6 Reasons Why Your Garlic Bulbs Are Small?

In this video, I give you 6 reasons why your garlic bulb harvest is small and not as large as expected?



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Self Sufficient Me is based on our small 3-acre property/homestead in SE Queensland Australia about 45kms north of Brisbane - the climate is subtropical (similar to Florida). I started Self Sufficient Me in 2011 as a blog website project where I document and write about backyard food growing, self-sufficiency, and urban farming in general. I love sharing my foodie and DIY adventures online so come along with me and let's get into it! Cheers, Mark :) #preserving #homegrown #homesteading

*Disclaimer: Some links to products in this description and comments sections are affiliated, meaning, I receive a small commission if you follow these links and then purchase an item. I will always declare in a video if the video is sponsored and as of October 2021 I am yet to do a sponsored video.

[Selfsufficientme]

G'day Everyone, in a weird kind of way one of the things I like about gardening is how success is never guaranteed and I think that's why every time I do have a "gardening win" or "grow a ton" that feeling of satisfaction and excitement never wanes... Get into it! Cheers :)

[pobo]

I appreciate the fact that you show us your failures because it helps me to remember that just because I failed at one of my plants doesn’t mean I’m a bad start👍🏻

[hellbent]

you mentioned not bothering doing a video on a failed crop, But all to often videos just show, the uploader having great harvests and brush over the problems that novices, could and do encounter, Hats off to you for posting this.

[avidhossanmansur]

The lets...


GET INTO IT never gets old.

[garthmay]

Hey Mark - I grow garlic here in the west near Perth, and do occasionally get small bulbs (for various reasons!). I still save them for replanting the next season and can confirm you can grow big bulbs from last years small ones!

[stephaniesealy]

Hi Mark, I can see the genuine disappointment on your face, however on the plus side, your experience of garlic this season has helped me so much. I experimented with my 1st raised beds this year, having started gardening in pots during the 1st UK lockdown. I was sent a gift pack of various seeds as a birthday present and my aliums were much smaller bulbs than yours, but added to my best ever basil season, created amazing pesto sauce. However, based on that, I've decided to focus on Aliums and herbs in my small London garden as this is what we use the most. I've grown herbs for years, more so now my son is a professional Chef. I watch all of your videos and learn so much. Your genuine love & passion for what you do motivates me so much! Thank you for you!

[freakygardener]

Thanks buddy! I am new to gardening, but I look at poor crops as chances for learning. Most people just share the GOOD stuff, but if nobody shares the problems, and/or failures, how can we learn what NOT to do?

[crlpulm]

Just watched this but just wanted to mention that small isn't always bad. I find the small ones can often be really tasty and that's sometimes better than the big ones. Appreciate you posting this!

[hollywobbl]

I always have a laugh watching Mark’s videos. His editing makes me laugh so hard, and his “dad jokes” makes me groan even louder. I love watching these videos with friends or family along with learning something new. Thank you!

[aquilip]

Hi Mark,
I've been growing garlic every season for 35 years now in Melbourne.
I watched a great tip from Peter Cundall on Gardening Australia many moons ago and the take away's that I can share in my success with garlic is they like the soil to be friable (not sandy), put on Dolomite Lime (not builders lime) down before planting and a low nitrogen fertiliser.
Then I make furrows in the soil at least 50mm high and 150mm apart. Then plant the bulbs 100mm apart on the top of the mound and stagger the planting. Water only in between the rows in the ditch. Yes, garlic love water (but not wet feet), then reduce the amount of water when the tips of the leaves start to dry up and when the bulbs plump up.
I don't use mulch as I believe the garlic don't like humidity!
Last tip, keep them weed free as garlic don't enjoy competition!

[kerryharvey]

I'm in Florida. I have to vernalize (cold treat) my garlic by keeping the starts in the fridge for 6-8 weeks before planting to trick them that they've had a winter. If you have a bumper crop and don't want to store it all as whole garlic then slice it and dry it in the dehydrator and then put it through the vitamix/coffee grinder etc., and you'll have the best garlic powder you've ever had. Same for onions, leeks including the green tops.

