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...
