HELP!! garlic sprouted, now what?!

[mener6896]

I'm in frozen Indiana (zone 6) and I thought I would try planting garlic. I searched everywhere and all seed catalogues were all sold out. Just for fun, I planted the garlic I bought at Sam's club, I knew it probably wasn't a good variety, and certainly not planting garlic. But it sprouted within 4 days!! I was hoping it was a stiff neck variety.

Now that it's sprouted, I'm not sure what to do now. do I continue to grow in the little biodegradeable pots they are in indoors? We seriously have like 6" of snow on the ground.

I was going to have my garlic in a raised bed, should I buy dirt to put it in and move them outside?

 

[mener6896]

anyone?!

 

[vfem]

Ummm... it would have been best to plant them directly outdoors in the mid-late fall. In your zone I would have then covered them with straw or bark mulch until they were ready to harvest... like mid-late June.

With what you are doing now, the garlic doesn't sound like it is planted deep enough.

Outside you would plant garlic with about 6" of dirt on top of the clove. Also, the grow slow and work on creating a bulb in cooler temps, so a lot goes into bulb production in the fall, a little in winter and a lot in the cooler spring months. As the heat rises we finish them off by taking them out and drying them for storage. Otherwise the hot temps make it bolt and become bitter.

Here's my suggestion since the ground is frozen. Can you get some deep pots and fill them with soil? Plant the little sprouts so they are a few inches covered right now in those pots and place them out on a deck with some mulch/straw coverage? That would probably give them a chance.... but You have to harvest a bit later then usual.

 

[bid]

Hmmmm... I would be tempted to put about half of it outside and leave the other half inside for a while just to compare what happens. But I would wait for a break in the cold snap if that is possible. Let's see what folks closer to your area have to say. Alomost surely there is someone here that has done something like this before.

 

[4grandbabies]

I have a bunch of those sprouts also.. 21 to be exact off one storebought bulb. obviously I am not a garlic expert as I neverthought of the cold, deep plant thing, I was just experimenting, and plan to snip and use the green tops. the bulb was not that costly, so I figure its a lesson and maybe a bit of an experiment. one thing, I may just snip those tops and dehydrate them of I get tired of fresh.

 

[ducks4you]

I have some garlic that I bought last fall--STILL looks nice and fleshy. Do you think I could start them on my unheated, enclosed front porch? (It faces east with big, sunny windows.) Any suggestions besides the good advice about planting depth?

 

[mener6896]

thanks vfem!! I wanted to plant in late fall but was discouraged because I couldn't find any anywhere!! I was stuck on buying from a seed company. Now I know I can just plant garlic that I buy!! I was hoping to try different varieties. I was really just trying as an experiment. I think since I was planning a raised bed anyway, I may just buy dirt and do a big "pot" maybe a 4'x4' area, but it's good to know about how much dirt to put on top. I'm hoping I can salvage these. I knew I would have a later harvest anyway...but now I'll know for next year!!

 

[Ariel301]

Storebought garlic is fine to grow, it's what I've been using. Maybe it's not the most flavorful variety available, I don't know. I've never tried any others. But it's cheap and it works!

 

[ducks4you]

Okay I celebrated on another post because my garlic in pots in the basement is up--about 2 inches tall this morning. I've tried this before, but didn't have much success. Any advice as to when to transplant them?
My last frost date is April 15th.

 

[journey11]

I planted mine in the fall and they peeked up a little then, so I covered them with leaves, which the chickens promptly went after, so then I had to cover them with some old window screens to frustrate the chickens (and they went to scratching the perimeters just for spite!) I won't know until spring if I did a good thing for the garlic or not. I am hoping it will just pick back up growing again.

ETA: I wonder if you couldn't transplant them into a cold frame or under a row cover to keep the tops from freezing? Then you could take it off when it warms up enough.