I've been watching your vids for a couple years of the growth, production and harvests of your garden. After watching you tend your frozen ground in spring, your mulching, doming, etc, I have come to the conclusion that a huge percentage of the success of a garden comes from prepping the soil. Considering your growing zone and short season, your garden is amazing due to your knowledge and hard work. Thanks for sharing your love for gardening!
My garlic started off six years ago, from a bulb from Aldi which began sprouting. Turns out it's a hardneck variety. First year was mostly small bulbs but I saved the best two & the next year was better. I've repeated this process of keeping the best for 'seed' every year since & the result this year was bigger bulbs than those from the softneck bulbs I bought from a seed merchant. I'm 'no till' & I think some of the plants adapt to the conditions they're grown in better than others. Plenty of organic matter & soil which doesn't become waterlogged seems to be the winning combination.
In the Philipines they peel the dead leaves down to the bottom of the stem to help the garlic grow even bigger, the theory being that the stem can grow thicker without dealing with the resistance of dying leaves still wrapped around it holding it tight.
Last year, my first year, growing garlic, onion, and potatoes was a great fail. Truly, it helps so much, it truly does, to research a little bit before planting something for your first time. And also, I can't tell you how helpful it has been to me, taking your advice by making my own garden roadmap as I sowed my seeds inside raised beds. As sprouts appeared, I looked at my itemized drawing and knew exactly what I planted. Plus, it's helpful to know what different plant leaves look like to save from accidentally pulling out a "volunteer" - a future fruit/vegetable. Thanks again.
Thank you for sharing. Yes my garlic is not as big as I had hoped. I purchased both music and Russian from Vesey’s. This is the first year of doing a no till approach and I have about 3-6” of leaf mulch on all of the beds I use so I would say it is likely not optimum soil conditions just yet. The garlic I have is not quite ready for harvest yet but I thought I would pull a few random ones as a test to see where I am at. 🇨🇦😎
I had very big garlic this year and last fall I added fresh compost to my bed , planted a little deeper than normal, maybe 5 or 6 inches, and 6 inches apart and covered with 6 inches of hay or straw and never touched it until harvest. When I harvested I noticed a couple of garlics that were planted right beside each other and they were just as big as the others. So this year I'm going to do everything the same except plant them 3 inches apart and go from 2 beds of garlic to 1 bed and gain a bed for other crops. I think garlics are heavy esters and need rich soil. I'm growing beans in my garlic beds right now which will add nitrogen to the soil and I'm going to try and plant garlic in the same bed this year as an experiment. I agree, garlic is the easiest thing to grow.
@@maritimegardening4887 it's deep but I can easily pull them out but you can hear the snap of the roots when they tear away from the soil. I think a little is better in our climate cause we can get some pretty fridgit weather like minus 35. Maybe they get more insulation and plus 6 inches of straw doesn't hurt either
I'm going to try that John. We get super cold here, and I also used grocery store garlic. Hoping for better next year. Gardening is always a learning experience, and thanks for the videos Greg!!!
@@davidfairchild9561 I also add 6 to 8 inches of straw and on top to further insulate and my soil is highly organic. If your soil is heavier it will be harder to pull them out at that depth. When you are laying down the straw make sure you pull it apart when you spread it cause otherwise the garlic will have a hard time breaking through it. I have good heritage garlic stock but I've never tried grocery store garlic do I can't say too much about it. Good luck
@@johnhazaras3160 I am going to buy seed garlic this year, like Greg says, and try your deep and closer method. I have rich compost and soil, and will use lots of straw like you said, loosely on top.
Hey Greg Awesome video! I was very fortunate with my garlic harvest this year, lots of really big heads (the Music Garlic) my Rocambole not so much but still a good respectable eating size! So following your info on an older video about garlic size I set aside all the garlic I need to replant this year plus I may still buy a small amount of garlic from Vessey's of another variety. The soil makes a huge difference in bulb size, plus the amount of mulch for water retention for sure. With the heat waves we get here I do have to deep water occasionally but the garlic bed pretty much got ignored....I think I may have doused it once this year. I put 6" of old hay/horse manure last fall over the cloves and then this spring when the plants where about 8" high I re-mulched with about 4" of grass clippings. So we finally got to the point of enough garlic to eat and re-plant to get us through to next summer. This years harvest was about 3 weeks earlier than last year's harvest and put that down to the super mild winter we had and warmer spring, the garlic never seemed to stop growing. By Christmas the garlic was up 4 - 5" high...I also closed the gap on my garlic - I am about 4" apart and the rows are about 6" apart...did not affect size at all...my seed garlics are easily 3"+ across! But as usual your video was full of good advice and information - Thank you for doing them I really enjoy them. Stay safe! Mike
Just harvested my spring garlic. Planted end of May. Amended my soil with seaweed and bone meal. Was pleasantly shocked at the number of big bulbs ( keeping those for seed). Going to try fall garlic planting next month. Tried the year before but they went mushy in over wintering despite being in a raised bed. Good video
Just getting ready to give growing garlic yet another chance 3rd try. I grew it last year and the flavor and juiciness was great but the size disappointing. Well it was better than the previous year but no where near what I was hoping for. Thanks for sharing your experiences with all of us. This year I’m going to try different spots and I’ll add some good compost and manure before planting. One of your viewers recommends comfrey tea throughout growing. Guess I’ll try to find what that’s called here in Portugal and try to get me some. Really enjoy seeing your videos. It’s so nice that your actually reply to the comments. Fingers crossed that this year’s planting will yield big results!
