Ecnerwal wrote:
songbird wrote:

sadly we've not had much snow cover and
the temperatures have been well below
freezing so all the nice garlic tops that
were green and growing have been frozen.
last winter there was snow cover to keep
the worst of the cold from damaging the
tops so we went into spring with plenty of
top growth. it will be interesting to see
if it makes much difference with the final
results.

Mine is usually up and frozen and does not mind a bit. I would not
stress about it. I suppose there might be types that would mind, but
they won't survive the local selection process...even the stuff that's
behind (still down in the ground) will come up in spring and get frozen
multiple times. Last year most of the bed was up and getting frozen off
and on from December onwards. Didn't seem to affect it at all - not even
foliage damage. I like garlic from the easy-care perspective.

i wouldn't say i'm stressed by it, just curious
how much of a difference there might be.

my guess is that even if there is some damage
the added days of growth and putting energy
down into the soil and roots will pay off.
the plants had two and a half months of growth
before it finally got too cold for them to do
much, but they stayed green up until we had
overnight lows in the single digits.

we'll see what next summer brings.


songbird