I want to grow some garlic, but can I just use the elephant garlic I buy at the store and just plant the cloves or do I have to do something different? Never seen garlic plants or anything garlic at the garden centers. In zone
TIA
Jimmy
I never plant anything that I buy from the supermarket. You don't know if or how it has been treated or if there are any diseases that wouldn't affect consumption but would affect new growth.
Potatoes, for example, are treated to prevent sprouting. Also, there's no indication if the spud carries any diseases as I noted above. The same may or may not apply to other supermarket produce, but to be safe, I use nothing but certified seeds/sets.
Garlic set can be bought quite cheaply. Garlic needs a long season to mature as well. Even if I get mine in this week, I don't expect to get very large bulbs by October. I plan to try overwintering my garlic for next year.
..
Zone 5b in Canada's Far East.
You'll find the basics on my personal web page, in the .sig below.
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G
It was your postings in this group that inspired me to putting our first garlic planting last fall. Things look lovely so far this spring here in northern NJ, and we are looking forward to our first harvest later on.
The blueberry bushes suck this year and I lost a dogwood over the winter, though.
Boron
I went to my local farmers market this morning and bought some elephant cloves that had just started to put out roots. They are going in the garden. The grower is local. I also got some standard garlic that is almost ready. Check out local fresh suppliers of garlic.
rob
It's good to share the infection.... most of my garlic plants are 6" high now; I imagine yours are higher. Things are almost dried out enough to put Mr. Troy-Bilt to work and put in sugar snap peas!
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G
Jimmy, I bought my first Elephant Garlic from our local grocery store, and planted all 3 cloves. That was about 9 years ago. Now I have about 125 elephant garlic plants coming up and they will be ready for this years harvest. I still have about 18 heads of it to give to a friend of mine from last years harvest, and another 6 for my use until I harvest this years crop.
I plant it at the end of August or early Sept. The next June or July they are ready to harvest. I plant only the largest cloves off of the heads and use or give away the rest. As long as I maintain this schedule, I get a perfect crop each summer. If I am late planting it, the next year a lot of them wont mature and I have to stick them back into the ground until the following year. They also form small nodules on the sides of some of the heads. Don't let them fall back into the ground. If you do, they will come up the next year and wont develop into cloves. You will have to replant them for the second year to give them a chance to mature.
Dwayne
We're dry enough to till, but I grow most of my vegetables in pots up on the deck. I keep some tomatoes and garlic and blueberries down in the garden, but I use the deck for other things to keep them from being eaten by groundhogs.
Boron
I have planted store bought garlic. No problem. Then when I harvest I wait a week or two and put some of the harvest back in the ground. Works for me in sunny so cal.
stonerfish
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