It's time to plant garlic

Here's a link that describes how to grow garlic.

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/garlic-growing-guide

I've never tried the soaking method described.

Photo is of the cloves I planted last fall.

I'm not planting for a bit yet - our weather is so unpredictable and it was supposed to be in the 80s today. It's acting more like spring than fall out there!

Beautiful bowl of garlic cloves!

Cindy_GA - this is the time of year I watch the weather forcast carefully for the first fall frost so I can pull the sweet potatoes, and pick the sweet peppers.

Once the cold weather has settled in, I set the garlic cloves - usually around the end of October.

You are correct, this year's weather has been totally unpredictable!

Great harvest HB. I've never gotten cloves that large from my crop. I turned the bed last weekend then ran out of steam. Should get my two beds planted this weekend. Have not checked your link yet, will do later.

How long are garlic cloves viable for planting?

1lisac - after I dig mine up around the end of June, beginning of July, I sort and keep the largest for the next season's planting. I don't know how long they are actually viable. Last fall I set a little over 100 cloves, and only one died.

The instructions I've always followed for soaking use the baking soda/seaweed mixture for overnight and then a dip in alcohol for 3-5 minutes right before planting. I've had really good luck with this method, so I"m afraid to NOT try it :)

My instructions came from here:
http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/growing.htm

Got my garlic planted last week....we grow hardneck garlic in this zone, which we'll harvest in about July or August.

Thank you, a friend ask me, and I had no idea what the answer was.

1lisac - I forgot to say: keep the heads of garlic complete. Wait until you are ready to set the cloves before taking them off the mother plant.

I'll be planting this weekend. I did the soaking thing last year and all turned out fine. I thought I'd try it without this year and see what happens. I've noticed that some of you say you just plit the mother/heat apart and plant the cloves. Must work just as well?

terri_emory - all I do is split the heads apart and set the largest cloves. The larger the clove, the larger the resulting heads will be.

I do water the bed well before setting the cloves, so perhaps this takes the place of overnight soaking.

Thanks for that watering well tip HB, I'll water today and plant tomorrow. I've just turned in a wheelbarrow load of home-made compost into the raised bed (it's my 'mixing bowl'), a few weeks ago I bought 1 yard of compost and a sandy loam mix. All this goes into the raised bed, along with a heavy scoop of crushed seashells and several scoops of that volcanic rock dust someone here mentioned. Mix well, then I distribute to other beds, plant the mixing bowl bed last. It will be beets, carrots, brocc, cauliflower......etc. LOVE this time of year here.

MaryMcP - If I were a vegetable plant I would feel really special having all that great stuff to grow in. ☺

I love this time of year, too. Today I finished a raised bed for broccoli transplants. I added lots of finely mulched leaves, and hauled several buckets of compost. I kept going, and going until I felt dizzy and nauseous. When I got into the house, hubby had to give me a couple of figs to raise my blood sugar. Sometimes I forget I'm a type 2 diabetic!

Tomorrow I'll put in the transplants, and try not to let myself pass out in the process - LOL!

Oh dear - you be careful with your health. It's important!

Just came in a little bit ago to get some food together, turkey rueben sandwiches and oven fries.

Beds are all turned and watered, it's still triple digits here so it's too hot to work outside already (10am here). I'll start on a labor intensive dinner idea later this afternoon. Will plant tomorrow.

The tomatoes already growing in that mix are very happy.....if I don't forget to water them. Funny that.

MaryMcP - I love rueben sandwishes, but can never get the sauce right. Would you care to share the recipe?

It's 72F and sunny here today, and the forcast is for more of the same tomorrow.

Don't worry about me, I refuse to let the T2 get me down. I do follow the guidlines when it comes to my diet, but it was such a glorious morning, I forgot what time it was!

Sauce? Maybe what I make is not really a rueben. Basically it's a grilled cheese sandwich with sliced turkey and saurekraut. I thought the saurekraut made it a rueben. I better go Google. :-|

HB - when I make reuben (with corned beef, swiss, sauerkraut, rye or pumpernickel) - I use thousand island dressing on them and then grill/toast them. The cheapest one is usually Kraft. Hmm. Now I'm hungry. Be safe!

Yup, looks like I've got it all wrong.....next time there will be some thousand island dressing in the mix. A Rachel sandwich substitutes cole slaw for the saurekraut. That sounds interesting too.

errr, back to planting garlic, we got a bit side tracked here.