[katieglauber]

I really like how you also show us when your crops crap out. Gardening can be tricky and if all you see is people's success stories, then it seems like when you have a failure that it's absolutely devastating. But to see others fail too, then you know that it happens and you just try again next year.

[MySiberianMax]

HI, I also grow garlic and learned from a well known french garlic farmer. My bulbes are arround 200 grams of weight for the big ones and biggest was close to 300 grams, so pretty large, this is rose Lautrec. They all get rust and i never treat them for rust. But what does stop the bulbes from growing large is nitrogen in the soil and acidity. Only add fertiliser low or without nitrogen and woodchips or hay are pretty high in nitrogen. you had lots of hay and woodchips in your garlic bed and i know you add lots of compost to your soil which raises the acidity. When i bought my garlic from the french garlic farmer he told me not to use compost, hay or woodchips in the garlic bed BUT to add chalk to the soil to raise the PH level of the garlic bed which lowers the acidity and feed with low nitrogen fertiliser

[Jeff-rdhb]

In my experience, planting at the wrong time of year is the main reason for small garlic bulbs. I plant "sacrificial" garlic in the Spring around my tomatoes & peppers as companion plants, and those bulbs never get very big. 
My main garlic crop always gets planted in the Fall, then Winters over so it's got a big head start come Spring. Those bulbs get nice and big. 😋

[plaisirdelanglais]

Here in France we had such a bad weather this year that my garlic did amazingly well. All bought from Saint Marthe Ferm company And the taste is super spicy. My partner also doesn't want to kiss me 🤣

[TheMillennialGardener]

This is interesting. I am not a garlic expert, but I’ve had good success growing hardneck and softneck here in the US. I am just at the tip of the subtropics at 34.1N latitude. However, because Canada provides a land bridge for Arctic winds, our subtropics on the east coast where I live get a lot of frosts and freezes, unlike in Australia. We get about 30 frost a year here, so keep that in mind. It helps a lot with garlic growing. Here are my takeaways:

1. Garlic matures in about 240 days (8 months). If you plant April 1, that means your garlic is maturing around December 1.

2. You want your garlic to peak around the summer solstice, because that’s when day length is longest for bulbing. Your day length is longest around December 21. If you plant April 1, that actually seems “about right.”

So what’s the problem? My guess is you just don’t have enough chill hours in your climate. A lot of growers have sworn that refrigerating their bulbs for 8 weeks is key. Do you do that? Placing them in your fridge Feb 1, planting them April 1 and harvesting them December 1 sounds like a good plan to me, but I could be way off since your climate is much warmer at night in the winter than mine.

[rufia]

Mark, I LOVE that you did a video about something that was a 'failure'/didn't work out! Great learning opportunities! I grew garlic for for first time this year. Our planting times are the opposite, as I'm in North America, but for our hardneck, I plant early to mid October and harvest in July. The bulbs were ok sized. I've done lots over this past few months to add organic matter and fertility to my garden beds (tons of homemade compost and some cover crops), so I'm hoping this time they will do much better!

[sylviaelderkin]

Hi Mark! Here in Pennsylvania USA. Be sure to refrigerate your bulbs for 1-2 months before sowing. This releases the chemical needed for the garlic clove to split into many different cloves as the bulb forms. Best of luck with your next crop of garlic, and thank you for sharing! I love your videos! : )

[nevaehdoesstuff]

A small garlic harvest is still exciting though..

[chilidillo]

Hey Mark, greetings from North Texas USA! We have been self sufficient in garlic for the past 4 years. We only grow Cheskok Red hard-neck garlic. As usual I planted last Sept 15th, the difference is that this crop survived Stormageddon last February. The crop survived 30+ hours of sub zero temps, (-17C) in one of our Birdie's beds. This was the biggest, healthiest, best tasting crop ever with avg bulb weight at 50g