I use Urea on my garlic because it is so cheap. I get a 50# bag for about $25. I use it about every 3-4 weeks from the time it starts growing in the late winter (late February or early March) until early May or so. My garlic are growing in 4x10 raised beds...5 rows with 19 garlic in each row. I use a empty 5 oz. spice can and sprinkle it between the rows prior rain so the rain can dissolve it in. The granules will not fit thru the sift side of the lid so you need to use the pour side. I use about 1/2 can per bed so about 2.5-3 oz. each time.

If no rain is expected within the next day, I will dissolve about 1.5 oz. urea in a 2 gallon watering jug and use that to water about half of the bed and then do it again for the other half of the bed. I let the water jug sit for 1/2 hour or so after adding the urea so it can dissolve completely.

Thanks for the response! It is raining today and I just bought a small bag that I want to put down now, will buy another bigger bag later if it seems to work.

I have one raised bed that is about 150 sf, another that is around 75 sf, and another 50 sf of garlic that I actually grow in the holes of the concrete block that surrounds my garden. So around 300 sf total. You're using 2.5-3 oz in 40 sf so that suggests maybe 1.5 lb total for mine? I have a 4 lb bag so I could do it now, then end of April and early to mid-May.

I'm further north than you (zone 5A or 5B) but the garlic started very early this year due to a warm March. I don't think it is best to fertilize garlic after mid-May...

That sounds about right on the amount and timing. My garlic started growing in mid February this year which is 2-3 earlier than normal. I actually fertilized mine yesterday because it was SUPPOSED to rain last night but the rain missed us so I need to water it in tonight. If applying it dry, it needs to be watered in within a couple days or else it will volatize into the air.

I also use it for supplemental feeding on brassica, onions, lettuce, and other leafy nitrogen loving plants.

Appreciate the advice.

I could have gotten a big bag cheaper online but it is raining right now and tonight so I just got some at a local store. Will too much rain be a problem in terms of it washing past the roots? We could get another inch, but I can decide whether to go put it out now or early evening.

It doesn't need too much rain to wash it in so I would try to wait until it is close to being done if you don't mind doing it in the rain. Farm feed stores seem to have the best price around here. I get mine at the MFA (Missouri Farmers association).

It is also a good N additive for compost if you are short on greens.

Thanks, appreciate it. :) No, fine doing it in the rain with a headlight, though I might get lucky and get a dry slot between the rain showers.

Is too much rain bad in terms of washing it past where the roots are? I don't think we'll get *that* much though.

Glad to help. It's hard to answer your question without knowing how your soil drains. If it is very sandy it will leach thru pretty quickly without the garlic getting a chance to benefit much, but if your soil retains moisture fairly well then it should also hold onto the nutrients as well. Last year it was so constantly wet here that I was fertilizing much more than normal years because it seemed to just wash right thru the raised beds. The weeds around the perimeter of the beds grew like crazy!

Thanks. :) The soil is fairly heavy but they are raised.

I ended up using about 2 lb total to cover all the area. We got a lot of rain overnight, hopefully it didn't wash it all right through the soil. :(

Garlic roots go fairly deep so you should be good. Better to wash through than to burn the plants!

Thanks. Hoping you're right. Besides, can't do anything about it now anyway :)

I use a much milder fertilizer, Milorganite which is available in an "organic" form, and apply it quite frequently. There is no chance of it burning the roots, not in my experience even with fertilizer spills. (Edit: Milorganite is definitely not a fish-based fertilizer...)

What is as important to me is bed prep prior to planting. I work in a lot of composed manure and coir and a bit of Milorganite and some dolomite, and I try to do that quite a bit ahead of planting, tilling the bed as deep as my Mantis will go. I don't really worry about overusing the Milorganite, except for the cost.

I find my best spring response is when the 3' wide bed is raised up a pretty uniform 4" from the surrounding garden level for winter drainage. I try to keep the bed itself pretty carefully level along its length and over its top.

I think that it is about time to start fertilizing here in Minnesota, too. Although last night's temp got down into the 20's again, the ground is completely thawed and the really hardy things are growing like mad. I may even get lucky this year and get some bloom on my peach bushes - looks like the buds are going to survive to open this spring!

Milorganite is definitely not a fish-based fertilizer...)

Don't know about that...I think those Cheese heads eat a lot of fish. Walleye don't cha know!

