Ahhh....my dear friend, Jay should be along shortly to advise you because he is an expert on this, but while I'm at it, let me lend a bit a learned from him.

Your store-bought heads may grow...and they may not. Traditionally, Columbus Day in October is a good date to plant garlic that will be harvested the next spring. It needs to be mulched heavily to protect it in our winters.

I've used Potatoegarden.com for a supplier in the past and been reasonably pleased, but Jay uses another site that is really informative. I've linked the one I "think" it is. I've got it book-marked at work, but guess I neglected to mark it at home too.

Glad you broght this up because I've been thinking it was time to prepare also. If it wasn't for Chandra sharing with me, I'd have almost none this year (Thanks, Chandra!!! My tomatillo's & tomatoes smelled wonderful when I've roasted them!) This year I harvested a few from the head's Jay shared with me in 2009. The most flavorful was the Red Toch.

Hope he comes along and contributes!

Paula

Here is a link that might be useful: Gormet Garlic growing website

I don't have the time right now to respond. I'm heading off to the doctor's office shortly in Guymon. When I return I will reply and give my 2 cents. What I remember of what I've learned. LOL. Jay

My 2 cents about growing garlic. I have grown around 30 plus varieties of garlic. This year I will be cutting back. The 2 main varieties will be Estonian Red(very large cloves) and an Elephant Garlic strain I got from a grower in CO. I will be adding an CO Heirloom Colorado Purple, An OK heirloom Old Homestead, an heirloom from Peru that has been grown in NM for several years Ayacucho, a wild variety from NM Chamisal Wild, hopefully a few cloves of Penasco Blue another NM variety and a few with larger cloves from those grown last year. I haven't sorted them yet so not sure which ones they will be. I didn't label some that I felt had small bulbs but they have nice size cloves so I maybe planting them as unknowns.
Yes you can plant grocery varieties. I've had very good results growing them in the past. I'm attaching a link to the site where I purchased most of what I bought. I bought a few bulbs from another 3-4 sites over the last 3-4 years. I would say you got a good deal on the Elephant garlic. The garlic on the internet is priced high. Why I only buy the least possible and then grow and multiply it.

It likes a fertile, light, well drained soil. My soil is close to ideal. You can grow it in other soils so don't let that discourage you. I know many with clay soils ect that grow in raised beds and even containers. I have never had the need to try either. Dawn should be able to comment about how she has grown it in her clay soil. If growing organic add lots of manure, compost and then either feed as you prepare it or side dress in the spring after it emerges. The depth is determined somewhat by how far north you are, how much you mulch and some personal preferences. When I started I was told 1" to the top of the bulb and tend to follow that. You can plant shallower and I know growers especially up north who plant 2" to the top. If mulching deep I would say a 1/2" in most of OK would be ok but deeper doesn't hurt up to a point.( I would never plant deeper than 2-2 1/2 inches in this area) so I do it for added insurance. I go with the inch here and still mulch heavy. Many say you can plant anytime after Sept 15th. Although I would say in OK any time in October is fine. The further north maybe towards middle to early October. The last 2 years I have planted most in December and some 2 years ago in early Feb. All of it did great. This year planting in Dec I feel hurt me a little because the bulbs were still small when the hail hit and they basically just quit then. The idea behind planting in the fall is to get some root growth before the cold hits. Up north they want root growth to prevent heaving. Here I have never seen heaving. Here if we have a normal winter(what is normal here for any season?)I've had garlic tops never die all the way back and when mulched heavy grown roots all winter. With a deep mulch many times the soil won't never freeze. It did in a few areas last winter. In my opinion it is best to have it in the ground by Thanksgiving but if not plant when you can. I wouldn't never plant before Sept 15th myself and unless I was convinced of an early cold winter probably not before Oct 15th. Again personal preference. I want mine to get some growth on it before the bitter cold hits if possible but not be too big. Others will add differing opinions I'm sure. And I respect each. I usually plant 6-8 inches apart in a row( varieties with large bulbs 8 inches and those with smaller bulbs 6 inches) and the 2nd row 8 inches or just over apart. If planting more than 2 rows I space the next set of 2 rows 12 inches from the first set. This should give you some idea. The link I attached gives good growing instructions. They are a lot further north than us. They explain why they don't want much growth except for root growth in the fall before the ground freezes. In this area I haven't had the problems they do. So I'm not afraid to plant a little earlier but again feel it can get too big before it gets cold if put in too early.
If you have any questions or if I forgot to answer a question just post it and I'll do my best to answer it. Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: We Grow Garlic in WI

You all are great! I was just thinking about trying to grow some garlic so thanks for this post and all the great info. I'm going to have to hunt down some of that fancy heirloom garlic Jay mentioned, just awesome!
Amanda

Does this info hold true for "walking" type garlic? The ones that make a cluster of bulbules (sp) at the top.

If it is garlic you are talking about you have softneck and hardneck types. The hardneck types have a scape with bulbils on top. They are mentioned in the link I posted and can be planted. It usually takes 2 growing seasons to get a full sized bulb. The only "walking type" I know about are walking onions. And they make bulbils also. But are onions. Jay

I am a casual garlic grower. I buy garlic bulbs, break them into cloves, stick them in the ground in the fall, and harvest them in the late spring/early summer. I don't give them any thought or any attention. I guess that makes me not only a casual garlic grower but a lazy one as well. I usually plant in Oct. if I remember to plant it that early, or, whenever I realize I haven't planted, then I run out to the garden and plant in Nov. or Dec.

