Just dug all this up! about 160 bulbs in all. nom nom nom. soon comes the berries. That's the most exciting time of the year.
Ah, I have been waiting for the leaves to die down before harvesting mine (just bulbs that started growing on the shelf). I guess I will have to go back and read how to grow garlic! How much space did that lot take up in the ground? How did you chose the variety?
I get the bulbs from diggers .. I get most of my seeds from there. i can't even remember why i picked those ones. i got them like 4 years ago, and have just been replanting the left overs every year. That lot took up an area of about 1.5 x 3 m planted quite thickly. I probably could have waited until the leaves died off more, but they had started dying a bit. and the room was needed forcapsicums and chillies
Ohhh, That's a cute little stack. I just pulled about 6000 of them. When did you plant? I planted on the march equinox.
wow, 6000! with the lot I've got, I can eat heaps give heaps away, and have heaps left over to plant.. I'm gunna go out on a limb and guess you grow to sell? I can't remember the exact date they went in, I always miss the moon cycles. plus I've got a terrible memory in general. but some time mid / late April I think. maybe it was a little later. wasn't sure how everything would go since the whole yard was under 2ft of water a few months ago but the water did it good and now it's booming.
i grew some garlic this year but the few i have pulled uo so far look more like an onion that like a bulb oh well .. guess better soil needed for next year
You need to leave them longer, yet still even that might not help if the planting timing was out. Most varieties are day length sensitive. (One reason they are grown at more northerly and southerly latitudes in the world. Closer to the equator the day and night lengths are too similar all year) That's why you plant around the autumn equinox. After the spring equinox (sept) they sense the period of daylight is getting longer than the period of darkness and this is their trigger to start bulbing up. This factor is by far more critical than age of garlic. I planted a few of my left over small cloves about 8 weeks later than my main patch and they all commenced bulbing at the same time, the later ones being tiny of course. I eat those ones like shallots. Then you get hot weather and they really shut down. The more above ground vegetative growth you can get the bigger the bulb. All that energy goes to storage in the bulb. Also big cloves make bigger bulbs when planting out. During growth the biggest concern is weeds. They cannot compete against weeds and yields will suffer greatly if weeds are not attended to.
If u want ur bulbs to sprout,paper bag in fridge for a few days should get it hem going,in tassie for best results plant around may/June. That's the purple garlic. Some great tips above,cheers!!