Covering garlic

[Number Six]

A belated happy New Year to all.

I planted my garlic (& a few shallots) in November, and covered them in fleece to keep the birds off.

Both seem to be growing ok so far, and I'm now debating whether to take the fleece off to prevent stunting their growth or to keep them protected during the impending colder conditions.

Grateful for any advice/opinions.

Best regards

John

[Number Six]

[Tee Gee]

Yes take the fleece off and do not worry about protecting them from temperature damage, this is unlikely as they need a cold period in order to split the planted clove into a number of new cloves.

In terms of bird damage I think you might be better using netting as opposed to fleece to give the protection you require.

This would also apply to your shallots.

If you do not have any netting then support your fleece on hoops or canes to make a tent arrangement and this will give your plants space to grow in height and preventing them becoming stunted.(see example below)

[Plot22]

I would take the fleece off. I have never had any trouble with birds pulling garlic up. The worst year that I have ever had with it was when I mulched it with manure as soon as I had set it. I started with new stock in 2014/15  as I do every 4 years and I have reset 270 of the biggest cloves from that harvest. I have every one through with about half a dozen doubles where I had not split the cloves. These I have now separated. The varieties that I am currently growing are Provence White, Early Purple White and Vallelado . I also set Tuscany in 2014 but the crop was disappointing so I did not reset in October last year.

[johhnyco15]

i never cover garlic or onions and apart from white rot never get any garlic problems

[Number Six]

Many thanks for the swift replies - greatly appreciated. The fleece is coming off!

[squeezyjohn]

I do cover my garlic with netting now because last year the deer came in and grazed the tops down to nothing more than stumps during the spring.  I didn't think that anything ate garlic apart from curious birds pulling at fresh green growth ... but I was wrong.

If you don't have starving deer then I'm sure the garlic will be OK ... it certainly doesn't mind the cold and actually needs some freezing temperatures to make the bulbs divide to make lots of cloves for next year.

[Vinlander]

i never cover garlic or onions and apart from white rot never get any garlic problems

We have bird problems on my site and I used to get quite a lot of sets pulled up - up to 20% and often when I'd planted just before going on holiday.

One year in desperation I put some narrow glass panes (most of them broken) over the row, because I thought the cold weather wouldn't produce much growth anyway. When I got back the glass had improved the growth so much that each onion had 20cm of green leaf wriggling through the gaps under the glass.

Surprisingly, they all bounced upright within 2 days of me taking the glass off AND there was virtually no slug damage.

I used this technique with great success every year until I gave up buying sets.

NB. I did try it with broad beans to keep the mice off and it worked just as well - except that there was a lot of slug damage despite a scattering of pellets.

Actually I've just thought - growmore granules are an excellent slug deterrent in very dry situations - maybe I should try them under there - I'd just need a way to stop the rain running under the glass - anything absorbent in direct contact with the edges might work via the capillary effect - soil ridges pulled over the edges? even rolled newspaper under them...  Worth a try for the March sowing of red-and green-seeded beans.

Cheers.

[sparrow]

I have to either net mine or barricade them with spiky branches until they are fairly big - jackdaws and crows bounce around pulling up garlic, leeks and onions on our site.

[Paulh]

I net garlic (and onions) initially to keep the birds from playing with them but they are then fine to leave unprotected once rooted and leaves sprouting.

[Number Six]

Many thanks again for the replies. Very useful info.

I've removed the fleece now and am keeping an eye on how things progress - so far, so good!