Growing Garlic

I believe that I asked questions about this a few years ago, but I cannot find it in a search. I know I tried to grow garlic before, without success. I'm ready to try again this year and would like any input from garlic growers.

I purchased three bulbs of Allium sativum 'California Giant'. They are healthy plump bulbs.

When I plant them, which I've read should be as soon as I can get into the garden, I take the bulbs apart and plant the cloves, right? Do I try to leave the papery sheath on when taking the bulb apart?

How much of the bulb is plantable? I know when you peel off the outer cloves, they are bigger, but when you get down to the middle cloves, they get really small. Is it worth planting those?

Would it be possible/advisable, to start them inside and transplant? I read that it takes 85 days to make a bulb. I do have 85 growing days, but some years it's mighty close to that from last frost to first frost.

TIA for any advise you can give me. This is not my first time trying to grow garlic, but I've never been successful at it.

I'll give it a shot here, but I can't help much with the planting dates for your climate as we plant in november and harvest in june. Garlic can tolerate frost, I'm not sure what temperatures it will tolerate below freezing.
To prepare for planting (wait until you're ready to plant) break up the head into cloves leaving the paper intact. It's up to you how many of the cloves you want to plant, but the size of the bulb will be directly affected by the size of the clove planted. Basically, a small clove produces a smaller head. If your space isn't very limited, I'd plant 'em all.
Garlic doesn't like to be transplanted but it can be done. Hopefully someone more familar with your climate will chime in on whats best here. I hope that helps somewhat...
David

Joan we plant our garlic around Oct 8 so it gets enough time to grow some roots before the ground freezes. We plant all the cloves. We see little green tops before the freeze. Garlic won't mind being frozen solid during the winter. As soon as the ground thaws, they start growing like crazy. We cut off the scapes (curly pod that comes up in the center of hardneck garlic) and harvest in July when the leaves start to die back. We save the largest heads to plant next year. Tim

Thank you! Since I didn't get it planted last fall, I will have to plant it this spring and see what happens. I just picked this garlic up yesterday, so I assumed we were to plant it in the spring. I've never seen garlic for sale at any of the greenhouses in the fall. Hmm....I guess I'll just have to try it and see what happens.

I agree with the other posters. Get it in the ground as soon as you can. I inevitably miss a few heads when I harvest mine and the green tops pop up in late winter, just begging to grow. A little ice and snow doesn't bother them. Yes, break the bulb into indiviual cloves but don't peel the paperish cover off. Plant with root end facing down, obviously, and whether or not you want to bother with the tiny inside cloves is up to you. They will make a small head which you can eat or replant in the fall. The Seeds Of Change website has some good garlic instructions, and I'm sure there are plenty of other sites that have helpful information as well. Good luck!

Thanks! I'll check out the seeds of change website and get them planted as soon as the mud dries up a bit.

Hi!

I'm on the other end of the first time garlic spectrum. Planted a couple rows last November and now we're heading towards harvesting in June. What do you do with it once you get it out of the ground? Does curing just mean hanging it in a cool dry place for a couple months?

Erik

Here, we plant garlic in the spring, about early May. There are usually a few frosts after that. It's ready to dig up by sometime in September. We dig it before there is a killing frost in the fall and leave it sitting on top of the ground (in the daytime) to dry a bit for a few days before storing it in a cool part of the basement for the winter.

This message was edited May 12, 2005 12:07 AM

back in oct or nov i planted a few cloves just to try them out. i put them into a container instead of the ground. do you think i will get any garlic out of this method. i put holes in the condtainer and then dug a hole and placed the container into it and surounded it with grass clippings and put some clippings on top of the container.

Herbie...I would think if the container was big enough to allow the bulbs to grow/expand then you should see success! Do you see any top-growth yet from when you planted them? Any new growth that has recently started?

I plant my garlic in a container and you need very little space for it. you can grown 200+ in a 12x24 spot. So far mine have grown like nuts and I can't wait for them to start dying down so I can have fresh garlic. Since our winters are so mild here I think I'll try to grow more of these can never have to much garlic.

horseshoe - pretty sure the container was big enough. onlyh planted a few anyhway. haven't seen any groth yhet, unless you count some weeds growing on top. when i planted them i put a handful of old grass clippings on top..