Garlic planting (with some oddities)

[Pat Kiewicz]

I planted my garlic this week, a bit later than I had planned due to a combination of weather and personal health.

The bed had been prepped for a while and by the time I got around to putting in the garlic we'd finally had some rain. Almost a lot of rain, by this year's standards. I was pleasantly surprised to find what seemed to be tiny bok choi growing in the garlic bed (and in the empty bed) next to it, so I plucked the ones on the garlic bed to have in soup that evening.

Anyway, I grow both hard- and soft-necked garlic and have planted from my best for a number of years.

Last vwinter was very mild, and we had some extremely erractic early spring temperatures (that destroyed the Michigan apple and cherry crops) followed by drought and abnormally high temperatures starting in May and carrying on for months.

When I harvest the garlic I was happy that the wrappers looked good and they all cleaned up nice and looked reasonable sized. What I didn't notice at that point was that the soft-necked garlic all looked a bit *oblong.* I found out when I went to plant them that the reason they looked that way is because they were comprised of two ENORMOUS cloves at either end with a few flattened but more normal sized cloved in the middle.

I wonder if this is a one time thing (weather related) and what will happen next year.

[songbird]

Pat Kiewicz wrote: ...

i've not planted any softneck garlic here so i can't say from my own experience, but given how mild things were last winter with the lack of snow and the lack of rain i'd say it was likely moisture and/or weather related. it is very unlikely you've selected for oblong softneck garlic by picking your best to plant from. unless perhaps you only planted a few cloves?

songbird

[Pat Kiewicz]

No, last year they were round. I plant a 4x8 foot bed with garlic, half hard neck and half soft neck. The cloves I plant usually come from at least 5 different heads.

We shall see if there are any strange results from these monster cloves.

(Here's hoping for a cold, wet winter and a less extreme summer next year. Though it seems that the 'new normal' is likely to be extreme weather, more heat waves and drought.)

[songbird]

:) good luck!

enough snow to cover the ground all winter and a bit of even rains would be ok instead of the long hot dry spells broken by torrential downpours. otherwise an added few weeks would be ok with me, especially if it stayed dry enough to not spoil the beans in the pods. the old adage of an inch of rain a week is spot on. two inches probably ok too. if we get that next season i'd be set.

i'll just hope for a more normal spring so that the fruit growers can recover. it's hard to hear of a apple grower speaking of his several thousand trees and not having a single apple.

songbird