I just googled your question and found the following from a scientific source: Good sanitation is extremely important in controlling the onion maggot. In order for third generation maggots to survive and overwinter in the field, they must have a supply of cull or missed onions on which to feed. If all onions are removed from the field, the maggots will have nothing on which to feed and thus cannot survive. Growers should, therefore, do their best to ensure complete harvesting and to leave no culls in the field. Removal of cull piles is also strongly encouraged. Limited natural control of the onion maggot is provided by a complex of predators and parasitoids which include the predatory flies Coenosia tigrina and Scatophaga stercoraria, the wasp, Aphaerata pallipes, the beetle Aleochara bilineata and a fungus Entomopthora muscae. I gather from the above that parasitic nematodes are not the control you require. To be successful, they also require moist soil and the correct temperature. Maybe you should plant in a different spot and do some research on when the above pretators should be applied. Also, wouldn't your ag extension office be able to guide you in the right direction?

Many define fallow land as having been plowed but left unseeded. However, others of us think of fallow as a garden plot left to rest, and regenerate. That can include tilling the soil, if necessary, and seeding a cover/green manure crop to be turned back in to add some organic mater to the soil. We are told, in the Bible, to let land remain fallow every 7 years so it can regenerate. Many of the older farmers practiced a 7 year rotation on the fields they worked, although seldom, from my conversations with them, was the field left barren and exposed to the ravages of the sun, wind, and rain. A green manure/cover crop of some kind was usually planted in that fallow field. I find very little to nothing about leaving fields fallow today although many people do practice adding compost and other forms of vegetative waste regularly in the hope that would eliminate the need to leave land fallow.

Well, thank you everyone for your responses. I started pulling some up yesterday and it indeed was ready. Some were planted to close together to form a sizeable head, but that's what you get when you let your kids plant with you. I did get a few rounds, I may plant them again, or just use them as garlic onions. Upon pulling them out I realized that had I left them in till the end of June or July like I was going to, the wrappers would have rotted away. This is only my second year growing garlic and believe it or not, I didn't look anything up about growing it, I just put it in and my Grandma told me what to look for when it's ready and that was it. It seemed very easy. It wasn't till all the reading and research did I start to get worried this year, I guess ignorance really is bliss. The one thing I learned for sure is I think I will stick with the hardnecks, if they do well in California. I've already prepared a site for the fall garlic that won't take up any of my precious tomato space next year. That was the only hard thing about growing garlic, trying to decide where to plant it since it's going to be in for a while, but I'm all set now! Thank you again to everyone who helped me, and I look forward to many more years of garlic growing.

Hello Greezer ... I grow different maturing garlics strains, mainly because the properties for each strain, I found that creoles .. specially AJO ROJO ( not rocambole spanish roja) stores well in my zone 6, with excellent terrific flavor good for all cooking purpose, saute, baked, soups .. or just simply rubed in a piece fo bread :)! these particular strain does not give you a large head instead it produces at least the first year a small head with at least 8-10 small cloves per bulb with a very pretty red clove wraper ( not bulb the bulb wraper reamins white). When the seed is recycle I plant the bigest cloves, and after 3-5 years I have seen the light with the bulb / cloves sizeing but one have to be patient. I also found after years and lots of garlics 500 heads per season, that our garlics stored better if you simply hang them in bunches with their foliage and don't fuss over them. Also left them in our lower enclosed porch, there is where we hang them, during the hot summer days we have a big fan circulting the air if you will, and once Oct comes we turn the fan off and leave the garlics hanging, we do not bother to clean them or brush them, nor cutting the dried foliage if you will, just simply get what we need when we need them, again we grow @ 15 strains ... which are the ones that I like best after trying 30 + strains, and YES, some garlics like the persian star, and killerney, do show signs of the green shoot (and indication of spaouting and early maturing) -so I try to use those garlics first and contemplate the creoles for the last ones to use. Martin could perhaps share his storing practices :)! Thank you and Be well,