What did I do wrong?

18 years ago

Hi all. I am a relatively new gardener. I wanted to try growing garlic this spring without knowing all that much about it. So I bought a bulb of garlic at the supermarket, split it up and planted it. This was probably in May sometime. All of them sprouted and grew but in the last couple weeks stopped growing and the leaves are dead on the ground after only growing to about 14 to 16" and about pencil thin. Last night I dug one up and found what looked like a small onion about the size of a quarter. I cut it open and it had a very strong smell of onion. Apart from planting supermarket garlic....What did I do wrong? Thanks.

Comments (5)

Nelz
18 years ago
It's not so much that you did something wrong. It's more like maybe there's not a complete understanding of garlic growing.

Quick synopsis:

Garlic is planted in the fall (Oct-Nov in the NE).
It establishes itself (roots) and does very little growing over winter. Winter shoots are not uncommon.
In the spring it wakes up early and sends up shoots and grows a plant.
Sometime in late May to early June, plant stops growing, bulb formation starts.
Sometime in July the leaves starting dying back, bottom to top, tip to stem.
Pick and cure in July. Use some for seed stock in October, enjoy eating the rest.

That is such an oversimplification it isn't funny.

Anyway, you can spring plant, but you get much smaller bulbs. Harvest is still the same. Everyone's cue is a bit different, but I tend to pick mine when about 50% of the leaves are dead.

So, you spring planted garlic and thus the bulbs will be smaller. The dying and flopping over plant is normal, you just needed to pick it sooner.

For this year I would recommend the following:
Find some good seed garlic, as it's called. Skip the grocery store variety, and I'll leave it at that. Some seed catalogs sell garlic, there are garlic only catalogs, and it's also available numerous places on the web. Another place might be a local farmer's market. Be sure to pick large bulbs.

Keep visiting this board. Read old posts and learn some of the nuances.

Prepare your garlic bed this summer and fall, then when the time is right plant it, mulch it, let it go for winter.

Then in spring, treat it like any other garden plant. Keep it weeded and watered. Once leaves start dying back and you get to 50% (or there abouts) pick it. Hang it out of the sun where there is some air movement, and out of the rain, and let it cure a few weeks.

Save some to plant next fall, and enjoy the rest.

I'd recommend Getting a few garlic catalogs (request them on-line) as they have lots of good growing info. One of my favorites is the Filaree Farms catalog. Hopefully others will chime in on this.
johnCT
Original Author
18 years ago
That is a very informative reply. Thanks very much. Like I said, I didn't know all that much about it. :) Taking a quick look I see that Johnny's sells seed garlic. Can anyone suggest a few varieties that will perform well in CT? Thanks.
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mindsmile
18 years ago
John
garlic should smell like garlic no matter when its pulled out.I think somethings amiss there.Did you try a nibble from the stem if any were found green?How about the small bulbs?did you peel and eat 1?You cut 1 open but did you taste?Sometimes I have to sniff more than once because the smell of the soil seems to hide the garlicky smell for awhile especially on dried leaf/bulbs that I have pulled.
you may want to plant a few back and see if they will acclimate to your zone.
They weren't Elephant garlic by any chance?
Bill
coho
18 years ago
John,
It really depends a great deal on what your weather is like. This winter was never cold and only a few frosts. My garlic planted around 1st of November, once up, never stopped growing. by the time many of you folks were just seeing green tips, mine was 12 to 16" tall.
I planted a few Elephant cloves in May and April to fill in some blanks (my pet gopher) and they only lasted a little longer that the fall planted garlic and made rounds as small as 3/4" dia. Some of the May cloves made small irregular shaped heads with individual cloves.
My conclusion is that neither day length nor how cold is gets has anything to do with at least most garlic. But when it gets really hot, the plants stop growing and dry up.
johnCT
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks for the replies. Nope, I didn't try to taste it at all. Just cut it open and smelled it. Can't say that it didn't smell like garlic, but it was a very pungent odor. The weather here has been very unusual this spring. It was very cold here all spring and then we vaulted into the hot weather almost like there wasn't even a spring at all. Well, anyway. It seems as though it was a combination of things on my part that led to the failure. No big deal. Just a learning experience. One of the many that I will have I'm sure. I'm gonna pick myself up some good seed garlic to plant come Oct.

What varieties should I try first? Are there any easier or fool-proof kinds?