I need to pick your brains about growing Garlic : )

Toni, we have grown garlic for years, and it is one of those wonderful hard-to-kill, takes care of itself plants.
Your raised bed filled with compost and garden soil will be fine. We have our garlic directly in the ground with our blackland prairie gumbo, and it does great.
I store garlic in mesh bags in the pantry. Believe me, it isn't all that cool in there! Even if your garlic starts to sprout a bit, it is still very plantable--you just got a head start on growing it!
Refrigerators are in the proper cool range, it's the humidity that hurts garlic bulbs. They tend to mold. Moldy garlic is not something you want to smell.
We plant ours in mid-Oct. so Oct. 8 ought to be perfect for you. Don't overwater--the garlic is going to sprout little green leaves like onions, and then just sit there until it really takes off in the spring. If the ground is too moist the cloves rot. We water thoroughly at planting, and then give the bed an inch a week if it doesn't rain.
Don't plant too deep, and put a nice 3"-4" layer of mulch over your garlic. Weeding a garlic bed is difficult--the cloves hang on to the weed roots, and vice versa.

 

as long as your garlic stays dry and 70 to 75 degrees or so it will be fine. i have had it in a bowl in my kitchen for a month or more and still grew great. don`t know why they tell you all that stuff when it just gets everyone confused. only reason you want to wait till cooler weather to plant is so it won`t start growing too early then have a die back on the top part when it really gets cold. it won`t kill it but it needs to develop a good root system before the top part starts growing. i have planted garlic all during the summer and still it grows fine if watered. during drought it will kind of go dormant till rains start, then it will start growing after you think its dead. some types will also naturalize in Texas and you may wind up with more garlic than you know what to do with in a few years. just curious but why didn`t you just buy the bulbs at the market? they are cheaper and grow same as all the others.

 

Toni, I don't "store" my garlic in any special environment. As a matter of fact I left it in a basket all winter long in my basement and I just tossed what I didn't use over the winter, and I could have used some of that this summer, but I didn't and it finally dried up. Your garlic will be fine until you get it planted.

Did you buy soft neck so you could braid it? I haven't grown any soft neck, only hard neck so far.

When you plant it do keep it weeded though. It will do much better for you and you won't have to look so hard for it. This year I am going to try an organic weed inhibitor after the cloves have been in the ground for a while and hopefully again I will remember to do it in the spring. I hate weeds! This year I am battling that nasty mile a minute weed close to my garlic bed

 

Storing garlic

We have grown garlic for several years and always keep it in a net bag after it dries and the stems have been cut to about 1 to 2 inches. The bags oranges are sold in work well. Also onions, grapefruit, etc are sold in these bags.
We place the dried garlic in the bag and tie a string around the top, then loop the tie over the end of a curtain rod. Depending on one's decorating ideas, I think it looks great. Sort of homey. ;>)
Its time to plant next year's crop, so I will soon be digging a few rows of soil. Its important to water it regularly until cold weather. I think I may scatter straw around it this year.

 

Garlic

I'll just answer my own post.
I planted three rows of lovely, purple, Italian garlic this morning. It may be early, but I am determined to not plant with frozen hands this year.

 

Did the garlic form scapes? or is it soft neck? we pull ours in July. I suggest pulling one and see what it looks like. use a trowel to loosen around the one so you don't disturb the rest too much.

 

Toni, your garlic looks great! Harvesting is generally done in June around here. Since you are north of us, you may harvest in late June. You can tell because some of the green leaves start to turn yellow and flop over.
When you harvest, pull the garlic or dig it carefully, leave the greenery on, and hang it in a place out of direct light but with good air circulation. When the paper on the garlic gets dry and starts to separate from the bulbs, and when the greenery is completely dry, you can start using your garlic. Store it in a dark spot with low humidity (good luck with that in Texas!). Save your largest cloves to replant in the fall.


Onions drying in barn ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )

If you look at the smaller bulbs hanging on the right, those are garlic. Depending on the humidity and temperature, the garlic usually dries within 4-6 weeks.
California softneck is a great garlic!

 

Toni please do not forget to post photos of your harvest. Your garlic looks great and is making me wanting to try again.

 

Based on your photo of your garlic. Let your tops of garlic brown up and fall over more. Pick them then.

 

I use some of mine as I need it straight from the ground. Has a nice mild flavor.

 

Mart, I'm going to try "straight from the ground". I'd never thought to do that--thanks for the tip!

 

Flavor developes and gets stronger as they dry. When fresh its a milder taste and you can chop like a spring onion !!