Garlic Lovers Thread - Growing and Eating in the MAF

Sally, is the garlic you grew last year still in the ground? Or did you harvest it? How are you keeping it?

Sally--

Anything will grow in that rich, horse manure soil you have. It is so ideal--what with all the aeration
provided by all your Moles....I, for one, am jealous of your poop.
Get Thee to the "Poetry on the Pile" Thread and dribble some of that poo for all of us to enjoy!

About 4-8 lines deep will do. G.

We were puttering around out back yesterday, and I noted that there's no sign of the garlic cloves we planted the first week in December. Is that a "fail" on them? Or is my weather just different enough here that they haven't had a chance to sprout? I didn't mark the exact location of the rows, so digging around to try to find the cloves isn't likely to give me a definite answer.

Judy---
Soil disturbed? Squirrels probably burying nuts or acorns in your tubs....
Just give them any container with loose enough soil--and they will dig there.

Jill--
I planted my Garlic after Th.-Giving. As of today--there are no shoots showing. I think that is good??
Otherwise--the shoots would die back. Right? it is my 1st go with garlic.
Also--I planted mine at least 4" deep. That might explain the no-show.
I am willing to wait for them to sprout when it is time for them to sprout. NOT now!
They are in the small bed on the East side of my shed--for those of you that have been here.
Right behind my SEM--ahem--composter--next to my small Strawberry patch.

I will have a lot of Shallots--IF they all are productive. Hope...Hope...Had some in my goody bag--
but i also bought a few at the grocery store and planted those.

Those late planted cloves are just working underground. Have no fear.and frost will not kill the greens. Fairly cold hardy.

Can I buy shallots at Whole Foods and plant them?

Not sure about that. I tried and did not get much. Must check out time of year growing, and a lot of the oniony things have that day length complication.

Thanks for the reassurance. It's not like I'm going to plow up that bed and plant anything else there before spring, so I can be patient!

Thanks coleup. I don't need to deter deer -- I'm reconciled to planting stuff they don't like. And I'm a little worried about naturalizing anything on the front hill, if that means it's a plant that will take over. So I don't think that is for me, but thanks for bringing it to my attention!

I got about half my garlic plants in nice beds outside a few weeks ago. But I still have some to be planted, and now the ground is supposed to freeze tonight and I'm going out of town tomorrow. Can I plant them in a shallow container and transplant them later???

off top of my head, the primary goal is to prevent freezing of cloves at this point and then they will grow as temps warm up, So, if your shallow containers will keep the garlic from freezing until you can transplant, ok. Otherwise keep them stored as they are, plant as soon as possible or eat them if they are even a little 'soft' or starting to sprout. hth Judy

So maybe I should pot them up but keep them inside? Obviously the ones I planted in the ground will ultimately freeze if the temps dip....

Need to finish 'catching up' on this thread. Mine were planted - I think around Thanksgiving in a huge pot. I still have green shoots on two - probably 3" each. We'll see what happens with the 'cold' that's finally upon us. All this wet concerns me though. I make sure to tip pot so reservoir gets emptied.

here is a link to 6 ways to store garlic
http://www.rodale.com/how-store-garlic?page=0,0

Great link coleus!
Especially where it tells us DO NOT try to make our own minced garlic for the fridge, (commercial ones are acidified) and DO NOT put fresh cloves in oil for long term storage (botulism!).
I'm surprised that they say put it in the crisper drawer, but will stick with my guess that it should stay dry in there, not moist.

I found it interesting, as well. We do NOT want botulism. Need to tell that to my niece. She makes flavored oil. Don't know if she kows this.

That's very interesting. I used to make flavored vinegars just by sticking herbs in good vinegar. I didn't want to heat it because I thought it would damage the flavor of the herbs. i wonder if that poses a botulism risk too.

I had some saved directions I just threw out about blanching the herbs.

see this

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/infusedmixes#b









This message was edited Jan 22, 2013 6:47 PM

Oh good -- vinegars pass muster.

Garlic is fine, It seems that every clove now has something showing.

The grey shallots that I bought from Garlic Man are all now sprouted! I think I was suppose to wait until spring but I didn't check on that before sticking them in so ... whatever!

Sally--
Mine are not showing anything yet. I may have planted them a bit deeper than i should...
It's Ok with me! They will sprout when it is time.

