Garlic foliage dried, really small bulb!

17 years ago

I decided to try my hand at growing garlic last fall. I bought two bulbs, Chesnok Red and Spanish Roja, from a garlic farm and planted all the cloves (big and small) in mid October in full sun in soil amended with compost. We had a wet winter and spring and all the cloves sprouted nice tall foliage. I cut the scapes and watered when it didn't rain.

Last week one of the smaller stalks was completely dried up so i decided to dig it up and see the glorious garlic bulb I grew. The bulb was the size of a cherry tomato! Not big enough to be useful in the kitchen, so I replanted it (the bulb was not damaged during this whole ordeal).

I haven't dug up any other ones yet. They still have about 50% of their green leaves. What should I do? Can I leave the small bulb in the ground until next year and maybe it will be bigger? Is it a lost cause? I have learned from this forum that I probably planted too many of the small cloves. I guess I will wait until late July to dig the rest, but now I'm nervous that I'm digging too early and my crop will be stunted!

Garlic experts, HELP!

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Comments (4)

odalaigh
17 years ago
welcome to growing garlic!

Sounds like your doing everything right! Just a few things to note. Smaller "stalks" usually equals smaller bulbs so don't be put off. Did this smaller bulb have individual cloves that you could tell or was it solid with no clove division?

As for the rest wait till 1/2-2/3 of the leaves have died back to harvest.
kpev7hard
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks odalaigh! It did have individual tightly packed cloves and nice looking skin over them. Had it been bigger it would have been a lovely garlic bulb! Do you think it will grow any more since I put it back in the ground unharmed? Even if all the foliage has turned yellow and died? Maybe I should try to harvest it next year instead?
I guess I can't be too upset since this is my first attempt at growing garlic. This is half the fun of gardening, right, the experiments! I do have 7 other plants that have thicker stalks so maybe those will yield better results.
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wcthomas
17 years ago
The small bulb you dug up will not continue to grow this season, and if you leave it in the ground each clove will sprout to make a cluster of small garlic bulbs next year. You can cure it and replant the small individual cloves in the Fall, but small cloves yield small bulbs. I would just pull it again and use it in cooking. Hopefully your other plants will yield larger bulbs. Pull them when you have 2-3 green leaves left.

You might want to consider some Porcelains for next years crop, like German White or Music. These tend to make larger bulbs and have pretty good storage properties. And if you get some decently large bulbs from your other plants this year, save the largest and use them for seed next year as well. Replanted garlic cloves tend to give larger bulbs each year as they acclimate to your garden.

Here is a great place to buy garlic for your Fall planting:

http://www.wegrowgarlic.com/catalog

TomNJ
kpev7hard
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks, Tom! Sounds like this is a work in progress. This is all great advice that I will remember when I plant in the fall. I'll dig that small bulb up when I get home. I'm making some pesto tonight so that will be a lovely addition to the dish!!
Fingers crossed for the rest of my crop!!