I need advice on the California garlic and onions I'm growing. I started both from bulbs on 10/1/23 yet neither seems to be ready. (See pics below) I've read that they're ready when the stems turn brown and fall over. Should I leave the alone until that happens?

I can't advise you about growing garlic as I don't grow it. The onions are still growing and will be for another 3 months at least. They spent the winter growing roots, now they are spending the spring growing bulbs - the longer they stay green the bigger the bulbs.

I grow elephant garlic... I prefer it now while green. I chop it into soup right up the stem until leaves separate.

Other garlic? If you intend to get bulbs, wait for tops to die.

I feel I didn't give a complete answer... When the onions fall over, stop watering and let the tops dry.

More by gut instinct than science; when onions are planted close together as yours are, mine have seemed to stay green and grow but produce poor yield (bulb size).

I plant in late spring, and if for some reason plant some close together (lack of spce, too many plants) they stay green well into fall but I get what is more the size of ones thumb inspite of how long they were in the ground.
I would thin out some of your onions, use those as green onions.
I now, although I plant what I consider most important varieties well spaced, where they are more crowed, remove and eat as spring onions till spacing looks good.

Garlic, out side of some Elephant , actually not garlic, I planted two years ago, and were disappointing, are in a different world and I lost interest years back.

Maybe its a climate thing but I have always planted my onions in the fall because that's when they are available at the local nurseries.

This was in an E-mail I got from Dixon Farms:
As you prepare for planting, here are few tips we'd like to share:

We recommend planting 4-6" apart to ensure adequate spacing for the bulb to grow.

Plant 1" deep. Be sure to not plant to your plants too deep or the bulb could be restricted during formation.

gtsk4 said: I started both from bulbs on 10/1/23 yet neither seems to be ready.

The onions and garlic behave differently when mature and ready to harvest.
Onions in my zone 7 garden are planted in early spring and are mature when the tops fall over (they sometimes dry- and sometimes not.)

Garlic is different.
If you planted stiffneck, it won't be ready until mid-summer.
Are you growing softneck or stiffneck? Stiffneck also needs a winter cold period or cold stratification. Do you get a good winter?

In zone 7, we plant stiffneck garlic in the fall. It sprouts up very early each spring, and is maturing around june- July, when the bottom 3-4 leaves dry. If you wait until they all dry and fall over, like onions, it will be too late and they will have begun to disintegrate the sheath surrounding the whole head- and that sheath keeps the head clean. Additionally, the cloves may start separating when left in the ground too long- and you won't eat them when you eventually dig them.

This link is about growing garlic:
https://www.johnnyseeds.com/gr...

Kenisaac,

Thanks for the info and link. I'll look into it. I'm growing California softnecks.

Just a follow up. The garlic and onion leaves are still a bit green with some turning yellow. However, I'm noticing some earwigs boring into the larger hollow leaves. Any advice on how to prevent further issues like this? Thank you all.

I have been growing Rocambole, hard neck garlic, since 1986 and plant it in the fall. Right now I'd say they are about 4" tall. They won't be ready until the bottom 3-4 leaves brown out, which is in mid July.

These were the cloves I planted at the end of October in 2022. I sort my harvest by size of bulb. Biggest bulbs are the planting stock. I open the bulbs and pick the two biggest cloves from each bulb. Those are what I plant. The rest gets eaten. I observe my garlic at this point and if I see any that show signs of shriveling, rotting, etc. I skip them and eat what is good from them.

I can see a noticeable size difference in the bulbs by planting only the largest cloves. The bulbs are bigger compared to when I planted all of the cloves in the bulb.

I agree, Jerry - I always plant the largest cloves too.

Jerry,
I have trouble getting my garlic to grow large. Can you tell us if/when/how you fertilize? I gave mine a good helping of compost this winter and they are finally growing larger but still not as big as they could be. I had read somewhere last summer that you should fertilize garlic twice over the winter. I would never have thought to fertilize anything over the winter but it did help a lot. Thanks for posting.

SedonaDebbie said: Jerry,
I have trouble getting my garlic to grow large. Can you tell us if/when/how you fertilize? I gave mine a good helping of compost this winter and they are finally growing larger but still not as big as they could be. I had read somewhere last summer that you should fertilize garlic twice over the winter. I would never have thought to fertilize anything over the winter but it did help a lot. Thanks for posting.

Debbie

I fertilize with about 4" compost dug into the bed along with a general organic garden fertilizer according to the label and sometimes rock phosphate or Bone Meal or every few years Sul-Po-Mag. I soak the cloves with a fish emulsion/Kelp extract solution before rolling them in powdered sulfur. Then I plant them. I use a dibble to make the holes and push the cloves in. Sometimes the hole is too small because the clove is too large and then I force it. I rake over the soil and if it is not freezing out, I'll water. That's it. My winter is frozen soil, fertilizer would just run off. I don't do anything in Spring either except for weeding and watering if we don't get enough rain. I always select for the biggest cloves out of the biggest bulbs. That is key to larger garlic.

I once documented me planting my garlic after there was about 3-4" of frost in the soil. I had to use my pick to break through the crust. Then I double dug my bed so I could bury the frozen clods. I was kind of doing it for the folks on a Tropical Fish Forum down in Perth Australia I was a member of. Those are the people I'm speaking to. I followed it up with a short video the next spring to show the garlic growing. I just watched the first over and I see I didn't soak in the fish emulsion back then.

