I planted garlic last October after reading the garlic grower information here. I have one variety of soft neck, Kettle River (artichoke). It began falling over today and the bottom few "leaves" are dead. After reading up on the soft necks, I thought that meant it would be ready to harvest. However, I dug one of them up and the bulb is very, very small. Can you give me some advice here?

On a brighter note, the hard neck garlics (3 kinds) look really good and are at least 3' tall. The scapes are starting, though they aren't nearly as big as the ones in David's photos!

Thank you! Barb

I think it's too early to be thinking about softneck harvest yet, I think you have something else going on. Got pictures...?

Barb!

Where in the world have you been! We had a post going looking for ya! Yeah, post a pic and catch us up on the news!

It is too early to harvest garlic. I don't harvest mine until mid June to July.

How much rain have you had? I thihk your state is still under "drought conditions" so maybe you need to water. But I never pull up garlic until after it has flowered/multipled at the roots.

I actually like to let my garlic stay in the ground for 2-3 years before harvesting.. Now others here may have more experience.

But I tell everyone.. I don't have an herb bed.. I have an herb yard. So I landscape with herbs, especially garlic.. Garlic is the one thing that "ground ivy", Virginia Creeper, and honey suckle" can't crowd out!

quote:

Garlic is the one thing that "ground ivy", Virginia Creeper, and honey suckle" can't crowd out!

Gee, I wonder if Garlic would hold its own against
^&^*^(*$#@%ing Yarrow!

If so, I'll cover my plot with it.

ellen

Garlic won't I am sorry to say. But, my DD has a very nice collection of Japanese Knotweed she would gladly send you. I guarantee it can hold it's own with any invasive

I'm sorry I've been such a poor message board participant these past few months. I have been swamped at work and kind of overwhelmed with trying to keep up the yard and garden. Do y'all ever get that way? I just can't keep up and it is depressing.

I can't post a photo of my fallen garlic, but we had 40MPH winds yesterday and all the soft neck garlic blew over. All the hard neck looks great. Our drought is much improved and we had 5" of rain in the past week. Perhaps going from dry to drowning made it fall over? So here's my question of the day. Can I just leave it and hope it'll keep growing even though it is on the ground? It is definitely not ready to dig up. Thanks, all!

david,
ill put my yarrow against your knotweed and raise you a peppermint.
lol
actually I've got knotweed too.