Topic: joining the garlic crowd

[MrsKP]

ok, i know it's late, and i wasn't going to bother but have just been to ASDA for beer for the football and there was a bag of garlic plants sitting there inviting me to join in.

i've tried to read as much as i can in five minutes flat, but some quick advice please (as we're due a frost tonight apparently so if i could get them in now, that would be good).

do i plant the whole bulb or break it and plant the cloves in separate pots.

cheers muchas as per normal.

 ;D

[Larkspur]

Hi, break it into individual cloves and plant it a couple of inches deep. Unless your ground is completely sodden I wouldn't plant it into pots at this time of the year but straight outside. ;)

[MrsKP]

well i got it half right and broke them into cloves.  what confused me was the got to be "cold enough to split the bulbs" statement that i've seen about.

their bed isn't ready yet though and my ground is soaking so we'll see what happens in the pots.  can i transplant them when their bed is ready.

i was really thinking i'd missed the boat, so haven't done any reading apart from the last hour or so.  if it works then it will be another major achievement, if it doesn't, i'll know better for the autumn as i will have learned a bit more by then.

thanks larkspur.

[deboydoyd]

Apparently if the bulb is'nt subjected to a spell of very cold weather whilst it is growing it wo'nt split into individual cloves and you will harvest 1 big garlic bulb  which i've read doesn't taste as good.

[MrsKP]

ahhhhhhh i see.

well it's definitely been warmer this week, but with a frost promised for tonight so i hear.  if all that happens is that they overcome the carrot fly with their pong, then that will be something and i'll just have to wait and see what i get come harvest time.

[tim]

deboy - yes - see the other thread. But they still sell for Mar/Apr planting.

[weedbusta]

i dont suppose you could give them a blast in the freezer!! dare you to try one clove for a laugh.

[Robert_Brenchley]

A couple of weeks in the fridge would probably be more like it, if you kept them damp.

[MutantHobbit]

I'm sure I've read on the boards here, somebody, somewhere,  suggesting a week in the fridge in a plastic bag is enough to do the trick.  Be careful of what food is in the fridge, though.  :) 

Going off topic slightly, I once put a bag of sliced onions in the freezer, which had a opened cardboard slab of vanilla in it, and the tie came off the bag... ::) surprisingly tasty I thought, vanilla and onion ice cream! ;)

[Jimmy]

Have found that the cloves planted in March/April rather than over-wintered will split but get a smaller yield.

Not sure if this is variety related but was the case with Solent Wight and not so much with Early Wight.

[MrsKP]

mine are the finest ASDA variety .......... probably the only ASDA variety.   ;D


a couple of cloves have been dug up and happily sitting with the beer in the beer fridge.  if the smell can get through aluminium then so be it  ;D

[tim]

Solent Wight - exactly!

[Hyacinth]

KayPee, I sincerely believe you've been given the wrong advice here :-\ The Garlic Farm, when you receive theirs,  tell you to put the garlic in a cold dry dark place NOT the fridge before planting.  Their bulbs come in thick paper bags - I'd never dream of putting them in plastic = any spot of moisture will cause rotting? Same as buying any other pre-packaged veggies & not removing them from the plastic...

If you can...take these well-travelled cloves out of the beer fridge, put in stout paper bags & bung them somewhere in your shed in a dark place perhaps (tho I would risk the salad compartment at a push (living dangerously, like..) if the shed's gonna get too hot during the day.

 ;) Lish x

[Robert_Brenchley]

Our fridge is always damp, and cooking garlic lasts ages in there, though it will rot eventually, if it doesn't grow first. To keep it for a long period safely, it has to be kept dry.

[Jimmy]

The Solent Wight info states to keep in a light, cool position or to split into cloves and plant into pots until planting time in March. They also come in usual clear perforated bags you receive onion sets/seed spuds etc in.

Never simple is it  ;D

[MrsKP]

wow wow wow, where did my "notify" emails go ?  just seen the last three posts on here and am now totally confused (doesn't take much  ;D).

ok, so we're now covering all the bases.

leaving one bag in beer fridge, got 3 pots outside, and one lot out of beer fridge in "newspaper" bag in kitchen cupboard which could double as a fridge most days.

many thanks one and all. 

 :P

edit:  oops - just gone to beer fridge and found that the bag nearest the back/cooling element has a slightly frozen solid mass of compost !  if the poor wee cloves haven't given up the ghost, the bulbs might be tricked into thinking we've just had a cold snap !  :o

[MutantHobbit]

It'll be interesting to see what happens.  Maybe I got lucky when I left it in a polythene bag in the fridge for a week as it didn't get wet or damp. ;D 

So Alishka may be right in suggesting paper bags are the way to go. :D  Me, I'll just make sure they go into the ground come Autumn, as Bob Flowerdew on Gardener's QT reckons they don't mind wet conditions, which was why I delayed :D.

[DenBee]

I dunnit too.

Was in the nursery today and saw these bulbs of garlic, starting to sprout and waving at me.  They were cheap, so I bought them, what can I say?  I bought them.  It hadn't even occurred to me to grow garlic till I read it on here.

Very wet here though, so think I might refrigerate them for a couple of days and give the ground a bit of time to dry out.  Nothing ventured, etc....  :)