Is my garlic dead?

11 years ago

I planted Inchelium Red cloves last fall and they sprouted long green stems pretty quickly. Over the winter, all of the stems turned brown and pretty much fell off. Did my garlic die, or does this usually happen?

Thanks for the help, this is my first attempt at growing.

Rob

Comments (7)

wertach zone 7-B SC
11 years ago
Most Likely its fine, be patient!
stevelau1911
11 years ago
Are they still firm at the bottom?

It is quite normal for many of my garlic plants to die back, and turn brown, but since the cloves are well protected, they always sprout back with warmer weather.

Here's a nice picture showing my garlic coming right back after getting fried through the winter.
robwaxman
Original Author
11 years ago
No, they are not firm on the bottom. The stalks are completely flattened and nothing has sprouted again. Ill take a picture later today to show you.
wertach zone 7-B SC
11 years ago
Uh Oh, that doesn't sound too good. But scratch around one or two and check the bulb. If it's still firm you may be OK.
stevelau1911
11 years ago
It might be due to too much moisture in the ground, or your variety of garlic might not be that hardy. Some varieties of garlic tend to just rot away for me as well, but I have figured out over the years which ones are basically guaranteed to produce a nice big bulb over the years and not rot away.
erikarochelle
11 years ago
I also planted Inchellium Red, but mine has come back with a vengeance. I planted it in October and none of it really died back. I hope yours comes back--the Inchellium Red was the clear winner of our garlic taste-off last fall.

Alright, stevelau1911, you know you have to share now, right? No fair teasing. You have to name the varieties.
stevelau1911
11 years ago
For the softnecks, I use the Asian store bought artichoke garlic which has a purple like tinge. I grow them because of their versatility to be able to grow to a decent size almost anywhere with no fertilization, and basically no chance of rotting away as I have some immersed in water almost all winter.

For the hard necks, I have been growing German red and Music garlic which have both performed very consistently producing very large cloves regardless of the size of the bulb, but generally, no more than 6 cloves are produced on these. I've tried others such as Selvitta sunset, Siberian, and Polish, but these produced comparably weaker so I discontinued them.

This fall, I'm trying a Georgian Fire, and silverskin this year as they might have a nice strong taste.

Overall, I think if you were to go with 1 species, I would suggest German Red as it produces nice big bulbs consistently, has a strong enough flavor, doesn't die off over winter, and its bulbils on top grow to a decent size which helps in propagation.