I finally planted my garlic this weekend and I hope it wasn’t too late. If it gets too cold, I may not get that root system going. Garlic is a bulb and gets planted in the Fall. In my zone, they suggest planting around Columbus Day and harvesting around the 4th of July.
My 2009/2010 garlic “crop” was my best to date. I planted individual cloves six inches apart, pointy side up in a 4×4 raised bed about 1-2 inches into the soil. I planted in a different area than last year since a three to four year rotation is suggested because of fungus and pests. I don”t use any pesticides or fertilizers. Here’s a pictorial retrospective:
By mid-March, little sprouts emerged.
In April, the little sprouts got a little bigger.
In June, the scapes were ready.
So I cut the scapes and used them in the same way I use garlic.
In Jul, I harvested my bounty.
I hung them up to dry in a dark room with a fan running 24×7.
Zoom, please:
A wise woman at Wild Hive told me that it’s best to store garlic in clay pots because they will absorb moisture. I read that you can clean clay pots in the dishwasher with two cups of vinegar.
Here’s my stored garlic:
It was a fun year growing garlic and I really hope I didn’t blow next year’s “crop.”
Here are some resources:
Great idea about storing the garlic. I just wish I had more left over to store! Have you ever tried planting the scape heads, I have read that they will produce garlic after the second year…
Hi Maureen. Wow…that’s interesting about the scapes. I never heard of it. Do you plant them right then, in June?
From the little info I could find, you would plant them the same time as the garlic bulbs and then probably thin them out the first year and replant for the second year’s garlic. They look like little garlic bulbs when they have dried out. Kind of like the allium flowering bulbs. I’m going to put a few in, it may be too late now, but I don’t think so… Ill let you know