spring planted garlic

Submitted by ClareBroommaker on Thu, 01/20/2022 - 00:53
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The Third Circle: Gardening and Composting

We did not get garlic planted in the fall. Anyone had good results with spring planted?

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Sweet Tatorman

Thu, 01/20/2022 - 07:02

It has worked for me in the past.

Kay Robison

Thu, 01/20/2022 - 17:35

I didn't get any garlic planted this past fall and I need to work on the garlic bed to get a better irrigation system in place as well as a thorough weeding done. So, as a result, I will trying garlic in the spring if I can find seed bulbs.

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Sweet Tatorman

Thu, 01/20/2022 - 18:51

I don't think I have ever used seed bulbs for garlic. Grocery store garlic seems to work fine.

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ClareBroommaker

Thu, 01/20/2022 - 20:34

I agree. I've heard of grocery store garlic mostly being from China and possibly carrying a disease (I forget what), but they've grown healthily for me.

Kay Robison

Fri, 01/21/2022 - 10:26

Grocery store garlic is all I will be able to find most likely, so I am glad to hear they worked for you.

pygmycory

Fri, 01/21/2022 - 14:47

My garlic always gets rust, and the last crop had at least two other disease issues with the bulbs. I stopped planting garlic at home. I usually used seed garlic. It didn't help. My area is very prone to rust. Even my chives got quite bad rust last year, which has never happened to me before. Though the onions didn't, and they're normally less prone to it than chives.

I talked to a garlic vendor at the farmer's market last year, and he told me he didn't know of any rust-resistant varieties.

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ClareBroommaker

Fri, 01/21/2022 - 16:15

That's a shame. Is it on the leaves, the bulb, or both? I just looked at pictures and it sure looks like the rust I get on daylily leaves.

Perhaps you could get some use out of garlic chives and Canadian wild garlic, Allium canadense, which I'm guessing grows over a huge portion of North America. Nothing seems to slow those things down. I dug about a pound of bulbs out of my little patch of lawn (small enough to mow with scissors if need be) last year.

PS This made me look up the rusts that affect irises and daylilies, in case they would transfer to garlic. Upon first read, I would say they do not-- Thank goodness.

pygmycory

Fri, 01/21/2022 - 14:48

It worked. I think it didn't produce as much as fall planted, and it produced later, but it definitely did produce bulbs okay.

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Ken

Fri, 01/21/2022 - 21:30

In places that have seriously hard freezes every winter, they ONLY do spring garlic; most of Russia being a prime example. I've done spring garlic in my USDA frost hardiness zone 8a with modest success. The bulbs were smaller than I'd like and I had quite a bit more wire-worm damage, but that could be due to any number of variables. It seems like it didn't keep as well either but that could be my imagination. In general, I trust the old advice to plant the biggest and best cloves. If you don't want to pay "seed garlic" prices (typically at least twice the eating garlic price) you can try planting the biggest, healthiest bulbs available at your local organic produce source. If you are growing organically (which I certainly hope) it is worth buying garlic that was organically grown originally for one very important reason - varieties that are popular with corporate/chemical/industrial growers will very likely need the pesticide/herbicide/fungicide regime that they were grown under. Varieties bred for organic growing may not be quite as productive but they are much more likely to do well under your organic garden conditions. When I buy garlic, I get it from Filaree - https://filareefarm.com/ They are good people and deal square.

Kay Robison

Sat, 01/22/2022 - 09:37

Thanks for the link. I did find some reasonable garlic bulbs in my local IFA store, but some of them were looking desiccated and tired. I picked out 6 still good looking ones, but I think I will put in an order to Filaree for spring planting and maybe some for this upcoming fall.