I was fortunate to have a woman call me and ask if I wanted a bag full of garlic for the food pantry. When she brought it down what she had was a bag full of seed garlic and scapes…
Her mother told her to plant garlic in everything to keep bugs off. Boy can I tell she has a lot of garlic! I gleaned the scapes and cut off the green leaves leaving me 1 gallon of small “bulbs”.
My question is I’ve been telling people to take it and they could use it in cooking now if they wanted to. But it’s a little single bulb – baby garlic – from seeding itself I assume.
Can I plant this now despite it’s not spring or fall? I’ve been thinking I have nothing to lose and dove in. I just don’t know what it will be in the spring – rotted or otherwise not optimal. I buy my garlic in bulk from a friend who grows it (and yes, I could ask) but value opinions here about how this may fair.
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Cherokee_Motley wrote:
If you are referring to the ‘exploding’ top of a garlic bulb then yes you could plant it but I would not. Since the smaller the clove the smaller the bulb will be it would take a few years to grow these bulblets out to full size heads of garlic.
My recommendation is ask her for 10 of her current bulbs. In the fall around October first, divide the bulbs and plant these cloves. You will get great bulbs next year. 10 bulbs should give you 70+ bulbs next year based on the number of cloves you plant. In a perfect world, now is the time to prep your future garden bed for the garlic.
I love growing garlic and happy to provide many tips.
Posted on 16 Jun 12 (about 1 year ago)
Fhaith wrote:
Thanks for the tips. I really don’t know what type of garlic this is except that it is a hardneck. Red tinge – German Red maybe. So I figure I gave people growing tips and types of garlic from Mother Earth News. They can learn right along with me as I have never seen garlic like this before. They can either eat it or plant it. I should have asked more questions and probably would have if I looked at the bulbs before the woman left. It was a brown grocery bag stuffed to the brim and I was thrilled to receive it. My excitement sometimes blocks my rational brain when I see and experience kindness in giving.
Posted on 17 Jun 12 (about 1 year ago)
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