Garlic 2015/2016 http://durgan.org/2016/April%202016/16%20April%202016%20Garlic/HTML/ 16 April 2016 Garlic Garlic growth to date. The large plants are normal planted cloves. The one smaller plant row is first year rounds. The small grass looking row is garlic seeds,bulbils. All are growing very well. http://durgan.org/2016/March%202016/12%20March%202016%20Garlic/HTML/ 12 March 2016 Garlic Garlic is growing. There is still no sign of the row of bulbils, but the first year round are all up. http://www.durgan.org/2015/October%202015/19%20October%202015%20Planting%20Garlic/HTML/ 19 October 2015 Planting Garlic Garlic was planted to be harvested in July 2016. A row of bulbils was planted at about 2 inch spacing, a row of rounds planted at 4 inch spacing and five rows (80 cloves) was planted at 6 inch spacing.The garlic is from the 2015 harvest. The 8 foot square bed was prepared about a month ago and heavily mulched to retain moisture. Boards were placed to mark the rows. Garlic has no difficulty pushing through the mulch in the Spring.The bulbils will produce rounds in 2016 and the rounds now planted will produce about three normal sized cloves in 2016.Planting the bulbils and rounds will eventually become the cloves for normal planting. This allows more bulbs for use, since none will be used for seed.
http://durgan.org/2016/May%202016/15%20May%202016%20Garlic/HTML/ 15 May 2016 Garlic Garlic, cloves, rounds and bulbils are all thriving. I expect a good harvest.
I don't mulch my Garlic. I wonder how yours is performing under all this mulch? Is not the soil too moist all the time to cause rotting of the bulbs?
Never a sign of rot. In fact, never go near the bed until harvest in late July and always have perfect garlic. http://www.durgan.org/2015/August%202015/2%20August%202015%20Garlic%20Harvested/HTML/ 2 August 2015 Garlic Harvested About 80 bulbs of garlic was harvested. The seed scapes were removed which is usually done earlier. The bulbs were hung in the shed to dry, duration for about three weeks then will be trimmed for storage. Eight bulbs were left in the ground so the seed pods can mature. They are covered with gauze to contain the seeds, since they disperse when ripe rather quickly. The seeds are called bulbils which are small clones of the bulb in the ground.
If it is a dry Summer, I may give it a reasonable soaking, but usually go till harvest without water being necessary. The mulch is most effective in retaining moisture. Moisture loss is primarily from evaporation due to Sun.
Oh, I see. I have my Garlic growing among other plants in my edible garden and water everything about once a week in the summer, if there is no help from the heaven (usually is not). Even on my perfectly draining sandy soil with that much mulch on top of the Garlic bed I would have mush instead of bulbs there. In your case, if you do not water, or almost do not water, that much mulch is a good idea. Do you have a clayey soil?
My soil was hard clay ten or so years ago. Now it is not recognizable as such, since I have added about ten yards of compost every year along with the wood chips. Both well worked in. Drainage tile was added to remove surface water during wet periods. Now the soil is probably as perfect as one can get in this particular circumstance. Conditioning soil is an ongoing effort.
