I am living in Northern WI, Zone 3 at best. Is it possible to grow garlic and top setting onions in this area. Any suggestions on technique, planting times and varieties would be welcome.
The soil is very sandy, but I have good oak leaf based compost available.
Thanks
Dunno about onions, but don't see why not. Garlic is certainly do-able. Planting is done in the fall a few weeks prior to the first hard frost. In zone 5 (mid NY state) I usually plant sometime on October but you'd probably need September sometime I'd guess. If they start to sprout before the weather gets really cold, don't worry about it. Won't hurt 'em a bit. I've had some 3-4" high before freezing and they were fine.
Just as a point of reference, I typically harvest mine in July. Actually I just pulled this years crop about 2 weeks ago and bot did I have a good "garlic year". :-D I like strong garlic and I've certainly got it! :-D
Here's a site that should be of help to you
I'm also from Northern WI and I plant Garlic and Onions every September. I cover with about 5 - 6 inches of mulch to protect the plants from the deep freeze we get. The Garlic usually gets picked in July.
definitely doable. You have to use hardneck garlic. The hardiest varieties overwinter in Zone 2. Try Territorial Seeds for varieties named Tundra or some other suggestive name (I have two of them, one is Siberian and the other is the one they claim to be cold-hardiest). Follow the instructions of Bear, though in Zone 5 I pick in early august. the onions will be trickier as they are not as cold hardy. Pile the mulch, and onions want more lime and more nitrogen during growth than garlic, which only needs a bit of nitrogen.
" Nartker" expounded:
Johnny's German Extra Hardy always works well for me:
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