Garlic death

[Wrighty]

I planted about 40 cloves of garlic in early spring into my garden but when they didn't look too healthy, i replaced them with plants (grown in the greenhouse). These looked great for a few weeks and were as tall as my onion plants (on same patch) but after some "heavy" Isle Of Wight winds the garlic were flat on the ground and soon died. weirdly the onions were fine and have gone on to produce a bumper crop. Anyone know why my garlic didnt survive if the onions did? What should i do to prevent this next yr??

[Andrew Ostrander]

Garlic is affected by day length and starts to die down soon after the summer solstice, so yours may have naturally finished. Have you dug them up and looked for your crop? And as the previous poster wrote, garlic (here anyway, zone 3) is best planted in the fall.

[dstvns]

Some garlics, particularly stiffnecks, require a fairly long freezing period. If this is a softneck silverskin type then I am at a loss.

Dan

[dstvns]

The lucky ones harvested in July ;)) If you waited until now you're gonna pull up big balls of mold. I replaced the beds with some pepper plants and the peppers are slogging pretty well through the 6+ inches of rain in the past week.

Dan

[Chris Owens]

Garlic goes dormant in late summer; that's when you generally harvest it. Whilst in some fairly mild climates, I've had success with planting in late winter and harvesting the same year, generally garlic does better if you plant it in the fall and harvest the following summer. I suspect that if you check where your garlic was growing, you'll find numerous bulbs in the soil.

Chris Owens

Wrighty wrote:

[Wrighty]

I was recommended to plant in spring when the frosts have finished. out of about 80 bulbs, there were only 10 in the ground when i dug them up and these were tiny. Perhaps its different in uk?

[Tom Randy]

Hi Dan, I had 3 7/8" of rain between yesterday and last night, man did it pour! Got my garlic out a few weeks ago so their safe.

[dstvns]

I was reading "Growing Great Garlic", a great book by Washington state farmer Ron Engelland (sp?). In it, he says the rocambole types and other stiffnecks require a fairly long freezing period, something places like Gilroy, CA cannot provide. He kind of relished the fact that warmer areas could not grow the hardier stiffneck types such as his Spanish Roja. However, he says softneck silverskin types are much more appropriate for warmer areas.

As an aside, growing "large" garlic is a demanding process. It requires rich soil heavy in nitrogen, full sun and plenty of water (but not sopping, so in a raised bed). Mulching and keeping weeds down is also of vital importance.

Dan

[Tom Randy]

Wrong. Plant one clove get whole bulb all in one year, actually less than a year. Plant in fall, dig up the following July when foliage dies.

I've been doing it the past 4 years.