I grow both for wholesale distribution to seed companies and sell direct to consumer through my online store. What garlic questions do you all have for me? I'd like to help all my garlic lovers grow better garlic!
First time growing garlic so bear with me. Planted 4 rows in November, with 4 varieties (one fancy variety from a breeder, and 3 I bought at the grocery stores).
One of them flopped early (6 months total) so I pulled it up and that's what you see in the pics. This variety I bought from the local EarthFare organic supermarket. It germinated quickly and seems to have gone through its lifecycle much faster than the other 3 rows. Some of the bulbs didn't differentiate. I didnt use any fertilizer or do anything special at all. I didnt mulch or hay either. 😳
The garlic was green and growing through most of the winter, even in the snow we got. I think the weird winter probably cause this variety to end its lifecycle early.
My soil is very much clay so I've been working a small patch to make it good for planting.
Even with all the mistakes and challenges, I got about 2.5 lbs of garlic from about 1lb planted. Not great but not terrible and learned a lot. Also expecting a lot more from the varieties still growing which are huge in comparison to what I just pulled.
On a whim, I threw in a couple of heads of garlic in the ground last October.
I am very impressed with how well they grew, how well they integrate with other plants, and how little effort they took to harvest.
I'm definitely going to scale up this fall and plant a 30" x 19' bed of them in October!
Zone: 6b
Cultivar: Chesnok Red from Keene Garlic
First year planting garlic from a supplier( previous 2 years I just planted cloves from store bought - I have since learned about the problems/issues with doing this). In the ground before Halloween. Mulched with shredded leaves from my yard. Watered a few times over the last month when I watered the seeds/plants I started this year. I think they are looking great! Will definitely add another row or two next year(33 plants up this year).
I did till 40 lbs of Lime and 8 lbs of 13-13-13 into the garden(800 sqft) in September last year based on a soil test.
Have had 2 heads with what appears to be rot...they haven't thrown scapes yet. Some others in the same bed are starting too though. I purchased seed from a reputable supplier. What is going on? We have already applied predatory nematodes for other pests maybe they will help with this too? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Source: A case study: Raw garlic consumption and an increased risk of bleeding (2022)
The one thing that has been doing well in my small urban garden was my garlic. But now it looks so sad.
Background: planted in November in Zone 7b. In a very small urban plot. I've kind of just let them do their thing...mostly watered by the rain, haven't fertilized either. Mulched the area recently with wood chips.
I know garlic is supposed to get brown and fall over, but this seems a little early. They haven't even produced garlic scapes yet. Several of them are leaning over and look brown and unwell at the bottom. What has gone wrong? Do they need fertilizer? Was the mulch a bad idea? (though I feel like these issues started prior to the mulch) Is the wacky weather the culprit? Or do they look fine to you?
Anyone realize garlic scapes are smaller than expected? Or was it just my garlic.
I want to plant garlic in half an acre and hopefully can multiply it by 5x so I can use more acreage for garlic in the future.
I planted it before in a smaller scale and always root down and 2" deep.
Now the scale is bigger and variety is hard neck garlic in zone 7b. Is it really critical to sow garlic root down?
I watched many videos and I didn't feel the farmer care about the orientation at all.
Please let me know.
I'm in socal (9b I believe?). I water a decent amount (I realize it doesn't look it atm) and I put balanced fertilizer about three to four weeks ago.
I see online you wait for the bottom two shoots to turn yellow and that seems to be the case here? Planted these in late oct , zone 9b NorCal