Best of luck Elena. I wouldn't worry about not having comfrey tea - I've never used it. Good soil, good sun, 2" of mulch, and good seed garlic (big seed garlic) should be all you need :)
Great video with good advice. We have full sun which most of our friends don't, so we're keeping quiet about this year's bumper crop of garlic. Here's a question for you: My wife wants to only plant cloves from bulbs with 6 cloves, since that's the ideal count for the Korean Red that we grow. Does it really matter? We have some large bulbs with fat cloves @ 7 or 8 per bulb. I would like to use them for planting. BTW, 'large' for this variety is a bulb 2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter. At least that's what we've got. I'm happy with it...
@@maritimegardening4887 Thanks. When it comes down to it, I know we'll end up using cloves from the high count bulbs; else we won't have enough to plant next year's crop. The wife wants 6 cloves per bulb because they're easier to peel, but I think we'll be alright.
Hello and good day. I am spring planting garlic. D so one day to vernalize the garlic which is use ing a fridge. Then there is stratified which I think is using the freezer. For the same amount of time. I have garlic in the fridge now and it’s growing roots very nicely. Should I freeze it as well. Have you tried this out.
We planted garlic on a raised ridge at the edge of our sand bowl garden. Planted in the ridge because the bowl holds water and we were afraid of it rotting. Anyhow it's only half sun due to the shade of a very big pine. Summer came and we got seriously busy with farm work and the rains stopped. The garlic disappeared. Well we found it recently. Little crowded clumps. I wonder can it be dug up, split up and replanted and not cause death to the garlic?
@@maritimegardening4887 would the new seed garlic make big heads if planted now? I though they needed a bunch of cold to do that. Oh! We are in the Arkansas River valley. In Arkansas. Zone 7a I think!
Great advice, look after the soil and the plants take care of themselves 👌🍀
4 роки тому+2
My experience with getting small garlic is compacted soil and bed overran with weeds. On the other hand, lose soil produced nice garlic even with some weeds around.
I planted really nice organic cloves in fall but my garlic are really small. We’ve had drought this year and I almost never water that no-till bed. I’ve harvested the scapes as you’ve suggested in another video (thank you!) and now leaves have turned half brown like you’ve shown. Is there any hope that if I leave them in the ground until August, they’ll continue growing?
Based on observations of onions and daylight hours your gains will more likely be in flavour but your on a razors edge for spoilage, may pull a row a week or something then you'll know best in saying that some of my last harvest I snapped of and for whatever reason forgot to dig them out after, they are sprouting in a clump this time around
Thanks Greg, for all the help and inspiration that we new gardeners thrive on. I'm in Western Canada where we've had a extremely sodden spring and summer. Should I continue with a mulching cover this year?
That's because German Purple is a Purple Stripe variety that grows big, A Porcelain Garlic tends to be smaller although you can get some pretty big ones, but you won't get them all big. They are usually a medium-large sized bulb. When you buy big varieties, you tend to get big bulbs unless your soil is bad. If you buy smaller or a small variety that is what you will get. Garlic varieties come in all sizes, and so if you buy a smaller variety that is what you will get at the end of the season. Know what to expect from your varieties and you'll know if your garlic is producing properly.
@@mountedpatrolmanI My fall planting of garlic bulbs in Black Cow Manure 0.5 0.5 0.5, early spring Bio-Tone Organic according to pkg. directions mixed w/rich compost added to the bed then weekly drenching w/comfrey tea, Voila!
I had one garlic bed this year with three potatoes at one side. The potatoes became really big, the garlic rather small although I used not so small garlic cloves from last year. This really bothers me. Maybe it's the variety. Thanks for the video.
