about May They form scapes on the tops. Before the scapes open I cut these off . This makes your garlic bulb grow bigger. I eat the scapes sauted in scrambled eggs OMG. They are Great.
Then at the end of June or July depending on the weather .When the tops start turning brown and fall over its time to Harvest. I dry them and hang Saving the biggest to plant in the Fall.

 

[MotherBrugger]

Journey, then that sounds good for me. I won't let them dry out, I was actually worried they were going to get too much water.

Ober, what's a scape? Is this a seedhead, or beginning of one? TY for that info, I didn't know that and will definitely remove for bigger bulbs. Loving garlic as I do, I will try the recipe too.

Thanks Vfem, I'm going to try raised beds, that may be the answer. Yeah, that makes sense, with the beans ability to set nitrogen. I have strawberries going already, and was leaving space for the runners. Perhaps I'll pop a few in-between as you suggested.

 

[HunkieDorie23]

OK, I have a garlic question also. I planted garlic last fall and planted 6 different types. 4 have come up (and seem to be growing very well) 2 of them not so much. As a matter of fact I would have tilled up the area of the 2 and planted onions except it has been raining so much I haven't been able to get into the garden. This week two plants of my Amish type came up. Do I need to give it more time or are these 2 a bust?

 

[Smiles Jr.]

At the risk of someone thinking this is a hijack, I must ask . . .

I have never planted garlic even though I have had gardens for many years. It's just never been on my to-do list I guess.

1. I know that we call the individual sections of garlic "cloves" but what do we call the entire garlic thing? A bulb?

2. Does the garlic multiply after planting? If I plant 20 will I harvest 20 or will there be more?

3. What is the advantage of planting in the fall over planting in the spring?

4. Do the different types of garlic taste different?

Thanks.

 

[HunkieDorie23]

At the risk of someone thinking this is a hijack, I must ask . . .

I have never planted garlic even though I have had gardens for many years. It's just never been on my to-do list I guess.

1. I know that we call the individual sections of garlic "cloves" but what do we call the entire garlic thing? A bulb?

2. Does the garlic multiply after planting? If I plant 20 will I harvest 20 or will there be more?

3. What is the advantage of planting in the fall over planting in the spring?

4. Do the different types of garlic taste different?

Thanks.

1. Yes

2. Yes, if you plant 20 cloves you will end up with 20 bulbs (unless something goes wrong). The size of the bulb and the number of cloves depends on the type of garlic and growing conditions.

3. Size, fall planting give you larger more mature garlic.

4. Yes, some are hotter or milder, etc.... I bought my garlic from www.wegrowgarlic.com, they have discription about each type of garlic. It helped me pick what I wanted to grow. This is my first year with garlic.