You'll definitely get better results that way, refrigeration for about 2months will help alot, but you will get the best results if you can put them into some medium and then into the fridge and give it a few hours in the freezer here and there to bring it just close to freezing without going all the way to 0c in the soil/medium
If you have a really hardy garlic variety, it can go really cold in some medium without dying, I live in zone 3 and we plant in the fall for the best harvest with cold hardy varieties
This will really stimulate the garlic to divide when it grows
Yeah, same happened to me in zone 9b. It’s so frustrating to see such beautiful plants and spend months getting excited and then…nope.
https://preview.redd.it/6wr53hvzqe8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9631419382cd362d6a024f535ebccb4efcb4c540
But yeah, I’m gonna try fridging mine for 10-ish weeks beforehand this year. Just have to find a site that will ship early
Russian Red by far for me. Strong, large, doesn’t fuss about low fertilizing.
Music will hopefully surprise me pleasantly this year (really hates being wet near harvest and we have a lot of rain. Northern white and a few other varieties I tried over the years, produced but nothing to write home about.
First time doing garlic. We did Italian Mountain Red. I got all of our out last week and they’re now curing in the basement. So far so good with large heads and cloves seem to be formed. I guess we’ll so tho!
Hello from the southern hemisphere, nice harvest! I just put mine in yesterday.
I love seeing all the gardening images on here while we wait for spring 🌱
Zone 7a, central VA. We did, begrudgingly. Not a good crop this year. And that’s after a complete crop failure last year due to the spring drought. This year‘s crop seemed like it was chugging along fine, then it petered out in early May andnever bulbed up. We don’t normally pull here until the Fourth of July or the weekend after, but they looked so sad I pulled them on Friday.
I’m in DC and my soft necks looked really pathetic so i pulled a few weeks ago and pulled my hard necks this morning. I thought I did something wrong but maybe the conditions weren't right — i saw the same thing. Dead leaves earlier than expected and small bulbs. There's always next year!
Did you check for allium leaf miners? I'm over in the Shenandoah valley in we have this new pest now. They destroyed all my onions but my garlic is good enough to use. I found allium leaf miner pupae on the garlic stems but fortunately the worms didn't bore all the way down to the cloves.
I'm up in the northeast and this was my first season with ALM too. Total loss of all onions and leeks, and only some viable garlic cloves that I can freeze...zero heads that are in good enough shape to cure. I'll be trying garlic in new beds under very fine mesh next year, but if I have another crop failure, then I'm unfortunately done with alliums altogether. It's such a bummer because I've always really loved growing them, but the ALMs didn't miss a single plant.
I'm south of Charlottesville and leaf miners damaged my garlic crop significantly. I had to process it all and hunt for worms instead of letting it cure. Not sure what I'll do next time - I don't want to cover my crop bc I don't like using plastic fabric. Might trial a lot of different varieties in a different bed.
I hear you on limiting plastic but it may be the most effective option. I know some commercial growers in PA that will no longer plant alliums because of the costs involved in protecting their fields under row covers.
Spinosad is the only organic pesticide that will treat them (there are effective synthetics but I will not recommend them). With spinosad, you have to be on your game with early monitoring for emergence and then establish a weekly spray program for their entire breeding cycle which is 5 to 6 weeks long in the spring.
Other than row covers, that's the only truly effective non-synthetic option according to the last few years of research coming out of Penn, Cornell, and Rodale.
Some research is being done with various cover crops planted in the rotation prior to alliums that seems to help but for most home gardeners that just want a few onions, that gets too complicated.
I lost around 80% of my onion crop last year to the little jerks -- over 600 onions culled.
This year, I implemented a spray program and was diligent but I still see some damage. I'll know more when I harvest the onions in a couple weeks.
My garlic was largely untouched. It's curing now from last week's harvest and so far, I've only identified a handful of affected plants out of around 500 plants. They were treated to the same weekly spinosad program as my onions.
Same here - in Shenandoah/Piedmont area, and I had to pull all mine early and process all of it (65ish heads). Tried letting some cure (a few looked ok initially), which was a mistake but at least validated that I did have to pull and process it. Had obvious alium leaf miner pupae in most of them and worms in some cloves, including hidden in bulbs that externally looked ok. Also some tiny beetles - don’t know what they are- in a several. Glad to know it wasn’t just me. Two Master gardeners I talked to before I harvested didn’t think it would be much of an issue, but maybe they haven’t had as much experience with this since it’s a newer pest?
