For the first time, some of the sprouted cloves have worked their way up above the soil surface; frost heaving?

Anyone else experience this?

The Gotch

While I don't have any garlic growing this year, this was not uncommon in previous years. Most of my allium are starting to poke up and garlic is usually right with them. The sprouted cloves seem to have a bit of a head start. I wouldn't worry about them they are pretty hardy.

@MissS, this is the first time this has happened in these here parts.

There's a concern what effect...um...apparently frost-heaved cloves, (exposed roots at a delicate stage of the game requiring being unceremoniously shoved back into the soil) will have on the crop.

I'll report back.

The Gotch

In the Pacific Northwest I planted my cloves at the end of November. By early January most, if not all, had sprouted. The occasional frost does not faze them.

if they heaved to the point of exposing roots, i would give them a quick visual for any major damage
before pushing them back into the dirt assuming the ground is soft enough to do so. i would think they
should still grow ok if the cloves haven't been exposed to the elements for long. their growth cycle is only just starting.

my garlic is ahem, still protected by about two feet of white mulch.
heaving has never been an issue for me. no where to go.


keith

Mine has heaved in past years, but only if uncovered (and I believe it was in March). I pushed the cloves back in, but as I recall it was a wet year & all the garlic did terribly, heaved or not. Poor drainage was at least partially responsible for both heaving and stunting, so I use a raised bed now. Never had a problem with frost heave when mulched with 3-4" of hay.

We do get a lot of frost heaving here. Many thaws and freezes even in an average winter. But I've never had garlic cloves heave. I plant them deep enough that it can't happen. I've had a clove or two dug up by animals but the cause was clear. Mulch definitely helps as well. Exposed ground in other beds is like a washboard of frost heave ridges now. But under the mulch, you won't see that.

My first garlic sprouts were spotted yesterday, through the ground! So although it's still cold and frosty nights, the earth must be well thawed I'm thinking, or they wouldn't be pushing up the tips. We had an unexpected thunderstorm last night, and I expect the rain makes it thaw more and quicker... First robin on patrol this morning, too.

@Bower; "My first garlic sprouts were spotted yesterday, through the ground!"

Doo Rah!

Despite weather that can't make up its mind, just about every shoot has surfaced, here.
Wish these images were bigger. The Gotch

The garlic here was planted 10/21 and is looking good. They'll be ready late May. The left side is all Lorz Italian softneck, something I tried for the first time in fall 20. The front half of the right side is Russian Inferno and the back half is Siberian. Both are turban types. I've been doing those for the last five years.

@GoDawgs; mighty fine looking Garlic, there, and a sobering reminder of the difference between a 5a and an 8a.

'Round these here parts, we don't pull ours 'til the Ides of July, a mere 14 weeks off.

The Gotch

Unfortunately rust has come early for our garlic. I've cut off infected leaves and sprayed with potassium bicarbonate, hopefully that will slow it down.

@rossomendblot; what are your usual plant harvest dates over there?

The Gotch

Cornelius_Gotchberg wrote: ↑Mon Apr 11, 2022 7:20 am @rossomendblot; what are your usual plant harvest dates over there?

The Gotch

I've got two varieties on the go, Iberian Wight and Solent Wight. Iberian Wight I've been growing for 4 years or so now and it's usually ready to harvest the first week of June, which is great because I can follow it with squash/tomatoes/sweetcorn etc. Solent Wight is a later variety that I haven't grown for a while, usually harvested in July, supposed to store well until the following April. We get rust on the garlic every year now, but not usually this early. The harvest is generally very good even with rust so fingers crossed.

@rossomendblot; "usually harvested in July, supposed to store well until the following April."

What's left of last year's harvest is still kickin'...but maybe not quit as high...

Well cured (we use a fan to enhance the process) and stored in the dry dark, it'll be good for at least another eight (8) weeks.

On the subject of Iberian, a Norwegian pal claims they've been beset with a devastating scourge known as the Iberian Slug; you?

http://blogg.vm.ntnu.no/naturviten/2018 ... g/?lang=en

The Gotch

We've had big, orange slugs in the garden for several years now, though it's hard to say if it's the Spanish slug as we have a few species which look very similar. One year I would go out at night collecting them in a bag which then went in the freezer. The question was then what to do with this solid ball of frozen slugs, I think they went in to the compost pile. They seem to be making a come back in numbers this year. I don't usually find them doing damage to crops, the grey field slug and the Balkan three band/greenhouse slug are responsible for most of that.

Hope your heaved garlic turns out ok. Never had that happen. Mine started emerging beneath straw mulch on April 4--very late for my garden. I suspect they'll be poking up through the straw very soon, maybe even tomorrow with another warm day and maybe some warm rain--well before the drunken Mother Nature throws winter #5 back in our direction for the rest of the week and into the coming weekend. I've grown Chesnok Red from original stock I got about a decade ago. t

My garlic was all above the surface by about 6", on 4-3, and most started in February colder here, but not like down S. A week before there were a good number of one variety not quite up, but all but 2 are up now! They are all hardnecks, the fastest (and now largest, as usual) being Estonian Red.
Garlic bed, 4-3 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

@pepperhead212; my Garlic has informed me, in no uncertain terms, that it wants to be like yours when it grows up...

The Gotch

This is the first time I have planted in a raised bed, and it looks good, so far. Almost every day I am still using last year's crop, and I harvest right around July 4th here, plus or minus a few days.

Late, but in GREAT, thick stalked shape!

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The Gotch