Garlic

[Mortality]

Is there any reason I can't grow Garlic from the bulbs you buy in the supermarket?

[Mortality]

[saddad]

Most will grow OK...  :)

[pigeonseed]

Some people report problems with disease, but I have also always done it without problems.

Have a go?

[tim]

Not just 'if' - or disease - but size too?

Most s/market cloves are 1/4-1/3rd the size of the ones I'm putting in.
See earlier. http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,57493.0.html

[pigeonseed]

interesting, thanks Tim

[Mortality]

Thanks everyone  ;D

[lewic]

Last November I planted some cloves from a large already-sprouting organic garlic from a health food shop. I thought they didnt get much better than that. They took 6 months to grow to the size of 6" pencils, and the single bulb each clove produced wasnt any bigger than the one I put in the ground.

This Nov I planted some from the garden centre and within a week they were a couple of inches high, and are now bigger than last years ones ever got. Wouldnt ever bother with shop-bought ones again!

[realfood]

Most of the garlic in the supermarkets comes  from climates that are very different from ours, and the results can be very much hit or miss.

[tim]

Like Chinese??

[realfood]

Indeed Chinese. I did try planting some "solo" Chinese garlic in the autumn out of curiosity. It grew strongly, but has now collapsed, while my other garlics are fine.

[tim]

Nice site.

[chriscross1966]

Indeed Chinese. I did try planting some "solo" Chinese garlic in the autumn out of curiosity. It grew strongly, but has now collapsed, while my other garlics are fine.

I've got a few of those in too, will have to check them this weekend.... THere's two theories as to what they are that I've heard.... either:

Whacky cultivar/species that grows from seed to produce single bulb in a year  then bolts to flower (so I'll have flowers this year) in a way much like an onion does or:

Normalish cultivar grown without a cold period so therefor goes from small clove to big single-clove bulb in its second year.....

Either sounds pretty believable to me, certainly the ones I had had no trace of ever being part of a cluseter, they were just too perfectly round..... if they fflower I will try to ensure that none of the other garlic near them gets to (I#'d habitually remove garlic flowers anyway) so if it is the seed-bulb in a year scenario I should ahve seed for next year....

chrisc

[Vinlander]

I regard it as pretty normal for garlic to occasionally form a single huge clove - 95% of the times it has been from a late spring sowing but not always...

I find it quite useful - if the bulbs earmarked for planting have some small cloves I often can't be bothered peeling them for the pot, so I save them and plant much later - turning a tiny clove into a medium clove is much more useful than turning it into 10 even tinier cloves!

Cheers.

[chriscross1966]

I regard it as pretty normal for garlic to occasionally form a single huge clove - 95% of the times it has been from a late spring sowing but not always...

I find it quite useful - if the bulbs earmarked for planting have some small cloves I often can't be bothered peeling them for the pot, so I save them and plant much later - turning a tiny clove into a medium clove is much more useful than turning it into 10 even tinier cloves!

Cheers.

Good point... I'll try and remember that....

chrisc

[tim]

Put them very close & use green.