Well, since its not my livelyhood I decided I can't be bothered about worrying how my garlic is. Since mine are in an elevated bed, it freezes throughout very easy so I figured it would not even be worth the effort to cover them. I will just hope for the best. Supposed to be a heatwave here on Thursday, upper 50's!

Hi Alex,

Good luck and come back often.

I'll put you on the Compiling a list of Garic growers. Another thread on New Gardener Forum, Page 1, first Post.

I lost some garlic. Decided it was just way too much top growth, this winter. And now all this horrible cold, Well, anyway, welcome!

Haven't seen hide nor hair of my garlic ... yet. However, just for the record, I went to a talk tonight by a woman who runs an herb farm a couple hours from here. She says put garlic out in mid-September around here. So I think I planted mine a wee bit too late. Will try again next fall. September.

Well, time for a cup of coffee and my garlic update....

The field looks much better this morning after yesterday's light foliar feeding, which took all day since my favorite sprayer crapped out on me. The little one just took alot more trips back to refill. And although I have alot of grey/white 8" frost bit leaves waving in this mornings breeze, atleast they are upright and waving. And as long as they are upright, I know they are still okay underground. Sure was prettier when it was a green field tho as opposed the silver looking one I have now. My guess is that in a couple months when the scapes start showing, it's gonna look like it got a really bad haircut, choppy and uneven, with brown highlights.

Ladies and gentlemen - Please don't count your garlics down and ready for Taps to be played over them. Your garlic grows up from the bulb as opposed to the leaf tip elongating. A good rain and a couple warm days, you should start seeing new green growth. Pull your mulches back a bit from the rows so the the sun can be heating the soil around them, do a moisture check while you're there on your knees, maybe even genuflec if you're so inclined.

Liz - as you're that much farther north than I am, mid-Sept. is a good target date, but try to keep an eye on the projected weather forcasts at that time. Perfect timing would be 3-4 weeks before your ground freezes hard.
And you might not be seeing your garlic yet simply because it's a late-emerging variety. All my varieties were planted one right after the other, basicly over a two week period late last Oct., but they emerged at diff. times this spring, so you will see quite a variation in the amount of top-growth I have out there right now.

Another thing to maybe to be looking at is that if anyone lives in the northern zones, and you don't think your plants are standing up well under the stresses of this "late" cold snap, look for cold-hardy varieties to plant in the Rocambole or Continental families. Not all garlics perform well in every zone, if you can, look for your seed stock from a grower who lives in your zone AND region. When I started out, I sourced mine with a criteria of upper-midwest, thus guarenteeing that I got varieties that were optimum for my area. A now defunct company by the name of Dakota Garlic was my best source at that time. Unfortunately a nasty soybean mold hit them hard two years ago and put them out of the garlic business. I guess what I'm saying in a nutshell is that store bought garlic isn't a guarentee that it's a garlic that likes your weather/soil climates and will preform well for you.

........well, looks like my cup is empty, time to head out to my "office" and watch my children grow.....

I finally got a chance to go out and see if there was any damage from the cold snap this past week. It seems like the garlic came through it fine. Still upright and green We'll see how it does when it get warmer this weekend.

Thank you for the useful information! I took the time to look at things this morning and got a very pleasant surprise.My spring planted gerlic that had just spiked thru the ground before this cold snap hit has actually grown to 2 leaves both a couple inches tall now.And my 2 week old planting of shallots have broken thru the ground also and is green still!
The more experience I gain the more I realize I still have alot to learn.Almost 20 yrs. playing around gardening and mother nature still takes me to school every day and tries to teach me something.

I planted garlic we got from a farmer's market in Minnesota. Presumably had been grown nearby. Hopefully they're still down there thinking things over. If not, ok. It was an experiment in the first place, after all.

Liz,
has your soil thawed? i think it takes awhile until you see the garlic sprout once the soil is totally thawed.
my soil is still frozen solid.

Ok maybe you folks can help me with a garlic question. I managed to lose the names of the 2 varieties I planted. Not that it matters too much, but I don't know if I planted hardneck or softneck varieties. From some articles I've read it seems that the harvest times may be different. Also, one has scapes that need to be cut off and one doesn't?

So, first, does anyone know if it really matters weather I planted hard or soft neck varieties.
And Secondly, is it too early too tell by looking? - Here I will attempt to insert a photo or two...




Thanks for any input...


Hmmm...not sure why those pics are so small...I'll be back if I can figure it out...

Ok - think I got this photo thing nailed down...

Delta Rose, I like your pics.

Now I want to bring something to everyones attention:

In case you only come here once in a while to this thread:

MooreHaven Garden has provided useful information on this thread since the FIRST PAGE, and I don't want anyone missing any of the posts.

This is very important. Don't read the last couple of posts on the last page, and think that is all there is here. YOU WILL BE WRONG!

IF YOU ARE REALLY INTERESTED IN GARLIC AND HOW IT GROWS:

Please go back to the beginning, (like I love to do) and read and enjoy!

Okay:

I'm done! Thanks!

......dammit, Lisaann....everytime you brag me up like that I gotta go and buy all new hats as my old and comfortable one's seem to be too small now....hahahha !!! ( ...and thanx fer the Gold Star on my report card )

DeltaRose - don't matter to me what you planted. Hahaha!! And yes, it's too early for me to tell from your pictures which is which. I could guess, but I once lost alot of money in Vegas that way. You'll know soon enough when they start scaping. And when you start cooking with them you'll know as your hardnecks will have the hard "stem" in the middle of them. Also, softnecks for the most part have their cloves multi-layered and smaller, where the hardnecks are usually one ring of large cloves. Nice photos, btw.
Your harvest times aren't so much about a "date", but more about "prime ripe". Watch your leaves, they will tell you when to dig it up. (dig - key word there, I can't stress it enough )
Cutting your scapes - stroll back up thru this post, I rambled on about it earlier. I think if I was to make a recomendation, it would be that if you've never seen garlic go thru a full "natural" life cycle, go ahead and let it. It will give you a bit of knowledge as to what garlic does. DO CUT the "seed heads" (bulbils) AFTER they have opened so you can see the type of flower they have, but BEFORE they start dropping seed, you really don't want all those volunteers next year if you are trying to keep your varieties seperated.

Well, time to refill my coffee and head for the greenhouse. ( and why does everybody laugh when they see I painted the outside of it Floresent KeyLime Green....?? Just because you can see it from 20 miles away, what's wrong with that? )

Such a nice day to be out in the dirt today, I finished getting my leeks planted. And to think they got a foot of snow south of me..........

I'm wishing the grass around the field wasn't so green, then the yellowing of my garlics ( cold stress ) wouldn't be so damned noticeable. I'm just glad the new growth is greener.

We are getting hit with more $hitty , cold weather here & I didn't re-cover my garlic, so it's on it's own!

........the power of positive thoughts, Sprout.....positive thoughts....

Yup...the positive thoughts worked!

Just a little wet snow & rain...no major catastrophe!

All melted now & looking for higher temps this weekend!

A little sun starting Thursday & up in the 60's Sat. & Sun!

WOO-HOO!