You can plant now, generally late Sep-late Oct there. Maybe your ext office was talking about bulbils - hard to believe they don't know this.

Dan

Thank You!

PURDUE says that??? They're up here by me, so i can't imagine why... I'm 150 miles and almost a zone further north of Indy, but i'd still plant 'em now...there's no downside to planting early.

yes there is a downside to planting early. the leaves shoot up and die in the winter taking away some of the strength of the bulb. I am 43 North and still waiting in new england to plant. I would advise waiting to the end of this month. you only want roots to grow under ground before everything freezes up.

think tulips.

you do not want green leaves to grow until spring.

Anyway. my opinion is not scientific knowledge. It is more my opinion of what works. Purdue has a huge agriculture dept and I would go with what they say. Why not give them a phone call if you live close by. They also publish an agriculture bulletin for years. all online. I am sure they discuss garlic on their ag bulletin.

well yeah, there's that....i never get mine in til it gets cold and i'm panicking, so maybe i'm not the best advisor. But still, even in Z6 you want to plant in fall if you want nice big fat sweet bulbs...

{{gwi:114706}}

I'm in southwest WI and i planted my bulbs last night. I doubt i'm early here. Its already been below freezing. I doubt they grow much. I guess if they did grow a lot you could just pile on more mulch?

Purdue vegetable calender #186 says to plant early spring. I even checked Ohio State website and they said the same thing.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1627.html

I bought some food garlic from Big Johns garden online store. I seperated the big closes and going to plant them the next couple weeks. Not much size to them, But surely give me something. I also bought 3# from Bloosqualls garlic and paiently waiting the order to be processed. It must be fall garlic fever.

" I also bought 3# from Bloosqualls garlic and paiently waiting the order to be processed. It must be fall garlic fever. "

Actually you're lucky to be able to find seed garlic at all. This late in the year most seed garlic suppliers are out, it's got to be ordered earlier in the summer...

Greg
Southern Nevada

As someone already said, when planting garlics, THINK BULBS.
So then, in colder zones (6 or lower?) plant them just before ground freezes and hardens. you dont want greens that will die in the winter and regrow in the spring.

but in my zone 7b/8, I can plant them anytime from early October on down to late November and not to worry because the fall grown greens would not die in the winter in the cold, freez and snow down to 15F(my own experience).
and since we have shorter cool spring weather, fall planting is a plus.

I'm in ~5b and we get several nights a winter below 0�F. My garlic is going in this weekend, time permitting. Most of my garlic will pop up little 1-2" sprouts November-ish and they will happily sit until March-ish when the tops will start growing again. Some of my warmer-region softnecks wait until spring.

Cold-hardy garlic varieties are very cold-hardy if you mulch deeply and ensure against dessication. Non-cold hardy vars are not cold hardy and the tops may die in Z5. Cold-hardy vars can be planted now, and on the RMG forum we Z5ers have been over all this already and many of us are planting now or soon.

Dan