Newbie Garlic Questions

 

I planted some garlic in October and it is growing beautifully. Now
however it looks inclined to flower. What do I do? Dig it all up? I
pulled one up and it looks good, but what do I do with it now? Can I use
it straight away? Does it have to be dried?

Heather
Scottish Borders

 

wrote:


It will be starting to die back by now anyway.  many's the time I've
left garlic too long and the tops disappear totally and then the bulbs
are hard to find!
I'd harvest them now.  You CAN replant some cloves now, or in October.

Pam in Bristol

 



Assuming it's a hardneck type, the "flower" stalks usually should be cut
off to put more energy into the bulb.
Are the leaves starting to turn brown?  As another reply said, you should
dig/pull (with my soil, it's DIG) when about half the tops have browned, to
preserve good wrappers on the bulb (this layer is the bottoms of the
leaves).
As for planting, I can't speak much for Scotland (though I wish I could;
some of the family tree has roots there), but in the northeastern U.S. the
rule of thumb is to plant 6-8 weeks before the ground freezes.  The idea is
for the cloves to make root growth but little or not top growth to be
winter damaged at the cost of energy.

Hope this makes some sense....


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G