Author Topic: garlic  (Read 15788 times)

Obelixx

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,937
  • Vendée, France
Re: garlic
« Reply #20 on: May 29, 2021, 08:44:45 »
Thanks JanG.  I have no idea whether it's soft or hard neck.  I shall have to try and find the label and look it up.   
Obxx - Vendée France

Tiny Clanger

  • Acre
  • ****
  • Posts: 301
Re: garlic
« Reply #21 on: May 29, 2021, 11:18:03 »
Hi Obelix, We are in sunny North Warwickshire.  My garlic is starting to die back on the outermost leaves.  I will wait until the outer leaves have died right back.  The rest of the leaves will probably still be green.  So looks like I will be waiting to harvest end of June earliest.  Hopefully the weather will be good enough to dry the garlic off outside.  :wave:
I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

Obelixx

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,937
  • Vendée, France
Re: garlic
« Reply #22 on: June 27, 2021, 15:29:26 »
Back again.  I've just been out harvesting some more  of the garlic and hanging it to dry on a Tee Gee inspired system of wires across a wooden pallet on a table base.   I harvested some a couple of weeks ago but ran out of time before a 10 day trip to Namur and that was small but well formed and has dried nicely.

The rain last week has helped fatten some of the bulbs I harvested today but others are very small, tho firm, and some have "bulbs" forming higher up the stem. 

Is this due to a problem with cultivation?  weather?  variety?   How can I improve my crop next year?   I do rotation, use home-made compost and pelleted chicken manure to replenish the soil between every crop and we haven't been short of rain this year except in April when it was also cold.
Obxx - Vendée France

Beersmith

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 892
  • Duston, Northampton. Loam / sand.
Re: garlic
« Reply #23 on: July 05, 2021, 21:15:40 »
Thanks JanG.  I have no idea whether it's soft or hard neck.  I shall have to try and find the label and look it up.

There is a good possibility you could tell them apart simply by observing the bulbs and how they have grown. Hardneck does literally have a solid central neck, usually producing a scape. Softneck doesn't.

The books suggest hardneck has better tolerance to cold, has a slightly better flavour and bigger cloves, whereas softneck keeps better. I've always found the differences to be fairly marginal.
Not mad, just out to mulch!

JanG

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 546
  • Gardening on fen silt
Re: garlic
« Reply #24 on: July 06, 2021, 06:54:43 »


The rain last week has helped fatten some of the bulbs I harvested today but others are very small, tho firm, and some have "bulbs" forming higher up the stem. 

Is this due to a problem with cultivation?  weather?  variety?   How can I improve my crop next year?   I do rotation, use home-made compost and pelleted chicken manure to replenish the soil between every crop and we haven't been short of rain this year except in April when it was also cold.

I think bulbils forming up the stem is fairly normal and some varieties are more prone to it than others.

I’ve had a bit of a garlic thing this year and grown quite a lot of different varieties. And I would say variety does make quite a difference. For example, one variety I grew was Iberian Wight and the plants and resulting bulbs were very large and impressive growing side by side with other much smaller varieties.

Obelixx

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,937
  • Vendée, France
Re: garlic
« Reply #25 on: July 06, 2021, 13:59:42 »
Thanks both.   There is a limited range on sale in shops here so I may have to try ordering online for next year's crop after researching varieties.

I have now harvested all the garlic and dried it and stored it.  Some lovely fat bulbs again and some much smaller and some with bulbs forming up the stems which is not something I've had before.  Clearly lots to learn.
Obxx - Vendée France

gray1720

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 658
Re: garlic
« Reply #26 on: October 18, 2021, 09:20:20 »
I've been growing the stuff for years, and have had some fabulous crops and some stinkers* (last year - up to my tits, eating it until the last cloves dried to nothing - this year, square root of bugger all!), so I feel a bit of a wally asking this but here goes.

From somewhere I picked up the idea that garlic likes a fairly low-nutrient soil so every year I plant it where my spuds have just come out of - with the added advantage that that is usually the first ground that is clear to cultivate. However looking at destructions for the work gardening club (we have a little "town plot" - basically a glorified raised bed), I keep being told it likes fertile soil.

So (a) where did I get that idea from? (b) am I starving the poor stuff by making it follow nutrient sponges like spuds? and (c) what do I do now? I have ground that's been rather more fallow than intended this year that it could go on, but I need to clear and dig that first, whereas what I have clear and dug has hosted spuds and pumpkins - equally awkward!

Advice, anecdotes, general garlic chit-chat welcomed!

*No pun intended.
My garden is smaller than your Rome, but my pilum is harder than your sternum!

Tee Gee

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 6,926
  • Huddersfield - Light humus rich soil
    • The Gardener's Almanac
Re: garlic
« Reply #27 on: October 18, 2021, 09:51:38 »
I would say; like onions they want nitrogen feed until they start swelling, then potash after that.

Added to that I didn't weed them after they begun to swell as I rightly, or wrongly, thought the weeds took up any surplus nitrogen in the soil.

Then there were some who would say I was just too  bl**dy lazy for not weeding.

To sum up I was always happy with might crop!

gray1720

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 658
Re: garlic
« Reply #28 on: October 19, 2021, 08:53:38 »
I cannot imagine the Great Tee Gee ever being lazy. Using time intelligently, now that's a different matter!

I shall hang on until we get some muck, then, and stir in a soupcon before I plant. Dunno about potash, I'll think of something.
My garden is smaller than your Rome, but my pilum is harder than your sternum!

Tee Gee

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 6,926
  • Huddersfield - Light humus rich soil
    • The Gardener's Almanac
Re: garlic
« Reply #29 on: October 19, 2021, 12:17:55 »
potash=Tomato feed or similar

gray1720

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 658
Re: garlic
« Reply #30 on: October 19, 2021, 12:43:06 »
Of course. I've enough toms that I'm always up to my tits in the stuff. No problem, thank you.
My garden is smaller than your Rome, but my pilum is harder than your sternum!

Tee Gee

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 6,926
  • Huddersfield - Light humus rich soil
    • The Gardener's Almanac
Re: garlic
« Reply #31 on: October 19, 2021, 13:12:48 »
This is an article  did on fertilisers that covers the most common types and what they do;

https://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Content/F/Fertiliser/Fertiliser.htm

 

anything
SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal