Fall Planted Garlic in May

There's no doubt about it, growing garlic is fairly fool proof provided the weather doesn't go full wonky this month or until harvest (late June into July). By wonky I mean an extreme heavy snow event or pounding hail. I've experienced both events in spring over the years and the garlic definitely wasn't entirely too happy. 

I still harvested several bulbs, but damaged plants generally won't cure well which means long term storage, up to a year with some varieties is iffy.

Here's where my bed of garlic stands today, May 1, 2022. The heavy wind a couple of days ago blew them around quite a bit, but I'm not that concerned at this point.

And what's with this wind of late? As one saying goes, at least it's not sand blowing around. The layer of dirt build up on the surface around our outdoor grill looks pretty gritty to me! 

The next photo was taken in late April of 2017, they were looking very fine - greened up nicely and well on their way to the final stretch of bulb growth before harvest.

The third photo was on May 21, 2019. Oh those late May snow storms so famous in Colorado ... will we have a repeat in 2022?

The last photo was on May 28, 2019 an almost complete crop loss from heavy hail in the middle of the night. The leaves were just too damaged to support the energy needed for the bulbs to finish developing. I cried.

 

 

 

The hard lesson learned is to be ready with tunnels or some kind of plant protection set up the final few months of fall planted garlic or any spring planted crops. 

 

I better get out there and install the tunnels now !!

 

My Video Resources:

Building Inexpensive Tunnels Part I 

 

Building Inexpensive Tunnels Part II