Store bought garlic is often treated with growth and sprout inhibitors, chemical bleaching, and sometimes passed through a gamma radiation beam to extend the storage times. Family used to grow a garden each year during the early 90s and could use store bought garlic to plant. Tried to grow grocery store bought garlic only to have extremely poor stunted growth no taller than 6 -8 inches after an entire summer. I have since learned more about why it didn't work out. FYI the same thing happened when trying organic garlic from different national brand grocery stores. You might be able to find some that weren't treated but IMO wasted time and money is not worth the effort. Better to secure from a source that is good right from the start.
Small garlic could also be due to pink root. In hindsight I had a little last year and this year the garlic is barely living. Grass/weeds invading the beds can also reduce yield.
Interesting point you made that coincides with my poor garlic performance this year. Last year I grew potatoes in the 4'x30' bed that I grew 600 garlic in this year and this is the first time in the 4 years that I've been growing garlic that I have been disappointed in my crop. I have harvested about half of it so far but the results are nothing to write home about. I wonder if potatoes is a bad crop to precede garlic. (Note: I just did an online search and could not find any info about a correlation between potatoes and bad garlic crops.) I think the soil was simply depleted by the potatoes and was not sufficiently amended after (I only mulched it) before planting garlic. I am planning on bringing in a lot of horse manure to several of my 15 garden beds this fall. We also had an abnormally cool stretch of weather for about a month in the spring. We had a drought this summer but that usually isn't a factor for me with garlic size because I mulch so heavily. I've produced great crops of garlic during two previous droughts because of my mulching and I never watered them.
I don't know that potatoes are bad to precede garlic - but if they perform poorly - garlic's probably not a good thing to follow them with. Probably a good idea to bring in the manure.
Yes, any root crop is bad to precede another root crop... never grow any root crop in a bed that already grew a previous root crop.... Instead, grow of the other types of veg. like beans, leaf greens or fruits such as tomatoes, peppers etc. in those bed instead. You can return to growing root crops after another type is grown in these beds or better yet wait 2 years before you do. This is why his garlic in this particular bed is doing poorly. The potatoes he had previously grown the year before likely left grubs, pests or disease from the potato and depleted the soil of it's nutrition for another root crop as well resulting in poor garlic. Hope this helps.
Just as seed potatoes are clones of the parent, are the garlic bulbs basically the same? In a potato video you did ,that was the logic for using small seed potatoes. As an experiment, would you consider doing the same thing, but use smaller garlic planted in prime real estate to see if soil/site selection was potentially a positive mitigating factor as it applies to garlic? Great video as always.
They are clones - but for garlic the rules are different - big clove - big garlic. Big clove means more roots & more fuel. For potatoes - big potatoes means more potatoes, but not bigger potatoes. I'd have to write an essay here to explain why :)
@@maritimegardening4887 Thanks for the clarification and quick response. Grew it for the first time following your method and had great results thank you. 12 full bulbs yielded 50 plants of which half will get planted this fall. Only the biggest will make it back to the garden! Thank you Greg.
Grocery store garlic, if coming from outside the country has been radiated causing the garlic not to produce true. They may also be chemically treated especially from China. If you do research on Chinese Garlic how they produce it, you would probably not buy it.
Not exactly sure what you are saying ("You d I don't tell" is somewhat ambiguous), but if you are asking if there's a need to mulch and fertilize - well I mulch everything and I'm pretty sure I mentioned that in the video, but I 've never used fertilizer in my garden.
One more thing is you said you didn't water your garlic at all... all season. Garlic needs water to grow well and big.... Unless you get a lot of rain in their growing season... Garlic need an inch of water a week during their growing season. So if it doesn't rain much there during their spring and early summer to harvest make sure to water for those who have little rain in their areas which we have to here on the mildest part of Canada which is the Southern most tip of Vancouver Island. I don't water the last week and a half to 2 weeks as well.
I get garlic as big as 4" wide. I say that as evidence that my approach works. They get the water they need because I have healthy soil that I keep mulched. Annual rainfall here in NS is about 52"; whereas it's 93" in Vanc BC. I don't water them - it's all about good soil and mulch sir :)
@@maritimegardening4887 I'm not saying your approach doesn't work... I'm saying sometimes there is something that we don't always realize is the culprit. Curious, is your 4 inch wide from Music or from another variety? You can get up to 4 inches wide from Music like I do each year, but you will only get some not all... their average is a medium-large size generally.
