Early Spring? Good or bad for garlic?

We had a mild winter this year.  Garlic was up and growing earlier than any other time in the past ten years I have been at this farm.  It was up by mid-March and growing along nice and healthy.  No snow cover but temperatures were not dropping that low at night.  I mulch so it mitigates thawing and freezing a bit.

I really notice the differences among the varieties early in the year.  The Shan Tung was 3 times taller than any of the other varieties.  It usually finishes much earlier also, usually around the 4th of July.  Being that we have later springs here as we are a bit higher in elevation, the Shan Tung usually doesn’t bulk up well for me.  I am hoping to see a difference this year in that variety.  I only grow a few pounds of it but it is a trial to see how it likes our region.  I am also trialing Silver White, which is a softneck silverskin variety.  I used to grow more of it until the late spring heavy freeze a few years ago took a toll on it. About 3/4 of the variety bolted to scape after the freeze and I got tiny bulbs.  It is more of a west coast variety and has a tendency to bolt if exposed to a lot of stress.  So, I saved seed from what didn’t bolt that year and growing just a few pounds.  We just got a cold snap again this year.  It wasn’t later than normal but the garlic is higher than it normally is by now.  It was after 6″ of snow though so maybe the 12 degree temps won’t bother it.

Feel free to comment on any of the posts if you have similar experiences or information others could benefit from.