O.K. veggies are not my forte, however, I think I have a way to convince my garlic into having more than one season in one season. Confused? Read on. We live in the shade of 60 or so oak trees, I count myself lucky we got a rhubarb pie(thank you Carolyn) out of the patch created by a donation from our local rhubarb grower. I do not count the potatoes that produce green stuff all summer long as the potatoes usually turn out to be the size of a radish. Back to the garlic..... Sorry, I just can not tell a short story........garlic...........a few weeks ago my wife presented me with some garlic that was sprouting green things at one end. In the past this has indicated that garlic be put on the grocery list and on to the compost heap. O.K. half done. This time I decided to pot the sprouting cloves in a container with some potting soil. The cold rainy wet late spring and early summer has not been a veggie growers paradise much less produce something respectable for the cooking pot. The sprouts grew and started new garlic.....goodie I thought.....Life was short lived as the leaves turned brown and wilted. Now I have these garlic fit for the table of a Lilliputian. A eureka moment....Put the garlic in the refrigerator and make it think it is winter. Then after a suitable period of 'winter" put the garlic into the pot and have it start season 2. ??? Thoughts anyone? Jerry moderator's note: moved topic to more appropriate forum
For me, fall planting seems to give my hard neck garlic the time to grow feet and the bulb fills out in the spring. I'm not sure there is a way to jump over the time this allium family needs to do both. Maybe there is, but somehow I think your just going to get smaller bulbs. garlic will cheerfully grow in flower beds and other nontraditional spots. My guess is, if you need more garlic, plant out more cloves. or let one or two fill out their scape and plant them (a two year deal) to make a fuller multiplication for future cropping.
Have you ever tried elephant garlic? It seems to like my shady yard and even grows at the base of some of the fruit trees. I treat it like a perennial flower and grow it in my flower beds.
Jerry, I have not much input other than to just put out more cloves to grow into bulbs. Garlic really needs more time to grow than what i think you are going to give it. usually you put it out in the fall so the roots can develop over the winter and harvest it close to the solstice. if you plant in the spring you will get much smaller bulbs. you can replant those cloves that are sending up a shoot and get another bulb from them eventually. and you are welcome for the rhubarb pie recipe?, but it you are giving the wrong person credit, I think, unless you are refering to the harvesting of the stalks. In that case you are welcome
Elephant garlic, thanks Jewell. I wonder if I can find them in the produce aisle. That is where I usually harvest my veggies. My garlic experiment is in progress, winter will be a week of cold followed by freezing temperatures followed by cold then spring. I suppose my refrigerator weather isn't any weirded than last winter. In the mean time one garlic clove with greenery marches on while the other two think about finding blankets. One never knows unless one tries. Jerry P.S. Yes, the twist and pull method......I never would have done that otherwise.