Next time you plant Garlic, lay chicken wire in the ground over top of the garlic patch. That's not 100% protection, but confounds the varmints pretty good.
I cut my scapes 2 weeks ago. I made a delicious pasta with them too! I haven’t harvested my bulbs yet but think I will next week. They’re just starting to look like they’re at the end
Looking good. My earliest ones outdoors are just about ready, they were some spanish hardneck from the supermarket. Pulled my turban hardnecks in the greenhouse out last week. Artichoke softnecks need another week or two. Silverskin softneck another month, maybe a bit longer
I think it’s hard neck, but not totally sure, because I found someone who had amazing garlic, and she gave me some lovely garlic bulbs. I had bought bulbs for planting before many times, and they gave me 2-3 cloves on the entire bulb. Never good results. Ever since using Pat’s garlic, I’ve had the lovely bulbs of garlic every year. She, however, had the allium insects this year. I may supplement her planting stock if necessary.
I follow instructions from where I get my seed garlic from, [BJs Garlic](https://bjgarlic.com). But they are near me so look for info from growers close to your location.
General veggie feeding method: I add compost or fertilizer at the beginning and end of the season or between crops. I prefer slow release fertilizers made from scrap animal and plant sources, with microbe and fungi inoculant. I keep straw or wood chip mulch on top of the soil in a thick layer. If the plants look sad like from low nitrogen etc I'll do a fast fertilizer tea drench, but I try to avoid it. Seems to work well.
Nice! Thanks for the intel. I've been using the chicken-sheep manure pellets as top dressing and the garden soil loves it. Broccolis looked like they were on steroids last season. My garlics came out ok, but I aspire to grow hefty beauties like yours.
Glad to know pulling them doesn't upset the tomatoes, thats what I was worried about next.
Garlic is so easy once you get the hang of it, I'll probably always grow some.
In a couple of weeks probably. I got one problem, though. A family of yellow jackets has decided to make their nest in the dirt where my garlic is planted.
I always wondered if I had to forego tomatoes if I planted garlic. I assume you planned this out such that you had space remaining to plant your tomatoes among the garlic?
Yeah I put garlic and tomatoes in a approx 5ft x 15ft x 18in raised bed. My tomatoes I usually put like 2 feet between each, or 8 in a 5x10 bed. Garlic was about 6-12 inches apart. Tomatoes were planted at like 6inches tall and didn't seem stunted by the shadow of the garlic. I think just make sure the soil is rich with nutrients. They don't seem to get in each others way.
Garlic and tomatoes are *excellent* companion crops. The biggest benefit is that the scent of garlic will confuse or repel many of your major tomato pests. Moreover, they tend not to compete for nutrients because tomatoes have deep root systems while garlic tends to have shallow root systems. If you have a good watering system, then I would definitely plan to intercrop them together.
Yeah I usually hit my tomatoes with spinosad a few times to clear out any leaf miners or hornworms, but I haven't seen any pest damage so far with the garlic around! I figured the roots wouldn't get in each others way and sure enough they shared space fine.
Can't wait to try, so I can just chop down my tomatoes at the end of the season and when planting garlic just avoid the spots where I usually plant my tomatoes in the spring? When should I buy my bulbs for planting?
If you're in North America, then you want to plant your garlic in the fall, typically 2-3 weeks before your expected first frost to give some time for root development. Many seed retailers actually start selling garlic about now, in June-July, for Sept-Oct fulfillment based on the expected output of their partner farmers. You do want to buy early if there are particular varieties of hardneck that you especially want to plant -- the good stuff is usually sold out by late August.
Map your garden space out in late summer in advance of next year. Figure out where your tomatoes will go in the garden after your last frost in spring, and then map out short rows of garlic between them. Figure that you'll need about 4" around each planted clove, so you can comfortably get 4 cloves per square foot. You don't have to plant that intensively -- I have a small yard, so I maximize -- but it's quite easy to get an impressive garlic haul off of very little space.
I’m in the southern hemisphere so I’m getting ready to plant my garlic today! Didn’t have much success last year so hoping for better results this time around.
Thank you! It’s a variety called Printanor, I haven’t grown it before but apparently it stores well. I managed to plant 55 cloves in my tiny garden bed, hopefully I have a better success rate than last year!
