I planted my garlic this week, a bit later than I had planned due to
a combination of weather and personal health.

The bed had been prepped for a while and by the time I got around
to putting in the garlic we'd finally had some rain. Almost a lot of
rain, by this year's standards. I was pleasantly surprised to find
what seemed to be tiny bok choi growing in the garlic bed (and in
the empty bed) next to it, so I plucked the ones on the garlic bed to
have in soup that evening.

Anyway, I grow both hard- and soft-necked garlic and have planted
from my best for a number of years.

Last vwinter was very mild, and we had some extremely erractic
early spring temperatures (that destroyed the Michigan apple and
cherry crops) followed by drought and abnormally high
temperatures starting in May and carrying on for months.

When I harvest the garlic I was happy that the wrappers looked
good and they all cleaned up nice and looked reasonable sized.
What I didn't notice at that point was that the soft-necked garlic
all looked a bit *oblong.* I found out when I went to plant them
that the reason they looked that way is because they were
comprised of two ENORMOUS cloves at either end with a few
flattened but more normal sized cloved in the middle.

I wonder if this is a one time thing (weather related) and what
will happen next year.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Yes, swooping is bad."

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