Comments on: Garlic Basics

By: Penny Li vingston

Penny Li vingston — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:16:37 +0000

Hi Linda,

We have grow great garlic every year. This last year we had a problem with rust and the garlic not head up. We fertilized them more than other years and were careful about the watering. We live on the coast north of San Francisco and there is alot of fog. This hasn’t been a problem in the past…
Any ideas?

Thanks!

Penny

By: Linda

Linda — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:47:49 +0000

The amount of water to apply for garlic in your area will be determined by a couple of factors. How quickly the soil drains and what the temperature is. If your soil is fast draining, you can add up to 50% compost to hold the water. After the soil has cooled, you can add 2-3” of mulch to help hold the moisture, also.

The surest way to know is to visit your garlic periodically and dig down beside some of the cloves. If your cloves are 3-4 inches below soil level, that’s where you want to maintain fairly consistent dampness, not wet, just damp.

From my experience, garlic divides into cloves about the same time the greens begin to dry and its almost time to harvest. If you are growing real garlic, not Elephant, you can enjoy the garlic even if undivided.

Hope this helps,

–
Linda
Nursery Manager, Peaceful Valley

By: Andy Vircsik

Andy Vircsik — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:46:08 +0000

Linda,
I have two questions. We live in central AZ, and don’t get the “winter rains”. How much watering do you suggest? Also, we have found that our garlic often does not form cloves, and becomes one giant clove. Why does this happen? Thanks for your time.

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:29:14 +0000

All garlic, softneck & hardneck, forms scapes, even though different varieties will appear different from each other. Scapes are the flower bulb & top of the stalk where leaves stop forming. Hardnecks have a solid core that grows through the center of the bulb. Softnecks are a gathering of the papery fiber around each clove that meet in the center and remain supple until completely dry, hence can be braided. In either case, once the scape forms, it should be cut off close to the top leaf.

If the scape is left on, the bulb will usually not get as large since energy is going into making seed. The scape will produce a seedhead that looks like a tiny garlic bulb. If this seed is used to grow garlic, the bulbs are generally very small. ‘Seed’ garlic is the actual garlic bulb, separated into cloves to be planted.

Hope I made this clear,
Linda

By: Sandra Kovacs

Sandra Kovacs — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:10:47 +0000

I just read your article about garlic. I have planted for two years with “seed” I got from the farmer’s market. Some of the garlic had “scapes” and some of it did not as they were different types — but which are the hardneck? I heard that the hardneck do not have scapes — but the ones with the scapes were much larger.

Appreciate your time and generosity. Hopefully you will have an answer.