From: songbird@anthive.com   
      
   fos@sdf.org wrote:   
   ...   
   > the prior two years we purchased seed garlic from Burpee. Romanian Red,   
   > hardneck, and their advice was to plant soon as the garlic, which was   
   > ordered late summer, arrived. that was early to mid october. by mid   
   > october the bed will prepared, but the garlic isn't going to be planted   
   > until we get a good hard frost and the soil is a bit crusty. we had   
   > growth make it to the surface in the fall the last two years. i've read   
   > it can act like a straw to suck moisture out of the cloves causing rot   
   > once killed by the cold.   
      
     i don't think that should be that much of a problem really   
   as if you have to worry about that dry of a climate then   
   you would have to water during the dry and warmer spells.   
   during the really cold times there shouldn't be that much   
   transpiration happening anyways.   
      
     also remember that the bulb and cloves don't form until   
   the following warmer season so there shouldn't be an issue   
   with anything from the stems affecting the bulb unless you   
   stop watering too soon, have a drought or something else   
   strange happens.   
      
      
   > we do need to mulch i think. our winters now consist of quite a few   
   > freezing and thawing cycles anymore. we need to mulch to help prevent   
   > heaving. we'll put it down several inches thick once the ground is   
   > nearly frozen and pull it off in the spring as it thaws leaving only   
   > enough to keep weeds down. will look for and push back down any cloves   
   > found on the surface.   
      
     i've never had a problem with frost heaving garlic out of   
   the ground, but i have had some cloves get uprooted by deer   
   trampling around looking for other things to eat.   
      
      
   > with good soil amendments, plenty of organic material and proper   
   > nutrients, and maintaining moist soil throughout winter which got   
   > ignored the first two years, i'm expecting much better results next   
   > year.   
      
     :)  hope it works out!  :)   
      
      
   > i'm with others here, we remove the scapes and make garlic scape &   
   > basil pesto with most of it. the rest i use in salads. we cut them off   
   > after they make one loop and point at the sky again. any longer than   
   > that they can become too "woody", so i have read.   
      
     planting small cloves and anything extra you might have   
   down deeper is a way to get some good green garlic the   
   following spring and into early summer but i've found out   
   that i just don't have the time to dig it up that time of   
   the year so i don't grow it any more (i don't have a lot   
   of extra garlic now too that i'm growing less than i used   
   to and i'm not pulling up much from other spots).   
      
      
     songbird   
      
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