LOL! Rachel sounds good too! I may pick up some corned beef tonight. Hmmm....

Thanks for the reuben sandwich recipes. I'll have to check the label on Thousand Island Dressing to see if it's on my "can have" list.

Ohhhhhhh! I love reuben sanwiches! I have one at Crackerbarrel while on vacation and it was great!

Thanks for the info on not soaking. I have lots of goodies in the soil. Still very dry here, though.

I can finally get my garlic planted - I got the last three varieties I was waiting for today. I'm trying to switch to creoles, since that's the type that seems to be though best adapted to this area. Of the creoles, I managed to snag small quantities of Aglio Rosso, Ajo Rojo, Native Creole, and Spanish Benitee. I'm hoping to add some more creoles to the list next season.

I'm also planting Chinese Pink, Corsican Red, Early Red Italian, Inchelium Red, Italian Late, Lorz Italian, Siciliano, Viola Francese, and Shantung Purple, all reportedly softnecks.

There's only 4-8 oz of each variety, but that should be plenty for my trial garden. I'll probably plant the largest cloves and try cooking with the smaller ones to sample the differences in flavor.

I can hardly wait for spring!

-Rich

I planted my garlic a couple of days ago, and I hope that it was not too soon, as the weather has warmed up again. I suppose I should have waited for November, but last year I got caught and then planted everything too late, as there were many rain and snow storms. The first snow was November 20th. There is just no predicting thr weather.

I've been waiting too, we are still in triple digit temps [low 100's but still 100° days]....the summer that never ends. I expect when it does cool down, the temps will plummet! There is just no predicting the weather - that's for sure.

An odd observation here... it doesn't seem to matter regarding temps. My notes indicate that my garlic sprouts at the same time of year here regardless of temperature. I noticed yesterday that the perennial garlic bed is sprouting, as are the garlic chives and some of my ornamental alliums.

And yes,the summer that never seems to end will be coming to a screeching halt here by Wed night in the high 30s! What a switch from the one hundred degree temps. Not quite ready for that drastic a change.

My garlic is already sprouting!

rjogden:

where do you get your garlic?

I purchased just two bulbs of California White from gurney's and plan to plant most of them in the holes of a concrete block raised bed I have. The rest I'm planting throughout the garden to see where it grows best. I realize it's not a lot of garlic I've purchased, but since this is my first year, thought I'd go small. I was actually going to purchase the Corsican Red, but that extra $3/bulb had to go to gas, LOL!

thanks for your help, everyone.

SoFlaCommercial - I purchased mine from the supermarket. Be sure it has a root base - those from China have had the roots removed and I'm not sure they will grow.

omg! i'm in heaven! thanks, rich

Thanks from me too! I was aware of all the others you posted, rjogden, but not The Garlic Store. All the rest are great! I'll have to save The Garlic Store link for next year. I just went shopping at the Legg Creek Farm website to replace some of my fruit trees that got fried this summer.

I have another question regarding garlic - I want to plant in the little holes of the concrete raised bed I have, but a worker at the nursery said that I need to be concerned with lime wash from the concrete, that it'd leach into the soil from the concrete.

how to i combat this?

thanks.

I'm not sure that's a problem, some plants like lime. Lavendar is one. I took an idea from DG'er JoParrott and bordered one of my beds with cinder blocks. I painted them first with white roofing insulation stuff....it's kind of rubbery....but you don't really have to. Last year I grew broccoli, carrots and garlic in them. This year I'll do the same and also some radish.

I can't find the pictures with the veggies actually growing in the cinder blocks, but this gives you an idea of what's happening.

A closer look

I have been growing in cinder blocks for years and have never had any problems. Everything from cabbage,lettuce,strawberries,chives,parsley, cutting celery,cilantro,mint-you name it-

thanks, everyone; appreciated. now not so worried. :)

The only issue Ive come across (not personally) is that the cinderblocks get hot, which you can work around. May just want to keep it in mind.

I planted commercial grocery store garlic (from China) about 2-3 weeks ago and is has sprouted. I was planning to use garlic bought at the farmers market, thus locally grown, but DS ate it...
I read that my area should plant a Rocambole type.
I just planted what I had when I had time to do it....

sallyg - I hide the garlic I plan to grow, otherwise my DH would eat it. He doesn't like to peel the smaller cloves!