Here is some garlic that resprouted Should I replant

[greenthumbomaha]

My summer garlic haul in this bed was very poor. The weather was horribly warm and there was no rain. As I was about to harvest at the normal time, I came down with a virus and what was left after I recovered was very small and dry. The bed was a weedy mess all summer too.

Imagine my surprise when I started to weed today and found this had started to grow in the bed. I must have given up midway thru harvesting.

I have a few decent bulbs that I saved from the summer but not enough. Should I dig and separate these and replant or start over with large cloves bought from a big internet supplier.

Of course I pulled the tags so these would be mystery garlic.

That yucky pile is whirlybird grass and nimbleweed I am guessing. I must have a million weed seeds ready to go in that old straw.

[greenthumbomaha]

No opinions on separating and replanting these garlic cloves? Please give me a nudge one way or another!

Despite the warm weather for the week ahead, I am going to get some saved seed garlic planted starting tomorrow. Still deliberating what to do with these surprise hold overs from this summer.

My local hydro store has 4 varieties bought from from Keene: Music, German Extra Hardy, Pehosky Purple and Romanian Red. I'm going to use these as my standards. Most of my saved garlic were misc. longer keepers. I am surprised my original softneck stock did so well with the harsh winter we experienced.

- Lisa

[Worth1]

Lisa big cloves big garlic your choice.

Worth

[greenthumbomaha]

Pondering this. Some garlic growers had good luck growing larger cloves from small stock by acclimation in their garden. This would be year 3 from the mother plant, but this summer was not outstanding and the cloves were smaller than before.

My dilema is that I didn't harvest in July when I was sick . By the time felt okay I gave up halfway because the neighboring garlic was small and the heat was intolerable. Now it looks like it is recovering nicely, but will they do well with so much growth this early before the freeze.

-Lisa

[Worth1]

I cant give any information in your climate mine is so much different.
I would suspect it would go dormant underground.
Last winter was a garlic bust for me way too warm.

Worth

[Father'sDaughter]

I recall reading in several places that garlic can survive a freeze after it sprouts once, but if it sprouts and freezes a second time it does not do well.

No idea if that is true, but the year I had a lot of late fall top growth which died off when winter finally hit, then a second burst of growth during a mid-winter thaw was one of my worst years for garlic production and size.

[rxkeith]

it looks like what you have there are garlic bulbs that are now sprouting. if you leave them as they are, you will have a bunch of small bulbs with tiny cloves of garlic. if you want a crop from the existing garlic i would dig them up, and separate the cloves, and replant them asap. have the area prepped first before you dig them up. you will get much better bulb size next summer having them growing properly spaced apart. if they aren't full size bulbs next summer, they will be the following year. i am assuming they will go dormant during your winter. water them in when you replant, and i expect they will be fine.



keith

[brownrexx]

If you want to keep that variety going then I agree with digging them up to see what is going on and replanting them immediately. They may need to be separated and the weeds definitely need to be removed from the garlic bed. Dig carefully so as not to destroy any delicate roots that are growing.

I would definitely plant the larger cloves that you purchased to guarantee a decent crop next year though.

[zipcode]

From what I know they will grow as 'mono' garlic, if they are hardneck at least, since they haven't had their cold treatment. The question is when should the cold treatment take place to be effective? When is it too late for 'cloving' to take place (no idea, just saying, but it certainly doesn't need to be before sprouting, since fall planted garlic usually sprouts before the cold starts).

[oakley]

I would take the advice from above and purchase some new
larger seed. And do re-plant what you have if you have room.

My concern is the state of your plot. If you have the energy I
would clean it up the best you can.

I have garlic in all-life-stages. Purchased some new seed last year
to start over somewhat. It did great so I've recovered from
loosing past years beds. (rudbeckia took over). New big cloves
energized my lack of confidence.

My second failed bed reverted to wild and weedy. lack of time and
unattended. Those I believe are coming back having dug up and
planted last year. Probably the bulbils fell, re-seeded, and kept
that bed alive. I should study up on that.

[bower]

I like Keith's advice if you do decide to replant them this fall, have your bed prepped before you separate the cloves, and water them in.
I lost some shallots that I divided and replanted when green and late in the fall - I think frost heaves got them. Planting deep, watering in, and mulching well would hedge your bets.

OTOH, If the main purpose was to maintain the variety, and concern about surviving after growing green in the fall, then I would not move them now but leave where they are until next spring. That is assuming you have the space. In spring when the ground is soft and the cloves have separated a bit more in the ground you may be able to pull the extras without much trouble, thin your rows so the biggest shoot can grow full sized, and either replant or eat the extras. If they don't pull and separate easily, you can even dig the whole clump, separate roots and replant in spring without any worries about the vagaries of winter. Garlic doesn't seem to object to being moved around at that time of year and will recover from transplant easily enough in springtime.

Separating the plants in spring should not have any impact on whether they form divided bulbs. They will have gone through the winter in the ground, which is what matters afaik.

If you want 100% certain to have a great garlic crop to eat, I would also plant some properly cured and large seed stock this fall. If you can do it, why not?

[greenthumbomaha]

My replanting today. This was tedious work. There are a few more bulbs that I missed in the next bed, but I don't know if it is worth the trouble. I don't know if they will rot as they didn't cure but none were mushy. I have to read on about planting cloves without wrappers too.

Photos:
close up of the row that I didn't harvest in July
first bulb dug up
a few bulbs, medium and large size ; I screened out very few small cloves
row prepped with Jobes Organic 10-10-10 and bone meal
bed all separated and ready for winter

last should be first - digging up first bulb

[GrowingCoastal]

Nice. I think it will be just fine. They look to be a good size.

This year I found two elephant garlic that had wilded themselves in my garden, me thinking they were leeks was very surprised to find such big cloves around the stem then memory kicked in. One had bloomed and still reached good size for EG.

[brownrexx]

I don't know if you normally mulch your garlic but I usually apply a thick layer of straw once it gets really cold and the leaves die. This keeps the soil from going through a lot of freeze/thaw cycles and moving the bulbs up and down in the soil. I pull it back in the spring when I see leaves poking through.

Good luck. They look like nice cloves.

[Father'sDaughter]

Those do look good, and I hope they produce some nice heads next year.

As for planting without skins, I am not sure it matters. I remember reading about some garlic farmers who soak the skins off before planting to eliminate anything that is harboring under the skins.