Yup I bet they're perfectly fine. And kind of glad they don't have to shiver in this cold.

Sprouts!!! Joyanna and I checked yet again a couple days ago, and we have half-inch green garlic sprouts, more or less where we planted them, although our row was not terribly straight.

Wait... Sally... I have shallots that I bought thinking I'd eat some & plant some, and the planting didn't happen... is spring actually the time to plant shallots? Assuming they're not "dead" inside from being stored in the fridge with apples and ripening pears?

Yay! more garlic!
Jill I think spring is shallot planting time, I think I checked on that a few weeks ago. So check on them and plan to plant some if you are not going to eat them, or if they have sprouted.

Sally---

I planted the Shallots i got at the Swap same time with all the rest of the garlic! Beg. of December--I think.
Are they gonners? I even bought some more Shallots at Richardson Farms
and planted those as well.
The only shoots I have seen so far are from Elephant garlic. Haven't checked in the last few days.

It must be confusing for the plants to have warmish days and below freezing at night.
Us too! G.

I planted my Garlic ManShallots in the fall also. They all sprang up at once a couple weeks ago (see note above) so yours should be OK.
THE Elephant garlic took longer than the regular garlic, and just now each EG has a short stout nub.

I found a couple of articles by Darius on shallots... one mentioned planting in fall (with garlic); the other mentioned several varieties of shallots with a note by a couple of them to plant in early spring when weather had settled. SO don't go digging up any fall-planted bulbs to rescue them for the soup pot! Odds are, they'll be just fine... and it sounds like any I plant in spring will be fine also. I might try letting some sprout before planting, just to see if they're viable.

Here's a link to the article with a great description on how to plant shallots (second part of the article). I'd say don't worry if you planted your shallots deeper than recommended (with the very tip up above the surface), but if you mulched on top of that maybe rake off the mulch.

As my mom is always telling me - remember, that seed/bulb/plant wants to grow! And grow they do, more often than not, no matter how many "mistakes" are made in their culture. Sometimes the "ideal" method turns out not to be the right one for your conditions, anyway!

Sally, my elephants were the last to emerge, too, although I did plant them deeper than the others.

Critter, I used to tell people what your Mom said, about bedding begoniaes, "They just want to grow and they'll keep blooming and growing no matter what. Just don't step on them more than twice a week and they will be happy."

I haven't been following this thread and you may have already talked about this. I saw the cutest thing at the flower show last week. They are plates made with grater bottoms. The bottom of the plate has little spikes in the pottery and they were grating garlic, nutmeg and a few other things. I thought they were pretty neat. Came in beautiful colors and sizes. A bit pricey but I really liked them. I didn't get a picture of them but here they are in this Utube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXMbLZH76IE

Looking good here. I just fertilized and watered it in.. The biggest are thumb size diameter stalks.

Elephant garlic has wider leaves but is not that much bigger overall. Shallots look grassy.

Sally, my elephant garlic is up 2' and is at least double in size of other garlic. See pic below. Shallots are now between chives and green onions in size.

Word from Garlic Man: Feed and Weed and watch them grow,

He has 20 100 ft rows of 14 different varieties planted this year...seems he got 'inspired' to try some new ones. Hopefully, we all will, too.

Any other reports from the field?

Feeding and weeding here,,,,Judy/coleup

2 feet? Wow, I think you're blowing me away there!

What are we feeding them?

What do you feed yours? Any of the usual liquid feeds or something granular?

1--Mine are all up too--and the Elephant Garlic is the fattest....back of row,,,
The bigger clump on the right is my Green Chives--it has been there forever....

2--My small Strawberry bed--just to the left of the garlic bed.

Paul--we shadowed each other....(cross-posted) as usual....

Mine are planted in a bed pretty enriched with leaves.My concern was too much carbon might be sucking up nitrogen. I see some yellowing lower leaves so I gave mine a good sprinkle of 5-1-5 organic food I bought on sale at a local nursery. You want good leaf growth so it can make the bulb.

I used osmacote on mine first thing this Spring (timed release) and may try some compost or manure tea
weakly weekly a la Doc. Will also mulch with all those thingies that drop from my oak trees in another couple weeks.

Discussion on garlic fertilizing: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/allium/msg0315105624238.html

One pound of garlic well grown will yield 4 - 8 pounds.