That is odd. We got hit by that cold snap about the time, and all 78 garlic cloves I planted are now 1-2 ft. Tall and very happy- and we got down to -8 F, so I wouldn't suspect it was cold that killed yours. I'm also growing Inchelium Red garlic, a soft neck variety. I've seen similar forum members have the same issue, and some thought it was due to a very dry winter. Was winter dry for you? Did you mulch them after planting to conserve that moisture? I had a 2" compost layer and 2-4" of shredded leaves and grass clippings on mine to help, and have only watered twice, even with an exceptionally dry winter.

It was a weird winter.

I grew Polish Jenn for several years here - in much colder conditions - and winter kill was not severe. The main problems I had with garlic were when an extended early thaw caused premature sprouting; freeze/thaw cycles that caused frost heave (which mulch prevents); and very wet conditions in Spring.

It will be interesting to see how my garlic responds this year - it was planted very late (early December), and was covered by our recent April blizzard just as it was beginning to emerge. No mulch this year. Good or bad, the results should be informative.

It has been my observation that hard neck varieties tend to be more winter hardy than soft necks; but once sprouted, the soft necks are more tolerant of less than ideal conditions. Last year, wet conditions delayed weeding & scape cutting; the soft necks (including Kettle River Giant) far out-performed the hard necks, in terms of bulb size.

From what I see, the garlic in good moist soil got close to prefect germination. But the garlic in hard and exposed soil got about 75% germination. Even in the same hard soil, the garlic near the edges grow better than the ones in the middle (high) rows. All my garlic is not mulched. You can see from the photo below:

This plot shows the slope downward. The plants in the high ground are worse than the ones in low ground. So I figure both moisture and cold exposure had some impacts.

I moved in September and my garlic was planted in containers. All are more than 2 feet tall now and I am thinking the early varieties might be ready earlier than usual. Was mainly just interested in keeping up with the varieties I have been growing for over 20 years. Added one called China Rose this year and it appears to be much earlier than the Early Italian Purple which is one of my favorites. I moved 600 miles North and was surprised that the garlic did not appear to go dormant at all although the leaf tips of the soft necks (Italian Purple and China Rose) did get burned by the frost and snow. Porcelain came up on their own schedule as usual and are looking healthier then ever.

All my garlic sprouted last fall, but was not very big when winter hit. I planted early last fall. The previous year I had planted real late, and IMO bulb size suffered for it.

My garlic is all nice and sprouted now having been thawed out of the snow a couple of times, and seems none the worse for the wear, not as big yet of course as those of you with longer growing seasons and shorter winters. Fertilizer and water starts tomorrow, and by the end of next week at least some will be mulched. I can get compost pretty reasonably at Home Depot and Coir from the pet shop (sold as reptile bedding); so I think that will be the base of the mulch and then leaves from last fall on top.

My multipliers have been getting dug out by something in the yard (my sister once lost her entire bed in Green Bay to crows), and my elephants, the ones that sprouted last August and went into the winter pretty large, are rotting away, but the ones I planted from dormant bulbs last fall are coming up real nice.

Music which is a Porcelain is my favorite and about my most dependable variety.

Garlic is pretty hardy, I'm surprised you lost some. I live in Northern VA and have never lost any. Not a single clove. I planted late this year, early December. I dug down to check a few weeks later and they had rooted. I checked during the cold spell and the bed was completely frozen solid. Moist enough to freeze, but not compacted solid like ice. I have a raised bed that drains really well, and mulch with a few inches of chopped up leaves from fall cleanup. I save the bags in the garage and use all winter/spring when needed to protect plants. I did water them once or twice as it was really dry.

I would suspect rot/growing conditions over not being cold hardy. What are your soil conditions? Did some up and examine them. Did they even start growing roots? Are they rotten? When did you plant them? Did they sprout and then die over winter?

I had something kind of like that happen a couple years back. Had 4-5 kinds of hardneck, one softneck. Come spring, the softneck came up plush and lovely- but almost all the hardneck simply failed to come up. All were in the same bed, the softneck was even between two kinds of hardneck. I still have no idea what happened, lol.

Gardens are raised beds. And the winter was rather dry. Only one significant snow that was about 5 inches. We've actually had fire warnings several times the past few weeks, it's been so dry.

