This past early spring, 2011, I was busily caring for my little indoor tomato seedlings when I was given a few sprouted garlic cloves by a dear friend. She told me she had found them sprouting in her refrigerator, decided to plant some of them inside, and they grew and seeded happy enough. So she gave some to me to try as well. Like my friend, I really hadn’t planned on planting garlic, but why not give it a shot? I didn’t know the first thing about planting garlic, and being preoccupied with other things, I didn’t look much into how to care for them. I just figured it would be a fun side-project. (Not researching much beforehand ended up being Mistake no. 1.) So I planted the ones she gave me, plus quite a few of my own non-sprouting supermarket cooking-garlic cloves that I had in my refrigerator; I ended up with 22, total. “You never know,” I though to myself. Sure enough, after a few days, they all sprouted! What a thrill!!
Since garlic cloves are so large compared to the seeds of most vegetables (many are the size of sugar granules), I had planted them in disposable plastic drinking cups to make sure they had plenty of room. Learning that garlic prefer cool weather and are hardy to frost, I decided to put them outside during the day, and bring them inside overnight. I placed them on an old, rusty cookie sheet in order to transfer them back and fourth easily. I’m not sure that my though-process was all wrong, but I failed to acknowledged my tendencies toward forgetfulness.
Here’s a picture of them, taken with my cellphone, chillin’ on the deck. Boy, if they knew the kind of chillin’ they had ahead of them! Poor things…
Mistake no. 2: Leave them outside all night long, because I forgot to bring them in. This early in the spring (I think it may have been March or early April) in my zone (5), we get frost, real hard frost, just about every night. In the morning, when I would finally see the garlic plants outside on the deck, I’d hurry desperately out to get them, only to find them frozen solid. Through and through, the cups were hard as rock. I’d bring them in to let them thaw and warm up a little.
Mistake no. 3: Forgetting again, and again, and yet again. I’ve since come to learn that yes, garlic tolerates frost, but not necessarily the softneck variety so much. The kind you get in the produce isle at the grocery store is generally softneck. This was garlic from the grocery store. Softneck. And not necessarily the hardier of the softnecks.
Another thing I later have learned is that even if garlic is of the hardier kind, they still do not like to be frozen solid, especially if you combine it with thawing. Freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw… They do.not.like.it. And I did just that. Very smart. Very smart, indeed. In fact, in the beginning stages of growth, I read, the fragile, little roots can tear away from the clove if left in freeze-thaw conditions like this. Who knew? But I do know now.
Mistake no.4: No holes in the bottom of the cups. Some days I would also find them in standing water. I don’t think any vegetable plant likes to grow in standing water. I’d pour it out, even squeezing the cup a bit to try to wring out the worst of it. But the soil was still sopping wet. Holes in the bottom of the cups would have helped the water to drain.
I soon started noticing wilt. Many of the plants were drooping and not looking happy at first, then the tops wilted. They still lived, just not very happily. Others seemed to be doing just fine, which surprises me when I look back at their negligent treatment.
I can’t remember everything that happened, as I had no idea at the time that I would be blogging about this later on, and so no notes were taken, nor any more pictures. But I did plant them in-ground as soon as we had tilled (correction: my husband tilled; he’s such a good guy!), later in the spring. I think enough damage had been done by then, that nothing I did from now on could have saved them. They gradually died, one after another; just rotted in the ground, until I had only 3 left. That’s when we went on vacation, and were gone for almost a month.
Mistake no. 5: Leave them for almost a month!
OK, time for a couple of vacation pictures from Norway, the country of my birth:
When we came back from our wonderful, unforgettable vacation to Norway, two of the garlic bulbs had been harvested by our dedicated family members, who lovingly cared for my garden while we were gone. The bulbs looked like……. um…. I dare not say. It would be inappropriate. Lets just say they looked less than appealing! “Brown”, “dry”, “small”, “shriveled”, are some nicer key words I am willing to mention. They went into the compost. The last one I harvested myself, after another week or so. It too, had partly rotted and had a very sad look on its face. But it did perk up when I let it join the others in the compost. I’m wondering if these three would have been OK if they had been harvested in time. I think they stayed in-ground too long. We shall never know.
I may have made other mistakes as well, but I think these mistakes were enough. My garlic plants were doomed from the beginning. But hey, I learned some valuable lessons, and will hopefully be much more successful with my next batch, which is already planted in-ground and mulched, as of October, 2011. This time I am much more prepared: Did a lot of reading, planted at the right time, and used excellent quality seed ordered from Territorial Seed Company, which I hope will thrive in my area. It might be a tad cold for them, so I put down a good layer of mulch. This softneck variety still may not tolerate our hard winters, but I do believe they have a good, fighting chance, unlike my first, failed garlic-planting attempt.
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Sorry about your garlic. Norway looks so beautiful. I would absolutely love to visit here someday.