@@maritimegardening4887 BC gets anywhere from 12.5 inches to 160 inches of rainfall.... there is a great range of climate in our Province as we have desert areas as well as heavy rain in some regions of Rainforest. Where I am, we only get 48 inches per year here on the southern coast and I still have to water as we get 5-6 months of drought where we are. So, it all depends on the area you are in as I mentioned. I love NS, never been but I have seen shows on it...
@@maritimegardening4887 you don't need further irrigation with the amount of precipitation you get. however, someone who livs in a dry area, like the desert in southern california, can't rely on getting 50" of rain and so must provide additional irrigation.
Here is where you may have gone wrong.... Never plant a root vegetable like garlic in a previously planted root vegetable bed. You planted Potatoes the previous year as a root vegetable which introduces grubs, soil borne disease that the potato most likely introduced and planting another root vegetable will now inherit the problems. If you plant another type of crop say of the bean family, or leaf family then you wouldn't have problems. You can't plant another root vegetable in the same spot you planted a previous years root vegetable 2 years in a row... even though they aren't the same root vegetable, they are still a root vegetable. You need to rotate your crop type every year and can plant again on the 2nd or even better the 3rd year for the same root vegetable. Also, keep in mind not all garlic will grow big... each variety has its own size and some grow naturally smaller. So, if you want big garlic, plant bigger varieties as well. Of course, you will have years where some varieties that should grow big, have some smaller garlic heads, it happens... Once the freeze has subsided, I take off the mulch, because mulch also introduces soil borne diseases... I place the overwintered mulch back into the compost and turn it in. If you are worried about weeds growing when you take the mulch off, just lightly rake now and again between your beds and that will keep the weeds at bay. Hope this helps... By the way... beautiful garden you have.
Potatoes can't be followed by other Solanaceaes in a rotation. That makes garlic (alliums) toitally ok - as are carrots and parsnips. Been doing it for years - no issues
@@maritimegardening4887 But now you are having issues... as you can see. You said that this was a new bed that you had previously grown potatoes as a first crop there before planting the garlic. You have been lucky.... If you notice, others that commented also had problems growing garlic after having grown potatoes in the same beds as well... As Garlic is a root vegetable even though it is an Allium, it still is very susceptible to diseases. I've been growing Garlic for many years also, and I never leave the mulch on for the entire growing season to make sure I keep diseases away from them such as rust. Just give it a try next time, and don't place it where you had potatoes last season and see as an experiment. They also say that you can plant carrots with tomatoes... I've been growing Heirloom Tomatoes to sell for over 20 years and I can tell you that planting carrots affect the flavor of the tomatoes. I don't grow them together anymore and the tomatoes have even improved since I stopped growing them together. This is only a suggestion.... happy planting!
Okay when he said let’s take a look around but moved 6 inches to his left but our right from facing him and was out of breathe. Idk if it’s just something he has but I did laugh mainly at him moving 6 inches after saying let’s take a look around
Our garlic got ravaged by Leek moths this year. We will have to cover them for a few years to insure that the populations gets low enough that it won't be a problem in the future.
I've been watching your vids for a couple years of the growth, production and harvests of your garden. After watching you tend your frozen ground in spring, your mulching, doming, etc, I have come to the conclusion that a huge percentage of the success of a garden comes from prepping the soil. Considering your growing zone and short season, your garden is amazing due to your knowledge and hard work. Thanks for sharing your love for gardening!
Wow, thank you!
My garlic started off six years ago, from a bulb from Aldi which began sprouting.
Turns out it's a hardneck variety.
First year was mostly small bulbs but I saved the best two & the next year was better.
I've repeated this process of keeping the best for 'seed' every year since & the result this year was bigger bulbs than those from the softneck bulbs I bought from a seed merchant.
I'm 'no till' & I think some of the plants adapt to the conditions they're grown in better than others.
Plenty of organic matter & soil which doesn't become waterlogged seems to be the winning combination.
In the Philipines they peel the dead leaves down to the bottom of the stem to help the garlic grow even bigger, the theory being that the stem can grow thicker without dealing with the resistance of dying leaves still wrapped around it holding it tight.
Last year, my first year, growing garlic, onion, and potatoes was a great fail. Truly, it helps so much, it truly does, to research a little bit before planting something for your first time. And also, I can't tell you how helpful it has been to me, taking your advice by making my own garden roadmap as I sowed my seeds inside raised beds. As sprouts appeared, I looked at my itemized drawing and knew exactly what I planted. Plus, it's helpful to know what different plant leaves look like to save from accidentally pulling out a "volunteer" - a future fruit/vegetable. Thanks again.
