I totally agree with Ken, Wayne -- looks great !

I dug all of my garlic on Friday (7/24/15); overall happy with the size of the bulbs, although I don't see a great deal of difference as a result of selecting the largest cloves to plant and spacing the plants farther apart than I've done in the past. This year I'll take some actual measurements, weight and circumference of the bulbs, to compare to next year. At any rate, I think I'll have more than enough garlic for my purposes! I planted about 140 cloves altogether, back on October 26th; this year I want to get them in by the beginning of October, if I have some space freed up in the garden.

Ajo Rojo (a Creole type)


Mixture of Polish Softneck and Western Rose (I can't remember why I didn't keep these separate when I first started growing them!)


Music (a Porcelain type of hardneck)


An unidentified hardneck type, given to me by a friend years ago and the first type of garlic that I ever successfully grew.

Looks good, Sandy. There is probably no practical way of knowing whether large cloves equals large bulbs. You could have segregated plots as far as spacing though. When I started growing garlic I spaced my cloves way too far apart. I think I spaced them at 5" centers. Over the years I have closed that spacing and last year I spaced them at 3" centers. I think I will go for 2" centers this fall. I haven't seen any difference as far as bulb size, narrowing that spacing. For me at least, having too much rain during the 3-4 final weeks, caused lower yields (smaller bulbs). I think a cool spring also contributed to lower yields as well. I agree, you should be planting your garlic a few weeks earlier.

Ken, that is actually funny that you have been decreasing your spacing because you didn't see any difference... I've always planted mine about 3" apart, but read (on the internet, so it HAS to be true, right? ) that it should be planted at least 6" apart to produce large bulbs.. If you haven't noticed a difference, then I think I will go back to 3-4" and save the space!

Ken, please remind me how deeply you plant your toes. Uh, of garlic.

I chuckle every time I see cloves called "toes".

I plant my cloves about 2" deep, Mary. However, our ground never freezes. You might want to check with your Extension Service about planting in Anchorage, particularly if your soil does freeze several inches below the service.

drdawg said:I chuckle every time I see cloves called "toes".

I plant my cloves about 2" deep, Mary. However, our ground never freezes. You might want to check with your Extension Service about planting in Anchorage, particularly if your soil does freeze several inches below the service.

Sorry, Ken, I just couldn't help myself... a couple of winters ago the ground here froze down to 6 feet !
I do realize that's hard for you dyed-in-the-wool southerners to comprehend, though -- sometimes I find it a bit hard to comprehend myself!

Mary, I plant mine about 4" deep, but I think Ken's suggestion to check with the Extension Service or something of the sort is a very good one

I cannot imagine dealing with several feet of frozen ground. I don't know how your pipes, above and below ground survive the winters.

The outside pipes are pretty deep... we're on our township water system and about 10 years ago had to replace the pipe from the main at the road to our house; the contractor put it down in a ditch that was over 6' deep, so we haven't had any problems with it. There are always LOTS of frozen and broken water pipes up here, though -- often the water depts will have the customers keep the water running (they always say "in a stream the size of a pencil") so that it won't freeze. The snowbirds that leave their house to head south in the winter generally have all the water shut off and the pipes drained, antifreeze in the toilets and traps, etc etc.

Always seems pretty miraculous to me that any kinds of plants can survive, to say nothing of the songbirds and the animals out in the woods