Thanks for the reply. I use a similar organic slow-release fertilizer both before planting in the fall and I also overspread some yesterday to slowly break down over the growing season. But I find the garlic really needs a couple of quick shots of nitrogen in the spring.

I haven't fertilized my garlic at all and it is looking great. It isn't planted in worn out soil though. I should put down some Plant Tone this week.

LOL I have been gardening in the same plot now for 30 years. I would not call my backyard worn out soil, although it is well broke in. :-) I make it a point to restore both slow acting fertilizer and organic matter (this year both mushroom medium and coir - in the past well rotten livestock manure and peat moss). I have a pretty sandy soil and I keep it well worked up, too and try to amend heavily.

In the fall, about 1 month prior to planting, I amend my garlic beds with compost that has chicken manure as one of the inputs and maybe a bit of garden tone prior to planting so P and K should be adequate for the duration of growth so I don't want to add any more in the spring. Urea being N only fits my needs and is fast acting and very cost effective.

I try to overdo it with relatively mild amendments. IMO my sandy soil leeches out far too quickly otherwise, but I do not wish to burn anything either. This year my spring planted alliums will go directly into wide trenches that can be flooded and mulched both. The weather here has just been too cold for me to comfortably work in the garden, but this week is supposed to be splendid; so I intend to get at it starting today. (The best laid plans of mice and men and all that jazz is probably appropriate here...)

Well a couple of days later my garlic looks about the same. Not sure what I was expecting lol. But at least it doesn't look like I burned it.

I suspect that most of it has washed right through the soil. But urea is pretty potent (45% N) so maybe that's not a bad thing. I guess I'll try to apply more at the end of April and water it in by hand before a warm/dry spell.

BTW is this stuff all the same? I've seen it fairly cheap in some places but worry about its safety.

"Milorganite is definitely not a fish-based fertilizer...)

<i>Don't know about that...I think those Cheese heads eat a lot of fish. Walleye don't cha know!" </i>

Hey this is Minnesota where most of the walleyes over maybe 2 or 3 pounds have dangerous levels of mercury that about 90% blew in from the Prairie Provinces and the Dakotas. Guess where 90% of Wisconsin's mercury comes from! If they insist on eating very much of any predatory fish, that explains why they don't object to being characterized as having porous and sloppy cranial tissue. That is not to start a border war or anything like that, of course.

Anyway they test for heavy and toxic metals during the processing of Milorganite, and that is in Milwaukee on top of it all, a far cry from Wisconsin's northern lakes and the UP most which are downwind from both taconite production and Twin Cities and Duluth metro traffic, which are almost as bad for mercury pollution as the Dakota coal fired power plants. We used to avoid Milorganite for fertilization of food plants, but that is supposed to be no longer necessary.

Anyway I mostly fish for crappies, they are seldom mercury contaminated, although I do not keep any fish for eating here inside the TC metro, and I seldom fish outside of it. I would be very reluctant to eat any fish out of the Mississippi that flows right through the heart of Minneapolis first and then St Paul. We have a saying here on the upstream side, "Flush twice, St Paul needs the water." Of course the state capital and the legislature are in St Paul if that explains anything.

Wow, I did not know that about walleye having dangerous levels of Mercury up there. Good to know that in case I ever catch one! I'd hate to know what the Mississippi river water is like when it finally gets down to New Orleans! Our Missouri river water is pretty bad too.

Charles - I wouldn't expect quick change in coloration with your garlic from using the urea. Just sustained or quickened growth after a week or so...maybe a couple new leaves developing. I do think there are different kinds of urea but I believe it just has to deal with how they are "packaged'. Crystalline form is the finest and fasted to break down, prilled form (what I use and what is most commonly used in agriculture) is larger, round shaped and slower to break down, and Granular which is about the same as prilled except a little larger and a little slower acting. I think there is a coated form also that is more of a slow release and comes in 'spike' form and used for season long fertilizing of trees, etc.

Gotta agree with you about eating anything from the big Muddy in NO. I tend to avoid eating any fish out of it up here, in fact. I like to catch em though! CPR (Catch photo release)! Works for me.

Great info - thanks! I just got a bag of urea and was considering watering my garlic bed with it this morning, but it decided to rain torrentially so I waited. Good to know it can be used dry if you're expecting rain as well!

Don't forget that it takes sulfur to really bring out allium flavors. The best sources for that are animal manures, even composted ones..