Your welcome Teri :)
Thank you for sharing. Yes my garlic is not as big as I had hoped. I purchased both music and Russian from Vesey’s. This is the first year of doing a no till approach and I have about 3-6” of leaf mulch on all of the beds I use so I would say it is likely not optimum soil conditions just yet. The garlic I have is not quite ready for harvest yet but I thought I would pull a few random ones as a test to see where I am at. 🇨🇦😎
Thanks for sharing!
I had very big garlic this year and last fall I added fresh compost to my bed , planted a little deeper than normal, maybe 5 or 6 inches, and 6 inches apart and covered with 6 inches of hay or straw and never touched it until harvest. When I harvested I noticed a couple of garlics that were planted right beside each other and they were just as big as the others. So this year I'm going to do everything the same except plant them 3 inches apart and go from 2 beds of garlic to 1 bed and gain a bed for other crops. I think garlics are heavy esters and need rich soil. I'm growing beans in my garlic beds right now which will add nitrogen to the soil and I'm going to try and plant garlic in the same bed this year as an experiment. I agree, garlic is the easiest thing to grow.
Wow that's deep!
@@maritimegardening4887 it's deep but I can easily pull them out but you can hear the snap of the roots when they tear away from the soil. I think a little is better in our climate cause we can get some pretty fridgit weather like minus 35. Maybe they get more insulation and plus 6 inches of straw doesn't hurt either
I'm going to try that John. We get super cold here, and I also used grocery store garlic. Hoping for better next year. Gardening is always a learning experience, and thanks for the videos Greg!!!
@@davidfairchild9561 I also add 6 to 8 inches of straw and on top to further insulate and my soil is highly organic. If your soil is heavier it will be harder to pull them out at that depth. When you are laying down the straw make sure you pull it apart when you spread it cause otherwise the garlic will have a hard time breaking through it. I have good heritage garlic stock but I've never tried grocery store garlic do I can't say too much about it. Good luck
@@johnhazaras3160 I am going to buy seed garlic this year, like Greg says, and try your deep and closer method. I have rich compost and soil, and will use lots of straw like you said, loosely on top.
Hey Greg
Awesome video! I was very fortunate with my garlic harvest this year, lots of really big heads (the Music Garlic) my Rocambole not so much but still a good respectable eating size! So following your info on an older video about garlic size I set aside all the garlic I need to replant this year plus I may still buy a small amount of garlic from Vessey's of another variety. The soil makes a huge difference in bulb size, plus the amount of mulch for water retention for sure. With the heat waves we get here I do have to deep water occasionally but the garlic bed pretty much got ignored....I think I may have doused it once this year. I put 6" of old hay/horse manure last fall over the cloves and then this spring when the plants where about 8" high I re-mulched with about 4" of grass clippings. So we finally got to the point of enough garlic to eat and re-plant to get us through to next summer. This years harvest was about 3 weeks earlier than last year's harvest and put that down to the super mild winter we had and warmer spring, the garlic never seemed to stop growing. By Christmas the garlic was up 4 - 5" high...I also closed the gap on my garlic - I am about 4" apart and the rows are about 6" apart...did not affect size at all...my seed garlics are easily 3"+ across!
But as usual your video was full of good advice and information - Thank you for doing them I really enjoy them. Stay safe!
Mike
Thanks Mike :) Can't believe your garlic were that high in December!
Hey Greg...yea it was crazy...my garlic was up and green all winter! Super mild this year I have a 300' driveway and didn't shovel it once!
Just harvested my spring garlic. Planted end of May. Amended my soil with seaweed and bone meal. Was pleasantly shocked at the number of big bulbs ( keeping those for seed).
Going to try fall garlic planting next month. Tried the year before but they went mushy in over wintering despite being in a raised bed.
Good video
You may have planted a variety that can't handle your winter.
Just getting ready to give growing garlic yet another chance 3rd try. I grew it last year and the flavor and juiciness was great but the size disappointing. Well it was better than the previous year but no where near what I was hoping for. Thanks for sharing your experiences with all of us. This year I’m going to try different spots and I’ll add some good compost and manure before planting. One of your viewers recommends comfrey tea throughout growing. Guess I’ll try to find what that’s called here in Portugal and try to get me some. Really enjoy seeing your videos. It’s so nice that your actually reply to the comments. Fingers crossed that this year’s planting will yield big results!
Best of luck Elena. I wouldn't worry about not having comfrey tea - I've never used it. Good soil, good sun, 2" of mulch, and good seed garlic (big seed garlic) should be all you need :)
Great video with good advice. We have full sun which most of our friends don't, so we're keeping quiet about this year's bumper crop of garlic. Here's a question for you: My wife wants to only plant cloves from bulbs with 6 cloves, since that's the ideal count for the Korean Red that we grow. Does it really matter? We have some large bulbs with fat cloves @ 7 or 8 per bulb. I would like to use them for planting. BTW, 'large' for this variety is a bulb 2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter. At least that's what we've got. I'm happy with it...
