Topic: Buying Garlic and Shallots

[cambourne7]

I'm going to add my two penn'orth, just to confuse things.  I buy the majority of my stuff from Tamar Organics, and I've never had any complaints with either the quality of stock or the service I get.  Slightly batty, but lovely people.
http://www.tamarorganics.co.uk/

Shallots - Not sure how many you get as there is no quantitys.
Garlic - 125g for pink garlic £2.70 white garlic £2.55  Not sure how many bulbs you get for 125g though

They do i see have the organic slug pellets which is good to know and a wonderful variaty of green manures.

[silverbirch]

That's right, they sell by weight, not quantity, though I normally find that 250g is enough for me, that gives 4 or 5 cloves.  I bought a kilo of onion sets once, and shared them with most of the other plotholders.

[cambourne7]

ah

[cambourne7]

Just wondered if anyone has seen any garlic in any of the garden centers??

[lin]

I bought two bulbs of garlic at Tatton Park and two at Southport Flower Show. I am going to plant them separately in October and watch their progress. But dum dum me forgot to write down the name of the garlic, I assumed it was on the info sheet but it wasn't, I think one variety was Solent Wight...but as long as they grow...!

I planted loads of garlic at that time last year and I have only had a couple of teensy little bulbs with small cloves on each so very disappointing this year. I am hoping it was just the exceptionally wet weather and that I get huge crops next year cause I love garlic...
Lin

[Amazin]

Give it time Cam - Wilko's should have theirs in quite soon!

 ;D

[antipodes]

just to comment on what tim said about buying locally to save problems; I think that when you buy over the net it doesn't make much difference where the company is! I have found French suppliers to be very good on the whole, and I will check out that link to Baumaux as this is the last year i try to plant garlic in spring. I am going to have to pull and chuck out all my garlic, none of the bulbs developed properly :(  does anyone know why that might be? I bought it from a garden centre...

[posie]

Cam I saw some garlic in Focus DIY yesterday.  :)

[Mrs Ava]

Just ordering mine from the garlic farm on the sunny south island.  ;D

[cambourne7]

thanks guys :)

[Barnowl]

.......... I will check out that link to Baumaux as this is the last year i try to plant garlic in spring. I am going to have to pull and chuck out all my garlic, none of the bulbs developed properly :(  does anyone know why that might be? I bought it from a garden centre...

I don't think garlic should be planted in the spring - isn't from Autumn to Christmas the usual planting period? It needs cold snaps to develop properly.

[silverbirch]

A bit like onions, there are two types of garlic.  One sort needs planting by Christmas, the other can go out by Februaury.  I find the overwintering one stores better.

[Barnowl]

Thanks for the info Silverbirch :). Only grown it for one year so all advice welcome.

With Spring planting, I would be concerned that if we didn't get a cold patch the garlic wouldn't divide into cloves. Should you leave it in a cold fridge for a few days before planting or am I worrying unnecessarily?

[real food]

I do not know of any evidence that garlic needs frost to divide. I have always assumed that provided it is given enough time undisturbed, to grow to complete it's growth cycle, it will divide.
After all, it is grown in many parts of the Mediterranean where it is unlikely to get any frost.

[pigeonseed]

I think they do get cold winters in southern europe. But I don't actually know whether or not that's what helps division. I just always believed the received wisdom

[powerspade]

I but most of my shallots and Onions also seed potatoes in my local shop in Pontlottyn
great service and quallity sets etc. I find it cheaper to buy local also they let my know when stock is in.

[redimp]

I think all varieties of garlic need a 'cold' spell for a certain length of time but that the 'coldness' required varies - thus why different garlics are suitable for different climates and for different sowing times.

[bupster]

I rate Marshalls - and if you're in Cambourne they're quite local...

[Mrs Ava]

I picked this from the Garlic Farm website:

Grow it yourself in the UK
We have been growing garlic in the Arreton Valley on the Isle of Wight for over 25 years. Garlic grows well over most of the UK provided it is grown in a free draining soil that is not too acid and kept well watered and weed free. Any amateur gardener can grow good garlic.

Provided it has adequate water in a fertile soil it will grow anywhere in the UK . If there is any secret to growing good garlic it is in how it is handled at harvest and dried. This should present no problem to the amateur gardener who buys 5-10 bulbs and grows 50 to a 100 bulbs.

The UK climate presents the commercial grower with more of a challenge. Bright sparkling white bulbs are the product of Mediterranean sunshine. In our English climate we have to make maximum use of the sun when it is there and protect the garlic from the prolonged wet spells that are our lot.

Garlic requires a long rotation of more than six years to prevent the build up of diseases such as white rot, and nematode pests such as eelworm. The land is ploughed, cultivated and fertilised according to the needs of the crop and the chosen fields for the year.

Isle of Wight Garlic is planted from October to February and the first garlic shoots mark the rows from January onwards. Garlic requires a spell of cold weather, generally 1-2 weeks at 0-4C, to prepare itself physiologically for bulb formation later in the year.
Weed control is largely by mechanical inter row cultivation and some hand hoeing. This is supplemented in the spring with an application of herbicide to suppress particularly difficult weed competition.

During the spring the garlic crop responds to applications of nitrogen and sulphur to encourage healthy leaf growth. There is some evidence that the sulphur also assists in the formation of higher levels of allicin, the sulphur compound which is at the centre of the medicinal properties of garlic and also for the sulphurous combinations which make up garlic's pungent aroma.