I've been growing garlic for over 20 years and as stated, this has never happened before. The garlic was planted in October and November.

The garden beds have been established for around 25 years and get amended annually with leaf mulch and compost that I have delivered. Have been using both for decades.

Hard, cold and dry soil is garlic killer over winter. I believe garlic can be more wet condition than we know. Before I was always reluctant to water garlic, but it is necessary. Or you get weak plants with yellow leaves. Garlic does not like warm weather.

RedSun - Thank you for the information about dry soil. That may well have been the cause.

We normally do not have such a dry winter, this year has been exceptional in many ways.

I did water mine over winter. I watered once a week for the first 3-4 weeks since I planted late and missed the fall rains, everyone missed those as you mentioned. It was very dry. I watered two or three times over winter once I had top growth since we were in the typical snow hole. During warm weeks, I would dig down into the bed and if completely dry, I'd water. It was so dry this winter I did not bring my hose inside. I have a large amount of hellebores and I had to water them when they started budding/sprouting new growth in late winter.

Well, the results of my late planting were informative... but catastrophic. Due to the loss of my garlic plot (property was sold to new owner), I had been forced very late in the season to relocate my garlic to my much smaller home plot. This meant reducing the 35 varieties I had collected (and 3 new acquisitions) down to the best 20. Those were planted in December, in ground not yet frozen.

There were two rows, 15 varieties along the South side of the plot, and 5 varieties in a shorter row on the North side. The 5 on the North side (which is slightly higher) have sprouted nearly 100%, so the late planting did not increase winter kill... but they are way behind where they should be, due to bad weather. The garlic & perennial onions on the South side, though, were nearly total losses... only a few stragglers in 2 varieties survived. :-( That side was not only slightly lower, but later to thaw & dry out, due to shading from a wooden fence.

So in one year, I went from 38 varieties, to just 7.

Now the experiment moves into another phase - attempting to recover some of the lost varieties from bulbils. I had stored bulbils for rocamboles & purple stripe types in my unheated basement over the winter, and some still appear viable; so I will try to start some indoors. One of them is something that was other than requested, and the best rocambole in my collection... it is irreplaceable, so I hope its very large bulbils will grow.

zeedman,

Planting too late this far north did not work out well for me either a year ago; so I planted quite early last fall with impressively different results this spring, even as late as that was. Even Music sprouted last fall before freeze up and now is already at 7 to 8 leaves and about knee high. Ground around here only thawed about a week and a half ago. Xian is my odd one out this year, failing for the second year in a row; so I think I am done with it.

I normally keep a small number of bulbs of each type over until spring against having to replant, which has happened to me, too. They are stored relatively warm, against an outside wall in my unheated kitchen. Most cloves end up dried out, but normally there are a few that stay plump enough to replant. Sometimes not, but generally enough to save a variety even if spring planting ends up in smaller bulbs. It is real tough to lose your planting area so late in the planting season. Everything goes up in the air.

Once I know whether I have a spring stand, I then grind the remaining cloves, both dried out and plump, into powder. That job is coming up real soon.

Garlic is not beans etc. They do not get true seeds. When the plants die, they are gone. Have to start over again.

I got some tiny left-over garlic that I planted this spring. I know they probably are too weak to endure the winter. Hope I can harvest some rounds from those.

Exactly that is why I hold back a few bulbs of each in storage against a possible need to replant what I can salvage out of them in the spring. Some are very nearly irreplaceable. Of course that means starting over with smaller and weaker spring planted cloves and hoping to work back up to better performance.

Hardneck garlic can produce viable true seed. It’s just not a common thing. Apparently it can set more seed if the bulbils are removed and flowers left to mature. I tend to cut my scapes for eating, so I don’t get seeds.

While it sounds to be that simple, it really is quite a bit more complicated, plus not only are the flowers on many varieties male sterile, those that do provide seed after a great deal of messing around very often have extremely poor germination and a whole lot of off types in those seeds that do germinate. Garlic seed is best left to the true specialists. All garlic that does have fertile ova and pollen still needs to be cross pollinated since the pollen and the ova ripen at quite different times and insects are not the most dependable. There are a number of good reasons that true garlic seed is extremely rare.