I think big fat cloves are the key. I never focus on the number per bulb.
@@maritimegardening4887 Thanks. When it comes down to it, I know we'll end up using cloves from the high count bulbs; else we won't have enough to plant next year's crop. The wife wants 6 cloves per bulb because they're easier to peel, but I think we'll be alright.
Hello and good day. I am spring planting garlic. D so one day to
vernalize the garlic which is use ing a fridge. Then there is stratified which I think is using the freezer. For the same amount of time. I have garlic in the fridge now and it’s growing roots very nicely. Should I freeze it as well. Have you tried this out.
I always plant in the fall - much less complicated - but good luck and I hope it works
We planted garlic on a raised ridge at the edge of our sand bowl garden. Planted in the ridge because the bowl holds water and we were afraid of it rotting. Anyhow it's only half sun due to the shade of a very big pine. Summer came and we got seriously busy with farm work and the rains stopped. The garlic disappeared. Well we found it recently. Little crowded clumps. I wonder can it be dug up, split up and replanted and not cause death to the garlic?
Yes, it probably could, but I think you would be better off getting new seed garlic with large cloves
@@maritimegardening4887 would the new seed garlic make big heads if planted now? I though they needed a bunch of cold to do that. Oh! We are in the Arkansas River valley. In Arkansas. Zone 7a I think!
When the garlic is planted, do/can you cover it with straw for the winter? I live in Kingston NS
Yes - I always have a few inches of mulch over my garlic. Doesn't have to be straw either but straw's a good one :)
Pulled my first garlic this morning, wonderful tops small bulb, I expected so much more.
Great advice, look after the soil and the plants take care of themselves 👌🍀
My experience with getting small garlic is compacted soil and bed overran with weeds. On the other hand, lose soil produced nice garlic even with some weeds around.
I forgot to mention compacted soil dammit! Good point - sorry I missed it :)
I planted really nice organic cloves in fall but my garlic are really small. We’ve had drought this year and I almost never water that no-till bed. I’ve harvested the scapes as you’ve suggested in another video (thank you!) and now leaves have turned half brown like you’ve shown. Is there any hope that if I leave them in the ground until August, they’ll continue growing?
Based on observations of onions and daylight hours your gains will more likely be in flavour but your on a razors edge for spoilage, may pull a row a week or something then you'll know best in saying that some of my last harvest I snapped of and for whatever reason forgot to dig them out after, they are sprouting in a clump this time around
At this point there's probably not going to be much more growth. Sorry about that. Try a different bed this fall and make sure the soil is rich :)
Maritime Gardening yes, I saw you show what different beds can yield! Will do. Thank you for your expertise. Your videos are terrific and appreciated.
ours was awful this year...do you ever use organic granular fertilizers in your garden beds?
No - just mulch
Amazing video. But i lost you at one point. Do you need to water alot or little? Thanks.
I don't water them at all - the mulch seems to keep the soil moist enough where I live (NS Canada)
@@maritimegardening4887 im in Toronto Ontario. I have no mulch. Would you recommend i water weekly then?
Thanks Greg, for all the help and inspiration that we new gardeners thrive on. I'm in Western Canada where we've had a extremely sodden spring and summer. Should I continue with a mulching cover this year?
Always keep the soil covered.
I want to start garlic in pots or grow bags any suggestions on soil?
Sorry - I don't buy soil so I have no idea what to recommend. Grow them in the ground if you can - the ground is always the best :)
I grew Music this year and German Purple. The german purple was twice the size as music.
Wow!
That's because German Purple is a Purple Stripe variety that grows big, A Porcelain Garlic tends to be smaller although you can get some pretty big ones, but you won't get them all big. They are usually a medium-large sized bulb. When you buy big varieties, you tend to get big bulbs unless your soil is bad. If you buy smaller or a small variety that is what you will get. Garlic varieties come in all sizes, and so if you buy a smaller variety that is what you will get at the end of the season. Know what to expect from your varieties and you'll know if your garlic is producing properly.
What spacing do you use when planting?
6" for garlic
Damn dude that is some seriously big garlic
Garlic is a "heavy" feeder...this info is the clue that always gives me large beautiful flavorful garlic.
How often do you feed, and with what?
