Jeff I don't know if you did anything wrong. All I can say is; I have four varieties of bulbing onions plus Leeks and none of them are brown or ready to harvest.

I'm so glad you asked this question because I had the exact same experience with the garlic I planted in the fall. It grew beautifully, developed extensive roots, the tops started to die back...and I basically harvested the exact same cloves that I planted. I'd love to know what I did wrong, or if there is a specific variety of garlic that grows well here that I should look for this coming fall.

I went to the Gilbert farmer's market a couple weekends ago and bought absolutely gorgeous locally grown garlic, so I know it can be done, I just don't seem to know the secret!

I don't have a lot of experience growing onions and zero experience growing garlic. tracydr has a good thread on garlic in the Allium Forum.

As per what I have learned about onions its more about planting and early fertilizing and watering and full sun. I planted onion plants. They are supposed to be planted 1" deep with the green part sticking up. I added a little 21-0-0 to the soil and tilled it in before planting. Once they started putting on new growth I mulched them. They are on a drip system and get watered a little every day. When they start bulbing the bulb will expose itself to some extent because they are not planted very deep. As the tops start dieing off I cut back on the watering. When the top looks completely dead I stop watering all together and pull them about a week later and start the curing process.

I have Potato Onions too but their planting is different as they start as bulbs.

My garlic has done great. I've just used lots of horse manure and plenty of water. I started with grocery store garlic. This year I'm going to try some fancier types of soft necks and maybe Creoles, purchased from southern farms so that I know they can grow in heat.
Make sure to start with large cloves and give them plenty of enough room. I also give mine some side dressings of fertilizer like chicken manure and alfalfa several times, plus a few sprays of fish emulsion and kelp.

Tracydr, did you do anything to chill the garlic first, or is it simply a matter of lots of water (probably a good part of my problem) and good fertilizer? Did you have yours planted in full sun as thisisme suggests?

I actually cut into one of my harvested "cloves" to make garlic bread for supper and discovered it had a small second clove developing on it, so it was at least making an effort.

There's nothing like fresh grown garlic, and I'd so love to get a handle on growing my own.

I just stuck it in the ground. It got a moderate amount of water, I had the peas and lettuce in the same are.
You can take this years that didn't form bulbs and replant them in October. You should get much bigger ones that way.

Interesting. Next dumb question: how do you store them for the fall?

I think next year, assuming I get as much garlic as I hope to, I may make a bunch of garlic powder by dehydrating. I've heard that homemade garlic powder is so much better than store-bought. That way, I'll have something quick and easy when I don't feel like chopping and still enjoy our garlic for a much longer period of time. The other thing I do and would do more of if I had the space is to chop and freeze with a bit of olive oil, with or without chopped basil.

I peel and freeze the cloves whole, but that's just a few bulbs at a time -- I don't know what I'll do if I ever get a really successful crop, but I like the idea of homemade garlic powder!

I picked my first onion of the season today. Its a Texas Super Sweet. Its going to be used in a sauce for spaghetti sauce and lasagna sauce. The rest will be diced and frozen for later use.

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