Do it now, if only for soil moisture savings.

Dan

Glad I looked here - I have a question on mulch, too. I planted garlic about a week (I think) ago, and am not seeing any top growth yet. Should I wait until top growth shows to mulch? I am concerned that mulching prior to seeing top growth might smother it. I live in AL, but we are expected to have 2 nights below freezing later this week.

Thanks in advance.

I planted mine last year IN the mulch -- I had some trees removed and kept the woodchips. It made a very substantial bed, about 80 x 20 feet, and the chips were piled as deep as a foot in most spots after I spread them evenly (which I did with the snowplow blade on my SUV that I plow the driveways with in the winter!).

I just scooped the chips out to about 6-8 inches and put the garlic cloves right in, then covered them back up.

Since it was wood chips, I threw a pretty substantial amount of high N fertilizer over the planting several times this year.

Got the best garlic ever, great big nice cloves. I had several varieties, all hardnecks.

Hi Sigrid,
Here in coastal MA, we have been planting garlic in raised beds for more years than I care to remember. We harvest nice bulbs in July, save the largest for seed and distribute the rest to our kitchen, relatives, and friends in that order.
1. We plant in the second half of October.
2. We mulch immediately after planting with about 6-8 inches of straw. Depending upon the weather, plants may grow before Christmas shooting up through the straw. Don't worry about it. It is doing what it knows how to do.
3. Do not remove the straw mulch in the Springtime. The Garlic grows up right through it and the straw suppresses weeds and retains moisture.
4.With the heavy mulch, we rarely do any watering in the spring or early summer.
5. The only fertilizer we use is some well composted manure/barn sweepings and occasional lime.
6. I quietly feel satisfaction that our Garlic is better than most we see at farm stands.
7. Each year, we introduce one or two new varieties just for the fun of it. Our mainstays are the old tried and proven Polish and German hardnecks, but it is fun trying new things every year, and once and a while you find a new "keeper"..... and I'm over eighty.

We are trending more toward hardnecks, as we use the scapes for pesto and stir-fry. Yuuuh-um! We also plant a few extra to give away.

Once you harvest and cure and eat, you'll never go back to store-bought and wonder why everyone doesn't grow their own.

Dan

Thank you all,went out and got some straw ,covered 6 inches high and now cant wait for spring
Sigrid

Interesting topic! I have been planting garlic for the past 2-3 years, plant in Oct., harvest in June the following year. It has never occured to me to mulch the garlic. Would mulching allow me to harvest them earlier or to get bigger garlic heads or both? I would love to be able to plant more garlic, but I have limited space. If I can harvest garlic sooner, I will be able to plant other things afterwards.

The garlic I planted this fall is already sprouting a couple of inches, is it too late to mulch them now ? I am in zone 6.

sara in Philly
I don't think it is too late to mulch with about eight inches of straw. Any increase in bulb size would be due to retaining more moisture. The mulch is applied primarily to prevent frost heaving during the winter months when we have alternating freezes and thaws which disrupts roots and has a negative impact on plant health. Yes, I guess a healthier root system might give you bigger bulbs. I plant October and harvest in July and then plant a crop of bush beans harvesting before the first frost which was Nov. 1 this year.

Thank you sconticut! I will go and get some straw.