@@mountedpatrolmanI My fall planting of garlic bulbs in Black Cow Manure 0.5 0.5 0.5, early spring Bio-Tone Organic according to pkg. directions mixed w/rich compost added to the bed then weekly drenching w/comfrey tea, Voila!
I had one garlic bed this year with three potatoes at one side. The potatoes became really big, the garlic rather small although I used not so small garlic cloves from last year. This really bothers me. Maybe it's the variety. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for sharing
I live in the tropics
Store bought garlic is often treated with growth and sprout inhibitors, chemical bleaching, and sometimes passed through a gamma radiation beam to extend the storage times. Family used to grow a garden each year during the early 90s and could use store bought garlic to plant. Tried to grow grocery store bought garlic only to have extremely poor stunted growth no taller than 6 -8 inches after an entire summer. I have since learned more about why it didn't work out. FYI the same thing happened when trying organic garlic from different national brand grocery stores. You might be able to find some that weren't treated but IMO wasted time and money is not worth the effort. Better to secure from a source that is good right from the start.
Small garlic could also be due to pink root. In hindsight I had a little last year and this year the garlic is barely living. Grass/weeds invading the beds can also reduce yield.
Interesting point you made that coincides with my poor garlic performance this year. Last year I grew potatoes in the 4'x30' bed that I grew 600 garlic in this year and this is the first time in the 4 years that I've been growing garlic that I have been disappointed in my crop. I have harvested about half of it so far but the results are nothing to write home about. I wonder if potatoes is a bad crop to precede garlic. (Note: I just did an online search and could not find any info about a correlation between potatoes and bad garlic crops.) I think the soil was simply depleted by the potatoes and was not sufficiently amended after (I only mulched it) before planting garlic. I am planning on bringing in a lot of horse manure to several of my 15 garden beds this fall.
We also had an abnormally cool stretch of weather for about a month in the spring. We had a drought this summer but that usually isn't a factor for me with garlic size because I mulch so heavily. I've produced great crops of garlic during two previous droughts because of my mulching and I never watered them.
I don't know that potatoes are bad to precede garlic - but if they perform poorly - garlic's probably not a good thing to follow them with. Probably a good idea to bring in the manure.
Yes, any root crop is bad to precede another root crop... never grow any root crop in a bed that already grew a previous root crop.... Instead, grow of the other types of veg. like beans, leaf greens or fruits such as tomatoes, peppers etc. in those bed instead. You can return to growing root crops after another type is grown in these beds or better yet wait 2 years before you do. This is why his garlic in this particular bed is doing poorly. The potatoes he had previously grown the year before likely left grubs, pests or disease from the potato and depleted the soil of it's nutrition for another root crop as well resulting in poor garlic. Hope this helps.
Thanks! This is great info!
I added to my soil, mulched and me garlic stunk this year! Just small cloves and what I planted wasnt small... back to the drawing board! :(
It's not the mulch - I mulch mine every year. Not enough sun, water or nutrients - it's probably one of those
Just as seed potatoes are clones of the parent, are the garlic bulbs basically the same? In a potato video you did ,that was the logic for using small seed potatoes. As an experiment, would you consider doing the same thing, but use smaller garlic planted in prime real estate to see if soil/site selection was potentially a positive mitigating factor as it applies to garlic? Great video as always.
They are clones - but for garlic the rules are different - big clove - big garlic. Big clove means more roots & more fuel. For potatoes - big potatoes means more potatoes, but not bigger potatoes. I'd have to write an essay here to explain why :)
@@maritimegardening4887 Thanks for the clarification and quick response. Grew it for the first time following your method and had great results thank you. 12 full bulbs yielded 50 plants of which half will get planted this fall. Only the biggest will make it back to the garden! Thank you Greg.
Very helpful. Thank you
You're welcome!
well I can tell you my Grocery garlic was crap ! some rotted some died early, seed Garlic 100% the best
Grocery store garlic, if coming from outside the country has been radiated causing the garlic not to produce true. They may also be chemically treated especially from China. If you do research on Chinese Garlic how they produce it, you would probably not buy it.
nope my garlic attempt it looked like green onion lol. i think i crowded them too much
Oh no!
You d I don't tell the people the stages of putting straw during winter and fertizing every 6 weeks.
Not exactly sure what you are saying ("You d I don't tell" is somewhat ambiguous), but if you are asking if there's a need to mulch and fertilize - well I mulch everything and I'm pretty sure I mentioned that in the video, but I 've never used fertilizer in my garden.
Great tips thanks
Glad it was helpful!