In clay,I plant in raised beds and I usually plant one row with plants about 6" apart. I plant the cloves maybe an inch down, and mulch them only after the green shoots are up and growing. I feed the soil by adding compost to it annually, so don't feed the garlic at all. I mulch in the fall, and add a little more mulch when the weather turns colder in Jan. or Feb. I generally don't water it at all but just let it get by on natural rainfall.

I'd like to change my ways and dedicate a whole bed to garlic and grow all kinds of wonderful varieties and label them carefully and know which is which and all that, but I never get around to doing it. Normally, the fall wildfire season starts up before I get much done in the garden in terms of fall clean-up and garlic-planting. Since the spring fire season carried into summer and seems poised to go into fall, the garden just may stay neglected for a few more months, and that includes garlic planting too. Actually, the thought of planting anything in ground that has had less than 30% of our usual annual rainfall is daunting at this point. The ground---even the well-amended soil---is as hard as a rock. Hopefully by garlic-planting time we'll have had some rainfall or I may have to use TNT to blast holes for the planting of garlic cloves.

Jay, why not plant before Sept 15th? Most years we just replant in July when we dig the crop. This year we wanted to move the bed so held the cloves until last week when it rained and planted then. We always get good garlic. We raise elephant garlic and some that my grandfather passed to us 40 years ago. But like Dawn we are casual (lazy) garlic growers and may not know the best way to do it.

Yum...garlic... a subject near and dear to my heart. I guess I fall in the same category with Dorothy and Dawn as a laid-back garlic grower. Our garlic, that originally came from my FIL's garden years ago, grows every year without much thought or effort and we always have a great harvest. This is a hardneck type which sends up a scape shortly before harvest. As the scapes mature, they produce bulbils which I use as seed stock for the next season. They always produce way more bulbils than I have room to plant.

Since there are different opinions on using bulbils vs. planting cloves as well as whether to leave the scapes to develop or cutting them off, I did my own experimenting this past season. I planted one raised bed strictly using cloves. I planted other raised beds using only bulbils. As the scapes began to form, I cut the scapes off half of the plants in both the clove and bulbil beds to see if this had any bearing on the sizing up of the garlic head. What I found, in my highly unscientific experiment, was that removing the scapes made no difference on the size of the garlic heads across the board. I also discovered that planting with cloves did give me a larger garlic head but not overwhelmingly larger.

Last year I harvested garlic heads, planted from bulbils, that measured 3" to 3 1/2" across. This was from a single growing season and not the two years that some feel starting with bulbils requires (I don't know if the difference is the variety or how to explain this fact). So, call me stingy but if I can get as large or almost as large heads from using the bulbils, which always produce each year, then I'm saving my cloves for pasta. :-) For those smaller cloves that are more of a hassle to use in the garlic press, I dehydrate them and grind into garlic powder.

I can say with certainty that spacing really matters. One year we had heavy rainfall right after planting and the bulbils washed toward one corner of the garden crowding one another. I didn't discover this until much later and although I tried to thin the patch, the resulting heads were much smaller than those that remained in their original 5"-6" spacing.

Truthfully, I don't pay much attention to mulching or watering in the fall and they always seem to grow just fine. I usually plant in September and harvest in June. Last year I ran out of room and still had a few bulbils left so I just started pitching them in my flower beds, didn't cover them or anything, and several of those grew, lol. I love their no fuss approach -- somewhat like weeds -- only tastier.

Hope this helps~

SM, feel free to add these to your "cart" at checkout. ;->

Carsons like I say about most everything gardening. There is no right way and very few wrong ways. If it works for you and you are happy I wouldn't never change. From what I've been told and the few I've grown from bulbils I feel that the variety makes a difference. Some seem to be bigger after one season than others. There are a few varieties and right now the names escape me but many say they can plant them in Fed and even early March and get as big of bulbs as those they start in the fall.

Dorothy again if it works for you then I would continue to do that. I imagine you are some warmer than me in the normal winter. The reason I plant later is I don't want real tall tops to die back in the winter after cold sets in. I have had tops 6-8 inches tall and that is enough for me. Here if I plant in late October and we have an average fall I'll have tops 4-8 inches by the time they quit growing. It is has worked for me. I envy both of you who have passed down garlic. I feel varieties that have been grown in this area for years or even wild will usually do better as it is acclimated to this area. Why I'm trying to grow more local varieties along with the 2-3 others that seem to do well here every year. Jay

Last year I missed a short row when I harvested. This year I didn't get around to planting my main crop garlic. That short row produced enough for our needs for the coming year, even though the heads were somewhat smaller than usual. I approach garlic mire or less like Dawn and am grateful for its flexibility. Still, it is truly interesting what can be done when approached in a more methodical manner.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Thanks everybody for the great information! I can't wait to grow!

I love growing garlic! Seed mama, you're lucky to be in a colder area. This will give you more options in varieties to grow as I'm sure most hard necks will do well for you.
I tried elephant garlic from the store. It grew very well and was beautiful, but I found I really like the taste of true garlic better. Elephant garlic was too mild.
This year, I'm trying a creole and two turbans, from Yong Farms, in Southern AZ. I'm still thinking about buying a pound of some soft neck garlic but haven't decided what type. I have raised grocery store garlic but I've heard that California is dealing with some sort of disease right now. I'd rather not use Chinese garlic, as it's not very fresh. So, I'll probably order a pound from somewhere.