The links have to be damaged by me since I can't post links yet. Just add in the leading h in all cases.
Part 1 Dec 18, 2009: https://youtu.be/Fvmase4jhMA?s...
Part 2: https://youtu.be/0Zcsszj6Los?s...
Spring next year, April 10, 2010: https://youtu.be/E5ylSIkCwd0?s...

Spacing of the plants is also critical to getting larger bulbs; mine have grown much better since changing from 4" to 6".

Thank you both so much for the excellent advice. Sandy, this was the first year I planted them 6" apart, great suggestion. Jerry, thank you for the in depth advice. I came close to the same fertilizing regiment you use with this current crop which is why my garlic is looking so much better. Only slight differences. I added the sulfur to the bed a few months in advance so it would break down well in my alkaline soil. And I didn't soak them in fish emulsion but I will next time. I am going to watch your videos this evening.
Thank you both again.
Jerry, I fixed the links on your videos so it would be easy for everyone to see them.
ttps://youtu.be/Fvmase4jhMA?si]https://youtu.be/Fvmase4jhMA?s...
ttps://youtu.be/0Zcsszj6Los?si]https://youtu.be/0Zcsszj6Los?s...
ttps://youtu.be/E5ylSIkCwd0?si]https://youtu.be/E5ylSIkCwd0?s...

Ken, Jerry, or whoever else - what is your opinion about removing the scapes from the stiff-neck garlic? I've done this in the past and did not really see much difference in the size of the bulbs that did and did not have the scape removed, but I think I may have waited too long to remove them. This year I'm planning to do so with some of the bulbs, but as soon as I see the scapes forming. (I also grow a couple varieties of softneck garlic - which gives me very large bulbs; which I just mention by way of encouragement to anyone who thinks they can't grow it because they aren't in the south.)

Weedwhacker said: Ken, Jerry, or whoever else - what is your opinion about removing the scapes from the stiff-neck garlic? I've done this in the past and did not really see much difference in the size of the bulbs that did and did not have the scape removed, but I think I may have waited too long to remove them. This year I'm planning to do so with some of the bulbs, but as soon as I see the scapes forming. (I also grow a couple varieties of softneck garlic - which gives me very large bulbs; which I just mention by way of encouragement to anyone who thinks they can't grow it because they aren't in the south.)

Sandy, I've been removing my scapes for maybe 10 years. I give them to a local friend who makes Pesto out of them and freezes it. She freezes them whole if she can't use them all at once. And, actually, I have her come over and do it for me usually. (She'll bring her kids. I've known her since she was born. She's a friend of our oldest daughter.) Do I really see a difference in the bulb size? Not really. Was I really, really careful to do a fair trial (as in remembering which ones didn't have the scape!-Not really) Sorry I'm not more helpful there. Harvesting them does give another crop out of the garlic.

I have eaten the scapes by steaming, and raw. They are pretty good, but I'm really not interested in harvesting over 200 scapes and taking care of them.

Back in the late 80's when I was just starting with my garlic, I let the scapes mature so I could harvest the bulbils to plant. I'd also eat the bulbils raw after peeling. I shared them with others at my work and the Toolroom at times really smelled of garlic!!

I selected for larger bulbils by only harvesting the large bulbils and planting them. Some of my bulbils got to about 1/2" diameter.

SedonaDebbie said: Thank you both so much for the excellent advice. Sandy, this was the first year I planted them 6" apart, great suggestion. Jerry, thank you for the in depth advice. I came close to the same fertilizing regiment you use with this current crop which is why my garlic is looking so much better. Only slight differences. I added the sulfur to the bed a few months in advance so it would break down well in my alkaline soil. And I didn't soak them in fish emulsion but I will next time. I am going to watch your videos this evening.
Thank you both again.
Jerry, I fixed the links on your videos so it would be easy for everyone to see them.
[url=ttps://youtu.be/Fvmase4jhMA?si=2lYc87kgKDy3ySGz]ttps://youtu.be/Fvmase4jhMA?si]ttps://youtu.be/Fvmase4jhMA?si...[/url]
[url=ttps://youtu.be/0Zcsszj6Los?si=LEN9GqH6eykFG-I_]ttps://youtu.be/0Zcsszj6Los?si]ttps://youtu.be/0Zcsszj6Los?si...[/url]
[url=ttps://youtu.be/E5ylSIkCwd0?si=jBiWZil2r2JYavtB]ttps://youtu.be/E5ylSIkCwd0?si]ttps://youtu.be/E5ylSIkCwd0?si...[/url]

Thanks for fixing them Debbie. I don't know how long I have to be here till I can post links. Anyone know?

And as I tried to post this note I got the message I can't post links, so I'll have to break yours in the reply I'm making.

I don't know why you are having trouble posting links. I think everyone can do it. If I want to post a link to a page I first open a second window on my computer and go to the page I want to link to > go up to the spot with the page name on it> right click it and then copy it> then go back to the first page and paste it. It usually works fine. It only came out looking like yours once when I didn't leave a blank space before and after the link. Then the computer messed it up. So I usually put the link on the next line all by itself so I don't have any problem.
And I agree.... I take the scapes off early every year and enjoy them but I've never noticed it making the garlic bulbs any bigger.
Happy gardening and thanks again.