How do you know when to pull them up?
ua-cam.com/video/7OujfLN0Wes/v-deo.html
One more thing is you said you didn't water your garlic at all... all season. Garlic needs water to grow well and big.... Unless you get a lot of rain in their growing season... Garlic need an inch of water a week during their growing season. So if it doesn't rain much there during their spring and early summer to harvest make sure to water for those who have little rain in their areas which we have to here on the mildest part of Canada which is the Southern most tip of Vancouver Island. I don't water the last week and a half to 2 weeks as well.
I get garlic as big as 4" wide. I say that as evidence that my approach works. They get the water they need because I have healthy soil that I keep mulched. Annual rainfall here in NS is about 52"; whereas it's 93" in Vanc BC. I don't water them - it's all about good soil and mulch sir :)
@@maritimegardening4887 I'm not saying your approach doesn't work... I'm saying sometimes there is something that we don't always realize is the culprit. Curious, is your 4 inch wide from Music or from another variety? You can get up to 4 inches wide from Music like I do each year, but you will only get some not all... their average is a medium-large size generally.
@@maritimegardening4887 BC gets anywhere from 12.5 inches to 160 inches of rainfall.... there is a great range of climate in our Province as we have desert areas as well as heavy rain in some regions of Rainforest. Where I am, we only get 48 inches per year here on the southern coast and I still have to water as we get 5-6 months of drought where we are. So, it all depends on the area you are in as I mentioned. I love NS, never been but I have seen shows on it...
@@maritimegardening4887 you don't need further irrigation with the amount of precipitation you get. however, someone who livs in a dry area, like the desert in southern california, can't rely on getting 50" of rain and so must provide additional irrigation.
@@RascalandCrowFarm honestly, you probably don't have to water your garlic much with 48" of rain.
Here is where you may have gone wrong.... Never plant a root vegetable like garlic in a previously planted root vegetable bed. You planted Potatoes the previous year as a root vegetable which introduces grubs, soil borne disease that the potato most likely introduced and planting another root vegetable will now inherit the problems. If you plant another type of crop say of the bean family, or leaf family then you wouldn't have problems. You can't plant another root vegetable in the same spot you planted a previous years root vegetable 2 years in a row... even though they aren't the same root vegetable, they are still a root vegetable. You need to rotate your crop type every year and can plant again on the 2nd or even better the 3rd year for the same root vegetable. Also, keep in mind not all garlic will grow big... each variety has its own size and some grow naturally smaller. So, if you want big garlic, plant bigger varieties as well. Of course, you will have years where some varieties that should grow big, have some smaller garlic heads, it happens... Once the freeze has subsided, I take off the mulch, because mulch also introduces soil borne diseases... I place the overwintered mulch back into the compost and turn it in. If you are worried about weeds growing when you take the mulch off, just lightly rake now and again between your beds and that will keep the weeds at bay. Hope this helps... By the way... beautiful garden you have.
Potatoes can't be followed by other Solanaceaes in a rotation. That makes garlic (alliums) toitally ok - as are carrots and parsnips. Been doing it for years - no issues
@@maritimegardening4887 But now you are having issues... as you can see. You said that this was a new bed that you had previously grown potatoes as a first crop there before planting the garlic. You have been lucky.... If you notice, others that commented also had problems growing garlic after having grown potatoes in the same beds as well... As Garlic is a root vegetable even though it is an Allium, it still is very susceptible to diseases. I've been growing Garlic for many years also, and I never leave the mulch on for the entire growing season to make sure I keep diseases away from them such as rust. Just give it a try next time, and don't place it where you had potatoes last season and see as an experiment. They also say that you can plant carrots with tomatoes... I've been growing Heirloom Tomatoes to sell for over 20 years and I can tell you that planting carrots affect the flavor of the tomatoes. I don't grow them together anymore and the tomatoes have even improved since I stopped growing them together. This is only a suggestion.... happy planting!
What is the name of your garlic?
"Music" garlic
Okay when he said let’s take a look around but moved 6 inches to his left but our right from facing him and was out of breathe. Idk if it’s just something he has but I did laugh mainly at him moving 6 inches after saying let’s take a look around
We liked the NO TOIl heehee
Our garlic got ravaged by Leek moths this year. We will have to cover them for a few years to insure that the populations gets low enough that it won't be a problem in the future.
That sucks man sorry to hear that
Subtittles in spanish please 🙏
lo siento - I don't know how to do that
..or perhaps "perdon" is the better term
@@maritimegardening4887 congratulations!!! Your spanish is very good!!! I will keep waiting for the subtittles in spanish 😄😄
There is a lot of garlic on the market from China.
If you were a person
I am :)
Are you okay? You seem sick.
Just a little hay fever
Great video. Thank you