polly, I tried growing lots of garlic one year and had marginal results. I'm planning to try again this fall/winter. I sent an email to Bob Anderson at Gourmet Garlic Gardens, where I bought the seed garlic, about the small size bulbs I harvested. Here's his reply.

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If you can plant the biggest cloves from the biggest bulbs in October into good garden soil and keep the plants watered often enough that they dry out maybe a little between waterings but not completely, that will go a long way to increasing size of the resultant crop, especially if they are harvested at the right time for each bulb of each cultivar. That's the key. Another secret of larger bulbs is not to use a lot of high nitrogen fertilizer as that tends to build lush green leaves at the expense of bulb size.

Don't overwater them or keep them wet as that can invite fungus and nematodes.

From this and our prior correspondence it sounds to me that you harvested too soon. It's a good idea to dig down and check out the size of the bulbs as they develop and mature. Sizewise, it's better to err on the side of leaving them in the ground a little too long than harvesting them too soon. Instead of harvest them all at once only pull those that are ready and leave the others to continue to grow. Even bulbs that have no green leaves left and no bulb wrappers will store 5-6 months if there are no pest or pathogen infestations although bulbs with a few intact bulb wrappers will store much longer. It's a matter of developing a feel for it with time. Rookies are expected to make mistakes, I certainly did. The more we grow the more we learn and the better we and our garlic get with time.
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I doubt you harested too early but perhaps the watering was off. Here's a link to their site, lots of good info there.

HTH. Mary

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Garlic

Hey guys, I m from new zealand. I been planting red onions couple season now and I this is my second seasons planting garlics. Last year was big success for me with garlics but this year is different story. I plants lot of garlics this year, it's been almost 7 months in the ground now, leaves start to go brown on the top so garlics look weak and look like ready to harvest. When i go remove the soil I was shock that a lot of my garlics as no bulbs. I think I gave my garlics to much food and also my soil a bit dry sometime as I m not around all the time to water it, but i m not sure if this is the reason. If any of you guys have good tips for me to prevent my garlics have no bulbs again next time please drop me a message

This post was edited by Teslynz on Sun, Dec 30, 12 at 18:43

What does your garlic 'problem' have to do with the link? Methinks you're sneaking in a little advertising. That's a no-no Chica. Since this is a public forum, best practice is for others to reply to your post rather than email you privately, this way it's a group learning experience. Nice try but I really think it's a sneaky business you've got here.

I agree with the above advice, but since I grow and sell garlic in Central Arizona I feel that you should plant in October and harvest when you have only 4-5 leaves left that are still green. This should be around late May or early June. I would not leave it in the ground after that as it invites different bugs and so forth. I also plant all cloves and find that I get good growth out of even the smaller cloves. Like I say the bigger cloves give you bigger bulbs, but it that really an issue when the rest are of acceptable size. When I deliver orders, each bag comes with various sizes of bulbs in the bag and I have yet to have anyone complain. It also helps me to keep my costs down with less rejected product.

I live in yuma ,and have sandy soil.
Triple super phosphate is a root builder.You can find it at most nurseries.
I use it on my garlic,radishes,carrots and any plant i want to be healthy.
It binds with iron so add ironite and epson salt[magnesium].
It works for me.
I also use compost tea.
good luck to all,and happy new year.