Ridgerunner
Garden Master
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2009
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- Location
- Southeast Louisiana Zone 9A
Garlic are heavy nitrogen feeders so yeah, it may help to amend the soil. I'll use compost as my amendment. It's not a bad idea to get a soils test, just to see if you need something other than nitrogen.
Growing season can make a difference too. If it turns hot too early the heads can be smaller. Garlic likes damp soil but not wet. If it is wet it can rot. Just don't let it dry out. That makes mulching it a bit tricky. Mulching can help keep the soil cooler but can also hold water and make it wet. I'll mulch with a little straw but not much.
I keep reading that you need to plant the larger cloves to get larger heads but I just have not found that to be true. I'm not talking about different varieties but cloves from the same head. Maybe they are talking about varieties when they say that. What you are probably getting at the grocery is softneck garlic. Those grow with larger cloves around the outside but smaller cloves inside. For two years straight I've planted the larger ones of those in one spot and the smaller cloves in another. In both cases they both made similar heads.
Mary, I get different results in different years too. I always plant Silver Rose softneck so my variety is not the reason. It has to be growing conditions or maybe I did not amend it the same.
Growing season can make a difference too. If it turns hot too early the heads can be smaller. Garlic likes damp soil but not wet. If it is wet it can rot. Just don't let it dry out. That makes mulching it a bit tricky. Mulching can help keep the soil cooler but can also hold water and make it wet. I'll mulch with a little straw but not much.
I keep reading that you need to plant the larger cloves to get larger heads but I just have not found that to be true. I'm not talking about different varieties but cloves from the same head. Maybe they are talking about varieties when they say that. What you are probably getting at the grocery is softneck garlic. Those grow with larger cloves around the outside but smaller cloves inside. For two years straight I've planted the larger ones of those in one spot and the smaller cloves in another. In both cases they both made similar heads.
Mary, I get different results in different years too. I always plant Silver Rose softneck so my variety is not the reason. It has to be growing conditions or maybe I did not amend it the same.