Hi. I bought some garlic to grow but it's on back-order and I've never grown garlic before. I've read some stuff about growing it but what I really need is to read about people that have experience growing it. Thanks in advance.
If you are in the southern half of Oklahoma, your growing conditions shouldn't be all that different from ours. We plant garlic in the fall--late October, early November. It will send up green leaves, then just sit there through the winter. The cloves are spaced about 6" apart because garlic gets big! We fertilize when it goes in, and again in the spring when it starts its second growth spurt. Composted cow manure is our fertilizer of choice, but if you use a commercial fertilizer, use one that is heavier on the middle number (e.g. 5-10-5), phosphorous, which is for root development, and garlic is basically a root. When your garlic is up and growing, we can talk about scapes and when to harvest.
I only grow elephant garlic, so can't speak to other varieties of more traditional garlic. I usually dig, divide replant and harvest in the fall. For me it is treated like a perennial. I even scatter bulbs in my flower beds because I like the flower stalks. Garlic is usually one of the easiest crops to grow and very forgiving.
Jadenz...I am thinking if it is on back order you won't be getting it for this spring to plant. It is generally planted in the fall and harvested when the leaves start to yellow (for us it is around July) and then replanted in Sept-Oct. The best advice I can give you is to get your bed prepared this Summer and keep it as weed free as possible and once you have planted the garlic, mulch it and keep it weed free. I don't think it needs and abundance of fertilizer or much care once it is in the ground. Just keep it weeded and mulched. If it is dry (as in it hasn't rained for a week or two) water it with a soaker hose.
I think that the one of the most important factors is, "how deep to plant them". I plant them ~10 cm deep. It is a well-known thing but still I speak with other gardners on our allotment site and just yesterday there was a lady that called me over to have a look at her stunted garlics. She had just stuck the bottom of the garlic "toe" in the soil and left the other 4/5ths exposed. She said that she didn't know that they were supposed to be planted deep, so she planted them like she planted her onion sets. She may have solid round garlic balls instead of segmented pieces. The jackdaws were already pulling some of them all the way out of the ground. They see the little green leaf bits and perhaps think that they are worms. At any rate, I would suggest to you that you plant them deeply rather than superficially. Carolyn's comments are golden.
I am only about 100 or so miles from Oklahoma border in NE Texas. I plant garlic anytime I have the urge to do it. Spring planting will not make the large divided bulbs but they are to me much sweeter. Heavy leaf mold is best to use for planting.
For big bulbs as others have touched on the best time to plant them is in the fall and cover them with leaves to keep them warm. That is if you are growing a hard-neck(Most Cold-Hardy) variety or possibly soft-neck. The elephant garlic that Jewell touched on is usually(depending on your climate) planted in spring.
Thanks for all the info! I didn't know it's a winter plant so I'm gonna contact them and tell them not to send it till fall. The garlic I have on back order is called Silver Rose garlic. Dunno if that's a good one cause I didn't have enough time to decide when dad placed the order. But it looked like the garlic in the fridge. @ Marlingardener: I'm in central OK but I have 2 friends in Dallas and they always say it's 5-10 degrees colder here. I don't have any composted cow manure so I'll buy some 5-10-5 fertilizer till I learn how to make compost. @ Jewell: I'll be checking out the Elephant garlic. It sounds really awesome. @ Carolyn: Lots of times we don't get any rain for weeks but we do have a soaker hose. @ Sjoerd: I woulda made the same mistake cause I thought garlic needed to be planted shallow like onions. I'll remember to plant them deep. @ Mart: What kind of garlic do you plant in the spring? @ Macbrine: What does hard-neck/soft-neck mean? Is Silver Rose garlic hard-neck or soft-neck? I put all the info in my WordPad plants file so I won't forget. Thanks again!
Jadenz, I plant my garlic about 2" deep and it seems to work well in my soil at that depth. I usually grip the tip of the clove and push it in until my thumb and finger knuckle touch the ground. If you plant it too deep it gets hard to dig when it is ready. I plant my elephant garlic in the Fall. Sometimes I find little "nuts" when I dig the bulbs out. I have replanted those and they take two seasons to mature into a bulb. garlic "nuts" ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden )
I plant whatever the supermarket has. Sometimes I will buy a bulb of garlic for a recipe and have several cloves left so whatever it is goes in the ground. Garlic will sometimes naturalize and multiply. The boy does our yard and sometimes he goes crazy with the weedeater . Its times like those when I have to buy garlic.
Soft neck varieties you can braid and hang, they also have a longer "shelf life". This is the type you most often find in a grocery store. Hard neck varieties grow what is called a scape, which is a flower and will set seed if you leave it. you pick them off to allow the bulb to grow to its maximum size (which depends on water and nutrition). Some people harvest them and use them in cooking.. They taste just like garlic. Use this type shortly after harvest as most varieties don't store for more than a couple months. (mine is on my basement counter and is completely dried out. no earthly good as of now.) you lay out on a screen or boards or something air can circulate around the bulbs, and dry or "cure" for a few days, which depends on the weather. You don't want them to get rained on, so you need to dry them in a barn or garage (I use my greenhouse benches since it is empty then). After the bulbs are pulled you lay them out to dry in a single layer without washing the soil off the bulb. let it dry. Once it is dry and the bulbs are cured you clean the bulb off by brushing off the dirt then cut off the stem and store them. Your "silver rose" variety is a softneck variety.
Thanks for the extra information. A minor accident messed up my plans this spring (couldn't walk for 6 weeks so couldn't plant anything) but I'm back on my feet (yay!) and I will definitely be planting some new Silver Rose garlics this fall. I'm really happy about those garlics being soft necked garlics. Also I really like the "down to the knuckle" planting depth thing. I measured and my knuckle is almost exactly 2". That will be tons easier than using a ruler.