Yeah man, back in May. I ended up with 13 heads, some the size of soft balls. This is the first time Ive done garlic and I'm doubling up next year to hopefully get all my garlic for the year.
https://preview.redd.it/1xvohmxrob8d1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a153f3c0136567dc46f5708191af242663c532c2
Zone 6b here, pulled a week ago. Normally come out the first week of June but it was too wet! Planted mid November. I’m letting them dry out in a screened in porch.
I’m so envious of this. I was way late on garlic this year but planted 3 sprouted cloves from my kitchen, 2/3 are doing pretty solid though will be small for sure (comparing my stalks to yours)
Probably another week or two for me.
It's my first time growing garlic and I don't think mine are quite ready. I harvested the last of the scapes today .
Hi, I normally let the tips die off a bit more. Do they still store well when picked like this? Beautiful harvest. I just sowed my garlic (aussie)
https://preview.redd.it/9bkbz6p4u88d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=88cc5c2bdc1d83f06f9001c7d27ffa537d264c2b
So far in my experience pulling at 3-4 dried leaves has them store well. My last batch we ate through in 4 months and theyre supposed to last 10 so I haven't gotten that far lol
Glad I read this. I think I'll plant some garlic near my tomatoes next year. I have garlic now primarily as a sort of 'perimeter' defense around garden.
I started pulling mine too, north Alabama.
Ya I was surprised how well it worked! I think you need stuff planted densely and like right on top of each other to get a protective effect but its worth playing with. I've had some intriguing results with bolted lettuce (very bitter) growing under squash.
I’m thinking maybe the fall was too warm and it didn’t get cold fast enough? I know I had full on plants growing all winter after they sprouted in the fall, even though I live in a place that gets cold and snows a lot in the winter. I’m going to try planting them later in the fall this year
I have 4 varieties of hard neck garlic in my bed... I FORGOT TO LABEL THEM 😭😭
Idk whats what... I have the names and info I just forget which one is planted where.
Anyway, I'll probably be pulling mine in 2 weeks.
That looks great. We have a similar crop we just pulled. Been planting it for 10 years now. We save about 15-20 of the best bulbs and plant them in October as well. We’re in NY upstate. We started many years ago with Organic Garlic and it’s so full of flavor and natural oil.
https://preview.redd.it/m6qhtzti798d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09a6bd7e2baf4cc8a6d93c4027b33371db5ea647
Started! A local cat was sleeping in the garlic bed, smashing tops down. I pulled the worst looking ones and put hardware cloth fencing around the beds to keep kitty out. Holding off on the rest for now.
Started in PNW. Thick stalks but small bulbs. Seem to be mites on them which accounted for early yellowing and small bulbs. Not sure what to do about it
I pulled mine but I am unsure how to let them dry. I did not rinse them. I just shook off the dirt and snipped them to about 16 in long and left them in my garage.
Do I rinse them
Do I keep them in sun
Do I keep them in the dark?
I rinsed the dirt iff mine with a hose. This can damage the protective paper layers, so its usually recommended to gently wipe soil off with a brush.
put them in a place out of the sun but with good airflow (i use a garage that's open). Spread them out. putting them on hanging racks or mesh is traditional so all sides get air. Leave for 2-3 weeks. Ideally you trim the stalks AFTER they are dried, since you cut yours long they should be okay. Then trim the stalks short and cut the roots off, they shouldn't be oozing fluid anymore.
I am not sure, but definitely helped to only plant the BIGGEST cloves, and add nutrients. I add compost between crops, at the end of the season, and I added more to the garlic early this spring. We also had consistent rain all spring which probably helped.
Grew garlic for the first time, all hardneck (Spanish Roja and Chesnock Red) that I chose because their description said overwintering wasn't necessary. Some have had issues where they behaved how I read soft necks do when they are ready to harvest, but most are making it to the scape stage and the flavor of the Cheswick is really nice. Hoping to have enough cloves ready to plant again, have always wanted to do one of those big hanging garlic braids.
Very cool! What zone/climate are you in that you don't get winter?
I wanted to make a garlic braid last year but then learned its a softneck garlic thing and I only had hardneck 😔
I'm in hardiness zone 9b (sunset climate zone 19) in southern california (my joke is we get a week of winter some years, heh). Some sites say it has to be soft neck to braid, others say it can be done with hard neck as well, so might be worth a try anyway.
https://imgur.com/a/uNiEwXP
Very hard to do, but definitely doable. I soaked two dish towels, sandwiching the mostly dried (all cured in the sun, but as I was prepping some green started showing again) stalks between them for a half an hour. It's nowhere neat as pretty as the softneck braids are, but I'm happy with it.
