garlic growers. . .a ?

[amymcg]

I usually grow garlic, started in November and wintered in the ground. This year was busy for me and I didn't get mine in the ground.  I have a short growing season, do you think it would be possible to plant my cloves in early spring and still get a harvest?

[thomashton]

Wow, I don't know. This is my first year growing garlic (and other alliums for that matter).

I know last spring I had just returned from Iraq and was living at my in-laws home. We had some garlic that had sprouted in April so I put about 6 cloves out in the ground out back. Two months later they were huge (at least above ground). I found work and moved aobut 2 hours away. On my next visit I found that my in-laws had gotten rid of them assuming they were weeds, so I don't know.

This year however, I do have a bunch of garlic planted (back in late October). Got about 8 varieties along with 2 shallots and a multiplier onion. We'll see how it works this time.

[Phoenix]

You can still plant them in the spring Amy, but they will not grow into a typical garlic bulb, instead they will develop into a garlic onion.

The individual cloves of a garlic bulb should be planted in the fall in order to sprout and start it's development.  The sprouted clove grows as an individual onion type of bulb then goes dormant as the ground freezes, and it is this freezing period which causes the developing garlic onion  to undergo a transformation into a garlic bulb containing multiple cloves.

It is commonly said that garlic needs 40 days below 40 degrees in order to develop into a bulb.

[amymcg]

Ahh, Okay Phoenix, Thanks for the info.  I think I'll just for go the garlic this year then.