If you've got really deep mulch, I'd go ahead and pull it off just to let the soil get some warmth though, as Tom says, the garlic will grow through it. My garlic has been happily growing over the last three or so weeks with the night temperatures in the low 20's so yours should laugh at a simple frost.

pull the much back and if some of the sprouts are say 1" tall then it's time to remove then replace the mulch with say 1". if they are not up or just 1/2" i'd wait.

well yes and no - garlic will grow thru mulch the question how much mulch and what type of mulch. i can state based upon last spring there is definately a limit to the thickness and type of mulch garlic can penetrate.

straw is easier to grow thru than shredded leaves, especially wet, packed down shredded leaves. last april 9th i had 6-9" tall plants growing under 6" of wet packed shredded leaves. the plants were growing flat on the ground! i removed all mulch, stood the plants up and replaced just 1" of mulch for weed suppression and they did fine.

this year around 3/15 i checked and by 3/21 i saw that the shoots were 1 - 1 1/2" tall. i removed all mulch (1/2 the bed was 6" of straw and the other 1/2 was 6' of shredded leaves that both packed down to about 4") then put back just 2" of straw. perhaps 1" would have been better but 2" did not stop them from growing. i have 8" tall plants right now.

as far as cold, they've weathered 20 degree nights several times when smaller and above the straw. garlic is very hardy so don't worry about cold. now if it hits 0 or +10 i'm not sure then but 20 did not bother mine here in ct.

another tip - do not water your garlic. i know this sounds nuts cuz onions need 1" per week and i have read that about garlic too but don't do it. if it has not rained for 3 weeks then i'd give them a bit of water otherwise they should be just fine. remember garlic originated on the steppes of siberia which is a hot desert (some deserts are cold like antarctica). i was told this (don't water) by several garlic farmers last summer. some of my garlic got too much water probably due to overlapping when watering the bed and did not turn out as well as others. so go sparingly on the water.

tom

Thanks for the replies. I had a mulch of non-shreaded leaves over my garlic. It varies from just popping out of the ground to 1" in height. I uncovered it yesterday.

I haven't heard that about not watering garlic. I live in a high altitude desert area (Colorado), and if it hasn't rained in a while, I water everything.

Two beds of garlic I mulched with leaves, and two I left alone. Garlic grew just fine in both of them, but the mulched beds started growing later, although they've caught up now. I've had sprouting garlic freeze solid, and it didn't seem to phase it one bit. It thaws out and keeps growing.

So if I understand it correctly, I am going to go plant my garlic today October 8th here in zone 3b. I should plant it, water it, and then cover with 6 inches of straw. Then, in spring I should remove all except 1-2 inches of the straw? How will I know that they are growing? Will they sprout thru 6 inches of straw? I would appreciate anything you can answer. Thank you.

I have never removed the mulch from my garlic. I mulch with at least 8" of shredded leaves, and the garlic always comes up through it. With a mulch that isn't going to form impenetrable mats, I wouldn't worry about removing the mulch in spring. It definitely helps keep the weeds down and garlic is not a very good competitor. By spring your 6" of loose straw is going to be down to about 2" and will be no problem for the garlic to grow through.

Steve

Thanks Steve. I appreciate the advice.

you might be interested to read the post in this blog which has some photos of garlic grown with and without mulch and some interesting comments from other growers of their experiences

Here is a link that might be useful: going to seed blog