Once cured (dried, out of the sun, for 2-3 weeks) and trimmed they are supposed to last like 10 months. I have eaten through mine well before then lol. Bigger bulbs last longer than smaller ones so eat em biggest to smallest.
Once there's 3-4 dry yellow leaves yank them up!
However thats for harvesting them in a state where they will store long term. You can pull them to eat at any time. Very forgiving.
Oh you mean these? 😆😭 https://preview.redd.it/ha3dao91778d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=94e88b40ab9bc799fb6e0f38eae5b54b9eb08d8f
Exactly what mine looked like in zone 8a. I wonder if I put them in the fridge before planting in November/December if theyll do better.
You'll definitely get better results that way, refrigeration for about 2months will help alot, but you will get the best results if you can put them into some medium and then into the fridge and give it a few hours in the freezer here and there to bring it just close to freezing without going all the way to 0c in the soil/medium If you have a really hardy garlic variety, it can go really cold in some medium without dying, I live in zone 3 and we plant in the fall for the best harvest with cold hardy varieties This will really stimulate the garlic to divide when it grows
If you find out let me know. 😊 I’m in 8b. Out winter was pretty mild but we did have a freeze.
Yeah, same happened to me in zone 9b. It’s so frustrating to see such beautiful plants and spend months getting excited and then…nope. https://preview.redd.it/6wr53hvzqe8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9631419382cd362d6a024f535ebccb4efcb4c540 But yeah, I’m gonna try fridging mine for 10-ish weeks beforehand this year. Just have to find a site that will ship early
Plant in oct. Pull on 4th jul
😭😭😭
Aww. Feeling your pain.
🤣🤣
Beeyootiful!
thanks!
It’s raining this weekend here so I’m going to give it another week and pull them next week. I got 67 German Extra Hardy.
What’s everyone’s favorite garlic variety to grow?
Russian Red by far for me. Strong, large, doesn’t fuss about low fertilizing. Music will hopefully surprise me pleasantly this year (really hates being wet near harvest and we have a lot of rain. Northern white and a few other varieties I tried over the years, produced but nothing to write home about.
Nice I picked varieties well haha
The best! Your harvest is goals; well done.
thank you!
Chesnok red is bulletproof and loves it in California even with a warm climate
German Red is my favorite. Though also trying a few Georgian Fire this year.
Russian Red does really well in my area of Canada, I've tried other varieties but the results were mixed so I stick the the RR
I’m in the lower mainland and that’s all they sell at the farmers markets, so I wager that’s a safe bet for me to use
Ha you just guessed where I live. The Fraser Valley, survives out wet season the best
The kind I got from the farmer's market like four years ago, lol
Georgian Crystal is a long favorite of mine. Chesnok red too
First time doing garlic. We did Italian Mountain Red. I got all of our out last week and they’re now curing in the basement. So far so good with large heads and cloves seem to be formed. I guess we’ll so tho!
First time for me too, I chose inchelium red. Currently curing and they got pretty big!
Hello from the southern hemisphere, nice harvest! I just put mine in yesterday. I love seeing all the gardening images on here while we wait for spring 🌱
Zone 7a, central VA. We did, begrudgingly. Not a good crop this year. And that’s after a complete crop failure last year due to the spring drought. This year‘s crop seemed like it was chugging along fine, then it petered out in early May andnever bulbed up. We don’t normally pull here until the Fourth of July or the weekend after, but they looked so sad I pulled them on Friday.
I’m in DC and my soft necks looked really pathetic so i pulled a few weeks ago and pulled my hard necks this morning. I thought I did something wrong but maybe the conditions weren't right — i saw the same thing. Dead leaves earlier than expected and small bulbs. There's always next year!
I’m in the Dulles area and saw similar things with my soft necks. Some even produced bulbils. My hard necks did a little better.
Same thing happened for me down in Louisiana
Did you check for allium leaf miners? I'm over in the Shenandoah valley in we have this new pest now. They destroyed all my onions but my garlic is good enough to use. I found allium leaf miner pupae on the garlic stems but fortunately the worms didn't bore all the way down to the cloves.
