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12:32 am
February 3, 2009
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I love a bit of garlic on many dishes. I have some growing this year. My question: (don't laugh. . .I really don't know!) Does the part that you pick grow in the ground like an onion, or from the tips of the leaves? How do you tell when it is ready to pick?
Thanks,
monica
7:35 am
The garlic bulb forms in the ground. When you buy garlic at the market you don't see the green tops because they have already been trimmed off. When you grow garlic, the green tops will dry out and turn brown when the garlic is finished growing. Don't dig up the garlic bulb until that happens. Then dig up the bulbs and spread them out to dry for a day or two in an airy, but not sunny area — the garage floor might be a good place (if you have a garage of course). Properly dried the garlic should store for months in a cool place out of direct sunlight. You can clip off the dried tops, or might even try braiding the tops and hanging the braids in your kitchen (like the expensive ones you can find at the supermarket). It's handy and good looking at the same time.
2:47 pm
February 3, 2009
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Thanks. It was one of those burning questions that REALLY needed an answer. First time trying to grow something is bound to have some questions.
Do you peel any of the outer leaves away after they are done drying, as I would do sometimes with onions?I can't wait to braid them together!!
6:20 pm
December 28, 2008
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We don't peel any of ours.
Also, we remove the blooms from most of the garlic, only leaving enough for next year's crop to mature.
7:12 pm
February 3, 2009
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Okay, now I am confused again! Where does the blossom come out? Near the base where it comes out of the dirt or at the tops? 
8:38 pm
February 8, 2009
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The blossoms will be at the top.
Here is a local site that you may find useful. I have never grown it myself but I do use a lot.
http://www.garlicfarm.ca/growi…..garlic.htm
10:24 pm
I have grown garlic — and sometimes the garlic plant sends up a center stalk with a seed head/flower at the top. I guess it does contain seeds, but I've never seen anyone grow garlic from seed. Usually you plant individual cloves as the seed from which the new garlic bulb grows. Have you ever had a head of garlic that began to sprout because you've kept it too long? You could break those cloves apart, plant them, and grow a new head of garlic from each one. Just plant them with the pointed end up!
10:39 pm
December 28, 2008
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Our garlic is from composted garlic. It came up on it's own, has "flowers" on several stalks/stems of each clump. The flower is actually a collection of very small cloves which can be planted individually. We use them for our next year's crop. But, plants from which those flowers have been removed spend all their energy on bulb production under ground.
There are only about a bazillion or so different varieties of garlic out there! And I only know that what we have is some seriously strong garlic. Yours may or may not do what ours does…
1:22 am
Pete said:
Our garlic is from composted garlic. It came up on it's own, has “flowers” on several stalks/stems of each clump. The flower is actually a collection of very small cloves which can be planted individually. We use them for our next year's crop. But, plants from which those flowers have been removed spend all their energy on bulb production under ground.
There are only about a bazillion or so different varieties of garlic out there! And I only know that what we have is some seriously strong garlic. Yours may or may not do what ours does…
Sounds cool! Can I have some of your garlic to plant? I'd like to give it a try.
10:41 am
September 2, 2008
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My garlic is from plants that someone gave Dad over 40 years ago. It only has a bulb like an onion, not cloves. When it flowers, after the bloom dies off, it has seeds, but I haven't tried planting them. I just pull up some of the plants and leave some in the ground and they have never died out.
11:47 am
December 28, 2008
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WV_Hills said:
Sounds cool! Can I have some of your garlic to plant? I'd like to give it a try.
Sure! I'll let you know when we have seed cloves. (or whatever they are called!)
12:19 pm
Just wondering, if you planted a clove from a store bought garlic pod, would it grow? Is that what starts a plant?
12:36 pm
December 28, 2008
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That's exactly where mine came from, G! We noticed it coming up in an old compost pile years ago, from some discarded garlic. No idea what variety (is grocery store bin a real kind of garlic?), what stage it was at when it decided to grow, when it was "planted," or if it may have reverted back to it's species as I suspect that it did because we have never tasted any garlic quite like this.
9:13 pm
February 3, 2009
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I am glad someone else can get stuff to grow ON the compost heap–I can't get a tomato seed to sprout to save my life out in the actual garden, but the ones that get piled up in the fall that end up getting dumped over the hill–sprout like crazy!
This year, I have pumpkin and squash there too!
So garlic likes mulch and rich soil? I am glad I asked! Thanks everyone!
8:08 am
August 16, 2009
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I know this thread is a little old, but it's been very helpful to me, as I am growing garlic this year also. I'm just wondering though, how long does it "normally" take before time to harvest them? Mine have been planted since about mid April or so. They sprouted shoots just fine and those are beginning to die off and turn brown, although, not totally dead and brown, still right much green on them. I dug one up about a week or so ago, and it was nothing more than just a small bulb of garlic. Have I done something wrong? Also, can I continue to plant and grow it throughout the winter? I'm using a plastic tote to grow them, and our winters are not usually extreme.
1:34 am
June 29, 2010
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As mentioned, there are different varieties of garlic. The ones I grow are small. Very small. The elephant garlic can get quite large. It just depends on the variety of garlic you have.
6:19 pm
February 10, 2009
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Garlic planted in the spring will probably be quite small. You can plant it right after the first hard frost, or even later depending on where you are, all the way up to new years… but later usually means messier ground to work in, and don't forget to mark it really well so you don't plow it up in the spring!
OH, and you probably only want to plant the nice large cloves from a bulb you break apart. Small cloves mean small heads at harvest.
8:08 pm
February 3, 2009
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I started some from that I bought at the local garden center this spring since the stuff I tried last year didnt do anything. so much for starting from the grocery store. . .
I planted one whole head that I broke into individual cloves. I made a big pot of spaghetti and it tasted pretty good. I can't wait to make sauce and salsa to can. Mine never did blossom, though. Does that mean that I should have left it in the ground til next year? I already planted more in the general area where I just pulled the red onions.
1:55 pm
August 30, 2010
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I'm not really a garlic growing master, but I do grow garlic successfully. Here is a wonderful website that has everything you ever wanted to know about garlic. http://wegrowgarlic.com/301.html I'm not affiliated with them in any way, except that a friend of mine shared his garlic with me and he bought his first bulbs from these folks.
You'll see it all on there, but this is just to say that I plant my garlic in late summer/early fall. They grow under the ground all winter long. They will be the first green in your garden in spring. By late spring, they've made their scapes (flower heads) – which are edible — and after that the green part of the garlic starts to die back. When it gets down to one or two "leaves", the garlic is ready to dig. I had some challenges last spring with the postman taking shortcuts through my garden even after I asked him not to, and he killed several plants. I put small wire tomato cages there as a barrier and that made it worse; he apparently didn't see them and got tangled up, bent them all up and stomped on even more of my plants. I missed seeing that and only deduced it from the evidence. Now that I've moved and am in more of a country setting, my postman doesn't even get out of his car.
You can let the garlic go to seed and plant the seed, but it's just best to separate the cloves from one of the best heads and plant those cloves. HTH –Ilene
10:40 pm
June 29, 2010
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Thanks for that link! It was one of those sites that you start looking at and before you realize it, it's been 45 minutes already!
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