Garlic planted

[svalli]

This may be a bit early for planting garlic, but killing frost finally came and weather is cooling rapidly. Some years I have struggled to plant in the soil, which was already frozen on the surface and I will not wait that long anymore. Today was sunny and dry, so we drove to our hobby farm and planted total of 1133 garlic cloves of 24 different varieties and 8 elephant garlic cloves and rounds.

I have still some small rounds grown from bulbils to be planted to raised beds in my small city garden, but having the cloves planted is a relief and soon I can turn to winter hibernation mode.

Sari

[bower]

Oh wow that does seem really early. I know we have a similar climate but there are some major differences too. Our spring is really late but our autumn is usually mild at least until the end of October. I have planted in November one year, that was definitely too late and really uncomfortable. I guess if the weather is turning early, best to go with the flow.



You're going to have a huge crop!

[GoDawgs]

Wow, that's quite a diverse crop of garlic! I planted mine two days ago, just 98 cloves. 25 of them are a Korean type that I'm planting just to keep the variety going in the garden.

[salix]

Planted my garlic about a week or two early this year as well, 29 September. The overnight lows were getting down to -10 and -12 C pretty regularly and the rains/snow had not yet started so took advantage of a sunny Saturday afternoon and planted the cloves and two short rows of rounds. Will go out in a week or so and cover with chopped leaves. Just about ready to enjoy the 'resting season'.

[Labradors2]

I guess I should get mine in soon, but it's been rather wet.

Last year I learned that I can plant it nice and close together so that it doesn't take up a huge amount of my garden. It worked out really well .

Linda

[bower]

Linda, how close did you plant and what else (fert wise) to get a good yield with a tight planting?


I have varied the spacing a bit and definitely got larger bulbs with bigger spacing. I really need to work on the amount of sunshine too, as even a bit of shade seems to take its toll.

[Labradors2]

I think they were only about 4" apart! I learned from an experienced gardener and couldn't believe how close the bulbils were when I saw them at a community garden (thought it must have been a newbie who didn't know any better!!!) When you think about it, why would they need a ton of space?

I planted mine in full sun in some aged cow manure and mulched them with bark chips. I was very happy with my harvest, one of the best .

Linda

[rxkeith]

we have been getting rain nearly every day, and will continue to do so till the weekend when maybe we see some sun. i just need a break in the weather to get my garlic in. the window is closing on planting here. if the rain continues, and the temps drop into the 30s, it will get very white out, very fast.
planting a little early is not a problem in the northern latitudes.



keith

[GrowingCoastal]

Originally Posted by salix

Planted my garlic about a week or two early this year as well, 29 September. The overnight lows were getting down to -10 and -12 C pretty regularly and the rains/snow had not yet started so took advantage of a sunny Saturday afternoon and planted the cloves and two short rows of rounds. Will go out in a week or so and cover with chopped leaves. Just about ready to enjoy the 'resting season'.

Brian Minter, master gardener in Chilliwack (Minter Gardens) says to plant garlic at Fall Equinox in BC. He makes no distinction between warmer coastal areas and colder interior ones. I have been planting my garlic then for years and always get good returns for the effort.

[salix]

Thanks for that, G.C. I have met Brian on a few occasions, he has come up to give talks to various groups in the past. My thoughts on the matter are - I want the roots to develop, but not top growth. Our winters are much more severe than yours, and anything above ground will be pretty tatty after exposure to -35 C if there isn't snow cover. Probably would just slow things down to 'start over' so to speak in Spring, but not actually kill them.

If I was younger (or at least more spry), I would experiment with a large number of one particular variety and plant a half dozen a week, starting Sept. 21st and ending October 31st. Perhaps I will do just that next year, using the small cloves from the rounds I planted this year...

[bower]

Thanks from me too... it is certainly food for thought. I doubt very much that any garlic planted at or after the equinox here would break the ground before winter. Planting earlier might even give them an advantage. I have not seen positive results from planting later than mid october that's for sure.


We had a very wierd year here with almost-July temperatures right through the middle of September, but switching to below normal then instead of a pleasant gradual decline. And that is continuing except for the occasional warmer than normal day. So I will also be planting as soon as possible, may have to wait to mulch later.

[bower]

I got my beds all ready to plant today but it was too late to plant by the time I finished. Tomorrow is another dry day, but the forecast has a lot of rain - every second or third day, with totals looking likely 80 mm or more by the end of the week. That seems like a lot of rain for the garlic's first week in the ground, I wonder if I should wait? They are saying 20 mm for Monday night 'but could be as much as 50mm', which is a bit more than a soaker.

[svalli]

Originally Posted by bower

I got my beds all ready to plant today but it was too late to plant by the time I finished. Tomorrow is another dry day, but the forecast has a lot of rain - every second or third day, with totals looking likely 80 mm or more by the end of the week. That seems like a lot of rain for the garlic's first week in the ground, I wonder if I should wait? They are saying 20 mm for Monday night 'but could be as much as 50mm', which is a bit more than a soaker.

Do you have a tarp, which you could use to cover the beds during the heavy rains?

I mulched my garlic beds with fallen leaves on Saturday, even it is still unseasonably warm. Yesterday we had record high for October, temperature in Vaasa was over 18°C, but sun is already shining at so low angle, that the warmth is just temporary.

Sari

[bower]

The tarp is a good idea, but we also are expecting wind gusts 120-140 kph... It's going up to 15 C as well for this first storm. Too bad it won't be fit conditions to enjoy it!
I cracked the big bulbs last night so I guess I'll go ahead with those anyway. I might be able to tarp the planted beds if rainfall amounts forecast for next Sunday-Monday are still looking large.

[GrowingCoastal]

Originally Posted by svalli

Do you have a tarp, which you could use to cover the beds during the heavy rains?

I mulched my garlic beds with fallen leaves on Saturday, even it is still unseasonably warm. Yesterday we had record high for October, temperature in Vaasa was over 18°C, but sun is already shining at so low angle, that the warmth is just temporary.

Sari

It looks lovely while the leaves still have their colour! At least the warm weather makes it nice to do the work.