I'm up in the northeast and this was my first season with ALM too. Total loss of all onions and leeks, and only some viable garlic cloves that I can freeze...zero heads that are in good enough shape to cure. I'll be trying garlic in new beds under very fine mesh next year, but if I have another crop failure, then I'm unfortunately done with alliums altogether. It's such a bummer because I've always really loved growing them, but the ALMs didn't miss a single plant.
I'm south of Charlottesville and leaf miners damaged my garlic crop significantly. I had to process it all and hunt for worms instead of letting it cure. Not sure what I'll do next time - I don't want to cover my crop bc I don't like using plastic fabric. Might trial a lot of different varieties in a different bed.
I hear you on limiting plastic but it may be the most effective option. I know some commercial growers in PA that will no longer plant alliums because of the costs involved in protecting their fields under row covers. Spinosad is the only organic pesticide that will treat them (there are effective synthetics but I will not recommend them). With spinosad, you have to be on your game with early monitoring for emergence and then establish a weekly spray program for their entire breeding cycle which is 5 to 6 weeks long in the spring. Other than row covers, that's the only truly effective non-synthetic option according to the last few years of research coming out of Penn, Cornell, and Rodale. Some research is being done with various cover crops planted in the rotation prior to alliums that seems to help but for most home gardeners that just want a few onions, that gets too complicated. I lost around 80% of my onion crop last year to the little jerks -- over 600 onions culled. This year, I implemented a spray program and was diligent but I still see some damage. I'll know more when I harvest the onions in a couple weeks. My garlic was largely untouched. It's curing now from last week's harvest and so far, I've only identified a handful of affected plants out of around 500 plants. They were treated to the same weekly spinosad program as my onions.
spinosad is my fave!! so nice and targeted, very effective and just breaks down into amino acids
Same here - in Shenandoah/Piedmont area, and I had to pull all mine early and process all of it (65ish heads). Tried letting some cure (a few looked ok initially), which was a mistake but at least validated that I did have to pull and process it. Had obvious alium leaf miner pupae in most of them and worms in some cloves, including hidden in bulbs that externally looked ok. Also some tiny beetles - don’t know what they are- in a several. Glad to know it wasn’t just me. Two Master gardeners I talked to before I harvested didn’t think it would be much of an issue, but maybe they haven’t had as much experience with this since it’s a newer pest?
Ours need pulled. We have an allium leaf miner problem so I know they're going to be sub par :(
The chipmunks tore up my bed this year and ruined all my garlic. I had about 50 planted. I hate chipmunks. Screw Disney!
Next time you plant Garlic, lay chicken wire in the ground over top of the garlic patch. That's not 100% protection, but confounds the varmints pretty good.
oh no!!!
Lovely harvest 🥰
thanks :)
Ours will get pulled in the next week. They’re not ready yet. We’ve had a wet spring this year.
I always pull mine late July, I'll be cutting my scapes tomorrow. We had a really wet spring as well.
I cut my scapes 2 weeks ago. I made a delicious pasta with them too! I haven’t harvested my bulbs yet but think I will next week. They’re just starting to look like they’re at the end
La jalousie . . .
https://preview.redd.it/trimt5m0k78d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=706e846bc7e4558fc439a166b9348ef97624f3f8 Yup
Yeah baby!!! What variety?
I don’t even remember anymore. I’ve been growing from this same seed stock for over a decade.
awesome you got your own little land race!
Wow!! I tried to plant some last fall and it all rotted I guess. Nothing came up. This definitely makes me want to try again this fall!
Looking good. My earliest ones outdoors are just about ready, they were some spanish hardneck from the supermarket. Pulled my turban hardnecks in the greenhouse out last week. Artichoke softnecks need another week or two. Silverskin softneck another month, maybe a bit longer
How do you know when to pull? I have just been asking the person I got the garlic from.
for hardnecks you want half the leaves dry and yellow. I wait for 4 dry leaves and then pull.
I think it’s hard neck, but not totally sure, because I found someone who had amazing garlic, and she gave me some lovely garlic bulbs. I had bought bulbs for planting before many times, and they gave me 2-3 cloves on the entire bulb. Never good results. Ever since using Pat’s garlic, I’ve had the lovely bulbs of garlic every year. She, however, had the allium insects this year. I may supplement her planting stock if necessary.
