On 6/28/2016 9:04 AM, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article , T wrote:

Hi All,

I am about to pick my garlic.

1) when do I replant?

2) can I replant in the same place or do I have to
let the soil rest a season?

Many thanks,
-T

Depending on your weather (and the year, and how busy you might be...) a
few weeks before the ground (normally, unless you have a time machine)
freezes. In years where busy doesn't get me, late October or sometime in
November. Last year, Dec 26th with the big cold (but with snow, a good
thing in this case, it's insulation for the ground and delays freezing)
coming on the 27th (if it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would ever
get done - but I was out there planting by lamplight to get it done) -
mind you, an October planting would have gotten way out of hand last
year - we didn't get frost until about a month later than normal (the
end of October, not mid-late September.)

Scape timing (this year) seems to be about the same as other years.
Being planted that late I did not have tops up most of the winter, which
I often do with earlier plantings. They seem to take it fine (they laugh
at the cold), but I don't see a lot of variance in production either way.

Rotate. Garlic is beneficial to several families of crops following it
in rotation, and in general one is trying to minimize developing
diseases/pests peculiar to one plant family by not growing them in the
same spot each year.

I maintain about 100 heads, which means I get to use about 75 and the
smaller cloves from the biggest/best 25 that I set aside for seed,
planting only the larger cloves from them. I'm up to 9" grid spacing at
this point, having seen a definite improvement in size going from a 6"
grid to an 8" grid.

What is freezing and what is snow? Seldom ever happens here on the edge
of Hell, we're expecting at least 90F to 100F here this afternoon.

Got out early this morning and picked what needed to be picked from the
garden. Watered yesterday evening, weather heads say rain today, they've
said that every day for a week now. I ain't waiting on the rain.

Went to the garden about 0700 CST and it was a balmy, no wind, no clouds
80F. Didn't take me and the dog a long time to quick pick, quick water,
back into the air conditioning. Being very old I can remember when
hardly anyone had AC.

I joined the U.S. Navy at 17 in June 1957. My folks home had fans on a
stand, gas heaters in a couple of rooms. Came home from boot camp and
they had AC, gas heat in the attic, a telephone, and a new TV. Asked why
all that, Dad swore up and down that their food bill went down a hundred
bucks a month when I left. Unfortunately that didn't happen when we
tossed our kids out. G

George, still picking them peas