Foliar feeding helps garlic grow big and healthy. The earlier you plant and the longer you leave garlic in the ground, the larger it will get - within its natural limitations. Garlic won't grow until it is ready to so planting much before the first day of fall doesn't seem to help. Garlic will grow while it is cool and when the temperature gets too hot, it stops growing and its leaves die down. It doesn't do any good to leave garlic in the ground after it has matured as that will cause the bulb wrappers to rot away exposing the bulb to predators and disease.
Some varieties inherently mature a month or more before other varieties.
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