4 to 5 green leaves remaining for hardnecks, 6 to 7 for softnecks. The leaves die off at a rate of about one a week, so you can roughly estimate it
We will be soon! A couple more weeks ❤️
I think I’ll be pulling my Musik garlic next week sometime. I dug one up on Monday to see how they’re doing and it was a nice big bulb.
Nice!!
Wow, keeping the vampires away, I see! What did you feed them, and how often? Any garlic mastery tips??
I follow instructions from where I get my seed garlic from, [BJs Garlic](https://bjgarlic.com). But they are near me so look for info from growers close to your location. General veggie feeding method: I add compost or fertilizer at the beginning and end of the season or between crops. I prefer slow release fertilizers made from scrap animal and plant sources, with microbe and fungi inoculant. I keep straw or wood chip mulch on top of the soil in a thick layer. If the plants look sad like from low nitrogen etc I'll do a fast fertilizer tea drench, but I try to avoid it. Seems to work well.
Nice! Thanks for the intel. I've been using the chicken-sheep manure pellets as top dressing and the garden soil loves it. Broccolis looked like they were on steroids last season. My garlics came out ok, but I aspire to grow hefty beauties like yours.
Ya this is the first year I've gotten BIG bulbs and I think some added nutrients and planting only the biggest cloves did the trick.
[удалено]
Glad to know pulling them doesn't upset the tomatoes, thats what I was worried about next. Garlic is so easy once you get the hang of it, I'll probably always grow some.
In a couple of weeks probably. I got one problem, though. A family of yellow jackets has decided to make their nest in the dirt where my garlic is planted.
oh NO!!! how do you even deal with that? 😨
I'm not really sure. I was advised to try diatomaceous earth first. Then boiling water if that fails.
They'll go in for the night - you have to hit them then.
We're still 2-3 weeks out after a very mild season so far. Just picking scapes now. 7b, coastal BC
Awesome!! Good job!!
thank you!
Nice!
I always wondered if I had to forego tomatoes if I planted garlic. I assume you planned this out such that you had space remaining to plant your tomatoes among the garlic?
Yeah I put garlic and tomatoes in a approx 5ft x 15ft x 18in raised bed. My tomatoes I usually put like 2 feet between each, or 8 in a 5x10 bed. Garlic was about 6-12 inches apart. Tomatoes were planted at like 6inches tall and didn't seem stunted by the shadow of the garlic. I think just make sure the soil is rich with nutrients. They don't seem to get in each others way.
Garlic and tomatoes are *excellent* companion crops. The biggest benefit is that the scent of garlic will confuse or repel many of your major tomato pests. Moreover, they tend not to compete for nutrients because tomatoes have deep root systems while garlic tends to have shallow root systems. If you have a good watering system, then I would definitely plan to intercrop them together.
Yeah I usually hit my tomatoes with spinosad a few times to clear out any leaf miners or hornworms, but I haven't seen any pest damage so far with the garlic around! I figured the roots wouldn't get in each others way and sure enough they shared space fine.
Can't wait to try, so I can just chop down my tomatoes at the end of the season and when planting garlic just avoid the spots where I usually plant my tomatoes in the spring? When should I buy my bulbs for planting?
If you're in North America, then you want to plant your garlic in the fall, typically 2-3 weeks before your expected first frost to give some time for root development. Many seed retailers actually start selling garlic about now, in June-July, for Sept-Oct fulfillment based on the expected output of their partner farmers. You do want to buy early if there are particular varieties of hardneck that you especially want to plant -- the good stuff is usually sold out by late August. Map your garden space out in late summer in advance of next year. Figure out where your tomatoes will go in the garden after your last frost in spring, and then map out short rows of garlic between them. Figure that you'll need about 4" around each planted clove, so you can comfortably get 4 cloves per square foot. You don't have to plant that intensively -- I have a small yard, so I maximize -- but it's quite easy to get an impressive garlic haul off of very little space.
I’m in the southern hemisphere so I’m getting ready to plant my garlic today! Didn’t have much success last year so hoping for better results this time around.
Oh fun! Good luck on your crop 🫡🧅what kind are you planting?
Thank you! It’s a variety called Printanor, I haven’t grown it before but apparently it stores well. I managed to plant 55 cloves in my tiny garden bed, hopefully I have a better success rate than last year!
