War and Peace for Garlicheads
Visual version

#1 Soil prep
#2 When to plant
#3 What do I plant
#4 Winter protection/Mulching and weeding
#5 Feeding, what and when
#6 Differences between types- softneck ,hardneck and elephant
#7 Dealing with scapes (hardneck only)
#8 Bulbils, seed heads and flowers
#9 Drying down before harvest
#10 Harvesting, when and what to do
#11 Curing, braiding and storing
#12 Problems and diseases
We are showing pics here to go along with the text part of the tips
Garlic calendar
fall=planting and eating season
winter=eating season
spring=watching it grow and eating season
summer=harvest and eating season

#1 Soil prep- here’s a pic of oh2fly’s raised bed prior to planting cloves in October,2007, Compost, shredded leaves and coffee added


#2 When to plant. That all depends on your growing zone. Typically somewhere in September or October. Here is MHG planting his cloves.

#3 What do I plant? You plant your best large cloves. First pic is some of oh2fly's hardneck cloves ready to plant, 10,2007

The bins are MHG's bulbs waiting their turn to get planted, 10,2007

#4 Winter protection/Mulching and weeding
oh2fly's Susanville garlic shoots ignoring the leaf mulch and growing through it Nov. 2007

MHG's shoots covered in the big ice storm, Dec. 2007

oh2fly's elephant babies dec.2007

here's lisaann's mulched shoots. maryland 12,2007


#7 Dealing with scapes (hardneck only)
This is a scape from a rocambole variety. oh2fly's pic

MHG's neighbor cutting/popping scapes to save and eat


#8 Bulbils, seed heads and flowers
Here is a pic of James1 from Utah's elephant garlic in bloom. Who says garlic ain't purty?


#9 Drying down before harvest
You want to withhold water the last 2 weeks before harvest so the outer skins don't rot off
oh2fly's pic exposing a bulb a few weeks before harvest.You can see one skin already half gone at the point of the shovel from too much moisture either from not removing the mulch or too much watering

Here's a pic of a softneck, Spicy Red Korean. Notice the leaves are the skins once they wrap around the bulb at the base. You can imagine how important it is not to lose too many leaves/ skins due to rot before harvesting. The more skins you have, the longer the cloves will be firm and hydrated.



#10 Harvesting, when and what to do
How do you keep all your bulbs from getting mixed up? You color code them. Here is a pic from MHG

cleaning bulbs is tedious when you grow thousands of garlic. MHG cleaning a bulb



Chapter 11 Curing, braiding and storing
MHG's garlic hanging to cure

One way to cure garlic if you run out of room in the shed. MHG's pic

oh2fly's Rocco hanging in the wood shed

Found this pic on the net and just had to include it. Nice braids!

Here's a pic of one of MHG's hardneck braids

And another of MHG's softneck braids.

Hey!

Those are great pics, but I wanted more & then realized that this is now! LOL!

I was thinking these were all last year's pics!

Just knock me in the head every now & then to wake me up!

Bonk! How's that feel bean? It's a work in progress. I am only at chapter 4, 8 more to go. Where's your pics, girl? Thanks

okay lisaann, I added it. You can delete the pic if you want.I think you should cut off all the leaves to eat. I heard they were really good
But what do I know, I am just a sissy

Yeah, cut off all the leaves! I am not an idiot! Good grief, don't tell people to cut off thier leaves in December, I want some competition here!

Oh my goodness! How's your weather? Supposed to get something here overnight, but they don't know what! LOL Gees! I predict we get nothing!

lisaann and anybody else, I was kidding about cutting the leaves. Just messing with ya

Thanks Dave...I needed that BONK!

I've been sick since Wednesday & kinda in a fog, but still having to work! I am off Sunday! Yippee!

Yes, lisaann...we are getting hit now...started about 8pm here. Getting alot of nasty snow & blowing...who knows what it'll end up to be!

I just looked outside & don't care to see any more right now...vehicles & roads are covered...can't even SEE the road now...looks like crap!

a bump on a cold winter's day....

Another bump!

I just love lookin' at these pics & am guessing that some of the folks here have missed this!

question,

If I read through all of the 'garlic growing tips' everywhere on this site, I don't seem to find the answer to... how deep and how far apart does one plant the cloves?

Is this very important information hiding someplace? Seems this info should head the list of 'tips'.

hi franeli, you are right. I did find the planting depth in chapter 4, which is the wrong place. I go for an inch of soil above the top of the clove.Some northern growers recommend 2-3" of soil above the clove to help against frost heaving the garlic up and out. If only planted an inch deep, then several inches of mulch is a good idea. I think 8" apart is a good spacing.If you are short on room, some use 5-6" spacing. I will amend the tips to show this better. Thanks for pointing it out. It is important.

This is great!!! THe pictures help a lot!!

A couple questions - If you use leaves that aren't really chopped up, don't they get matted down in a rain or snow?

And in the pic of MHG's neighbor cutting scapes, what is all the green down below? Are they ...weeds?? Isn't that really bad for the garlic?

Just took a look outside yesterday - my garlic is coming up too!! (along with a nice carpet of weeds)

Dave, WE HAVE A WINNER !!!

Green T noticed that I fell behind on my weeding that year. .....um......um....I was validating my organiciness...???? ......no?....ummm.....how about I was trying to hide my cash crop from the Tax Man.....???

You're right G.T. - I fell behind with some untimely spring rains, which put me behind on planting other veggies, which had to take preceedence over weeding when I finally could get back out there. What can I say, it's a one-man operation using organic low-impact practices. Yeah, I know....U're thinkin' "But what about the boy..? " He lives a couple miles away, stops by when he comes by riding his 4-wheeler. I hire him when I can at harvest and planting if I need to. And he has time, as he's active in sports. Good help and an outstanding young man.
Even the Amish have more powered equiptment than I have.....lmao !!!

......and you get a second point in that yes, competeing weed growth is detrementle to bulb swelling. And I'll confess I never did get All the weeds dealt with before it was time to harvest. But ya gotta admit; I can grow some pretty nice weeds as companion plants with my garlic. Garlic wasn't too shabby either.... lol

Here's a tip for the nite: Garlic is user friendly to flame-weeding.....as long as you move your mulch out of the way first.

Wish my garlic was coming up, it's still froze solid out in the patch.

lmao! I never saw those weeds. You are so busted MHG I like the name green T. We should use that now. Good spotting and putting the coach in his place. tee,hee
I don't usually get snow here but both my leaves and straw got matted down by 6 inches of snow this week. That darn ol garlic is still standing though.

Busted..??? for what ? not having a garden so clean it could be a commercial for Round-up?!?....lmao