KLO1,
I don't have a clue on this. I will send the question on to the man who has gave me advice on my garlic growing. If he has any suggestions will relay them on. The other bulbs should be ok including all whole untouched cloves from the half bulb. Any clove that has had the wrapper punctured and any ate off it won't probably be any good. At least I would discard it. Jay

Klo and Jay,

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but gophers love garlic. They do, at least, here in southern Oklahoma. The only solution is to line your garlic beds with 1/4" hardware cloth to exclude them, or do as I do, and grow catnip next to the garlic. (This only works if you have cats who love catnip. The cats visit the catnip daily and they take out any gophers that try to move in.)

Klo, Sorry about the garlic. Hope you have cats who can help with the gopher problem. We don't have much of a gopher problem any more, but we sure had one the first year before the cats exterminated the gophers. The gophers occasionally try to move back in, but the cats tend to nip that idea in the bud pretty quickly.

Dawn

Darn,
I was hoping for better news that this! Only have 1 cat and she tries her best but she is older and not very good at gopher catching! She is better at catching frogs, mice, and birds. Think I'll put the garlic in a container when I plant this fall, I have some very large ones that have peppers in them right now. Large enough to hold 3 plants so should be fine for garlic. I really would like a good harvest sometime in the future!

Oh well, thanks Dawn and Jay!

Dawn,
Thanks for the info. Guess I've been lucky. I have had gophers in the past but so far have never had trouble with them eating my garlic. Looks like you made a quick trip to Texas. Jay

I had already sent the question to Martin before Dawn replied that they made a gourmet meal for gophers. I can say if one had got into my patch you would be able to track him by his breath.

Martin replied. And thought I would post what he said for future reference for those of you that live where it rains barrels full at times. Might be useful information sometime. Jay

Your GW OK gardener may be suffering the same problem that many are having around here, water. The plants suffer basal rot and vanish from the bottom up. It's happening here with both rocambole and softnecks. Many of my Martin's look like they are turning yellow too soon and begin to lean. A light tug and only the juicy end of the stalk comes up. There were 31 Tipitilla and I am hopeful of maybe which look like they're intact. Everything else comes up with half of a mushy bulb. That's all from about 14" of rain so far this month. I was at the farm yesterday and nothing really looks right but we think that the bulbs are intact. If not, nobody will be surprised.

Jay, That is just what happened to 3 of my garlic plants! Now the other one was eaten on, could see marks on the bulb. What do you think about container planting? Like I said the containers are very large and have great drainage.

Klo1,
I have never grown garlic in containers but think it should do fine in them. If I didn't have such nice sandy loam soil that drains so well I would either grow them in raised beds or containers. My soil seems to be well suited for growing garlic. Hate to say that as next year it may not do as well. Jay

I'm going to give it a try, since I have just a few cloves to plant I really don't want to lose them again. Starting from scratch with just one head of garlic to begin my garlic saga!

I planted a store bought softneck garlic separate from my other "fancy" garlic, and it turned out well with large healthy bulbs. I plan to plant some more and use from it til I get my "name brand" garlic stock up and multiplying.
Store bought shallots and elephant garlic, (leek), as well.

I bought some $18.95 per lb garlic last year, and harvested it all several weeks ago. Now, after curing several weeks ago, I found that I had been sent a mixture of hardneck and softneck. That was not what I ordered. I'd ordered hardneck. This was from a large supplier we've all used on here, and I won't mention the name, but it makes me wonder how much we can trust some of our orders when all we have to go by is the visual inspection of the bulb and not a seed package.

Of course I'm going to replant this but not sure now just what it is I have curing in my shed.

Barbara

My garlic came from my daughter, when they bought their older home there was garlic everywhere in the flower beds. They have kept a lot of it but share starts with me, and of all things they don't use it, they buy garlic! Anyway we have no way of knowing what variety the garlic is, it grows tall with a firm stem. I'm hoping to get to the point of not having to buy all the garlic I like to use in cooking but if the gophers have there way that won't happen soon!

I would suggest either using Dawn's method,( in lieu of stone cold killer cats), of underground wire screening in a raised bed arrangement, or a gopher trap like Scott uses. I hate bloodshed...but.

The problem I had with the undersoil screen barrior is that it prevents deep digging or tilling in that section.

I don't have gophers, but I do have moles, and finally decided to allow them with what little damage they do because they really improve drainage in low lying sections of my garden.

Barbara

While the moles are an aggravation they really don't do that much damage to the garden so I don't mind letting them live! It's just the gophers that really do damage to garden, flower beds, lawns, etc. they are the things I really want to kill!

Kko1,
I've had some problems with moles. If they tunnel right under a plant in hot weather they can disrupt the roots enough to cause problems. One year when I first moved here and they were so bad in the garden lost at least one plant as I remember it. And set several back. Knock on wood I've gradually got them under control. Thanks to a border collie who would dig their tunnels open till he found and killed them. You didn't need to till the soil then as there was enough tunnels to loosen it. LOL. Jay