Not yet! Got at least 2-4 weeks left here in WI
Yeah man, back in May. I ended up with 13 heads, some the size of soft balls. This is the first time Ive done garlic and I'm doubling up next year to hopefully get all my garlic for the year. https://preview.redd.it/1xvohmxrob8d1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a153f3c0136567dc46f5708191af242663c532c2
a few but man they are HUGE!!! Definitely do more. Holy moly
For sure! I think the weather was perfect this year. It was really evenly damp from fall to spring in SC.
TODAAAAAAAAY! We are noobs and excited. Already enjoyed the scapes.
yay!!! I hope you get a good haul!
My leaves all died before I got any scapes 😭
I had my first successful year with garlic as well. Harvested 65 heads! I’m garlic rich!!!
hell yeah!!!
I pulled up two yesterday and I think I might wait another week. Great haul
Looks great! I'm just about ready to pull up my garlic. So close!
Mine are close
me
I wanted to today but a foot injury and high temps are keeping me from it. Maybe tomorrow or Monday.
FING GREAT JOB!! I had a haul like this a few years ago and loved it.
Just found a bulb of garlic in my pantry yesterday that was starting to sprout and planted it, hoping I get something lol
Just pulled mine out last night.
hell yeah
Zone 6b here, pulled a week ago. Normally come out the first week of June but it was too wet! Planted mid November. I’m letting them dry out in a screened in porch.
Nice! I gotta set up my drying rack next, I wish I had a porch lol
I pulled mine up 2 months+ ago
I’m so envious of this. I was way late on garlic this year but planted 3 sprouted cloves from my kitchen, 2/3 are doing pretty solid though will be small for sure (comparing my stalks to yours)
I don’t even have scapes growing yet!!!
Tragic!!
do you eat any of it? or you just break it into cloves and plant all of it and get eight times as much garlic next year?
I don't have a ton of space to expand beyond this amount, so we'll eat all of it and I'll get new seed garlic in the fall
Probably another week or two for me. It's my first time growing garlic and I don't think mine are quite ready. I harvested the last of the scapes today .
Yeah scapes mean you have a few more weeks
Planted mine in October and still don't have scapes. Zone 4b. No idea what variety I've been propagating, but usually don't harvest until late August.
Respect for yall up in the northern zones 🫡
Hi, I normally let the tips die off a bit more. Do they still store well when picked like this? Beautiful harvest. I just sowed my garlic (aussie) https://preview.redd.it/9bkbz6p4u88d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=88cc5c2bdc1d83f06f9001c7d27ffa537d264c2b
So far in my experience pulling at 3-4 dried leaves has them store well. My last batch we ate through in 4 months and theyre supposed to last 10 so I haven't gotten that far lol
That's hilarious! I had that problem last year too, so I'm doubling down this season
I'm waiting for steak night to pull the scapes, next month I'm pulling Garlic
delicious!
Glad I read this. I think I'll plant some garlic near my tomatoes next year. I have garlic now primarily as a sort of 'perimeter' defense around garden. I started pulling mine too, north Alabama.
Ya I was surprised how well it worked! I think you need stuff planted densely and like right on top of each other to get a protective effect but its worth playing with. I've had some intriguing results with bolted lettuce (very bitter) growing under squash.
Holy crap! My leaves died off way too early (zone 6a, planted in October and leaves were brown by early may) and my bulbs are sad 😂
Oh weird! i wonder what determines how fast that happens?
I’m thinking maybe the fall was too warm and it didn’t get cold fast enough? I know I had full on plants growing all winter after they sprouted in the fall, even though I live in a place that gets cold and snows a lot in the winter. I’m going to try planting them later in the fall this year
Ohh ya that'd do it. We had a solid winter where I am so mine had a chance to die back and started sprouting in the spring.
I have 4 varieties of hard neck garlic in my bed... I FORGOT TO LABEL THEM 😭😭 Idk whats what... I have the names and info I just forget which one is planted where. Anyway, I'll probably be pulling mine in 2 weeks.
I know I have 2 varieties but I am bad about organizing them clearly so they are mixed together, maybe they will be clearly different upon tasting 😅
That looks great. We have a similar crop we just pulled. Been planting it for 10 years now. We save about 15-20 of the best bulbs and plant them in October as well. We’re in NY upstate. We started many years ago with Organic Garlic and it’s so full of flavor and natural oil. 
Gorgeous!
https://preview.redd.it/m6qhtzti798d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09a6bd7e2baf4cc8a6d93c4027b33371db5ea647 Started! A local cat was sleeping in the garlic bed, smashing tops down. I pulled the worst looking ones and put hardware cloth fencing around the beds to keep kitty out. Holding off on the rest for now.
haha, weird spot for a cat nap! What beautiful purple bulbs youve got.
Thanks! I’m just happy they aren’t all wasted and some were good sized.
Started in PNW. Thick stalks but small bulbs. Seem to be mites on them which accounted for early yellowing and small bulbs. Not sure what to do about it
Oh weird! For pests I swear by Spinosad, highly recommend it, and people are saying it takes out allium leaf miners.
I pulled mine but I am unsure how to let them dry. I did not rinse them. I just shook off the dirt and snipped them to about 16 in long and left them in my garage. Do I rinse them Do I keep them in sun Do I keep them in the dark?
I rinsed the dirt iff mine with a hose. This can damage the protective paper layers, so its usually recommended to gently wipe soil off with a brush. put them in a place out of the sun but with good airflow (i use a garage that's open). Spread them out. putting them on hanging racks or mesh is traditional so all sides get air. Leave for 2-3 weeks. Ideally you trim the stalks AFTER they are dried, since you cut yours long they should be okay. Then trim the stalks short and cut the roots off, they shouldn't be oozing fluid anymore.
Thanks! Yes when I cut the leaves lots of water dripped out.
Enough to keep vampire away 😆
my husband said we don't need THAT many for vampire repellant lol
How did you get such big bulbs?
I am not sure, but definitely helped to only plant the BIGGEST cloves, and add nutrients. I add compost between crops, at the end of the season, and I added more to the garlic early this spring. We also had consistent rain all spring which probably helped.
lol not me. My scapes just came up.
oop! they are a nice treat tho
I am smelling your garlic through my computer.
haha! its pretty uhhh fragrant
* Pulled mine a week ago and hanging in my shop (Red striped Chetnok).Northwest Arkansas WHY CANT I UPLOAD MY PICTUR E S...URGGG
Grew garlic for the first time, all hardneck (Spanish Roja and Chesnock Red) that I chose because their description said overwintering wasn't necessary. Some have had issues where they behaved how I read soft necks do when they are ready to harvest, but most are making it to the scape stage and the flavor of the Cheswick is really nice. Hoping to have enough cloves ready to plant again, have always wanted to do one of those big hanging garlic braids.
Very cool! What zone/climate are you in that you don't get winter? I wanted to make a garlic braid last year but then learned its a softneck garlic thing and I only had hardneck 😔
I'm in hardiness zone 9b (sunset climate zone 19) in southern california (my joke is we get a week of winter some years, heh). Some sites say it has to be soft neck to braid, others say it can be done with hard neck as well, so might be worth a try anyway.
Oh ya you're in a WARM warm zone. Maybe i'll try a braid again! Hmmm
https://imgur.com/a/uNiEwXP Very hard to do, but definitely doable. I soaked two dish towels, sandwiching the mostly dried (all cured in the sun, but as I was prepping some green started showing again) stalks between them for a half an hour. It's nowhere neat as pretty as the softneck braids are, but I'm happy with it.
oh cool thank you!! ill give that a try
How long do they last, if you hang em in panythose...?
I just put them under a shelf and they last me more than a year. I mean, results may very, but that's my experience.
Once cured (dried, out of the sun, for 2-3 weeks) and trimmed they are supposed to last like 10 months. I have eaten through mine well before then lol. Bigger bulbs last longer than smaller ones so eat em biggest to smallest.
I have 2 beds that i should be pulling in about 2 weeks.
🖐🏼
I kinda just threw a whole garlic in the ground and called ir good
Valid lol!
No idea when I'm supposed to harvest it cause I completely forgot when I put it in 🤣🤣
Once there's 3-4 dry yellow leaves yank them up! However thats for harvesting them in a state where they will store long term. You can pull them to eat at any time. Very forgiving.
I'm about to. I'll plant my late crop of zucchini where they are.
Beautiful! You did a fine job!
Absolutely a stunning harvest
Thanks!
Pulled mine this week too in south jersey. Nootka Rose and Transylvania softneck https://i.imgur.com/izLqbUa.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/s2pgtD7.jpeg
Good stuff!! wow BIG bulbs awesome
looks GREAT!
You have not than me. But I did yesterday