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Hello everyone,could someone plse. offer advice?
My Autumn sown garlic is now running to seed.I assume that as with onions and leeks this is not a good sign.
Should I
1. Cut my losses and lift them?
2. Leave well alone and hope that there may be some usable bulbs.
3. would it serve any purpose to cut out the stem which will eventually support the seed head?
Many thanks. Smudger
I'd cut flower stems off now and lift the bulbs in 2 or 3 weeks time, it's a little early but mine are starting to swell already too
Having removed the flower stalks last week, I chopped them up like chives and used them as an ingredient in a pasta sauce.
No vampires in Yorkshire that night.
good idea
I chopen mine an sauteed in butter, then added to my mash..... Voila Garlic shoot champ.
Does it do any harm to remove one or two leaves from a plant to have a go at this - never had garlic leaves or shoots and they sound good.
Probably not worth jeopardising bigger cloves.
In my case, eating the flower stems was an example of necessity being the mother of invention. In this mother of a season (weather-wise) I've got to eat anything I can find...!
Many garlics are not ripe till July - August. So do wait till the tops start to wilt - some say when 3 leaves go yellow.
Smudger,
It depends on the variety, softneck varieties (the normal ones) shouldn't flower, hard neck are expected to flower. Removing the flower of softnecks should help.
Then give em a foliar feed just to show that you really love them despite having cut their heads of and removed the chance of their having any children!
Phil
- adding a drop of detergent to the feed?
Quote from: philcooper on June 03, 2005, 16:21:05
Smudger,
It depends on the variety, softneck varieties (the normal ones) shouldn't flower, hard neck are expected to flower. Removing the flower of softnecks should help.
Then give em a foliar feed just to show that you really love them despite having cut their heads of and removed the chance of their having any children!
Phil
OK, more confused - if my hardnecks flower (as expected) - should I leave the flower or remove it?
QuoteThen give em a foliar feed just to show that you really love them despite having cut their heads of and removed the chance of their having any children!
It's not actually their heads is it? Doesn't bear thinking about really :'(
What i want to know is, is it OK to start lifting a few plants around now?
I planted mine last october and most are looking big and healthy (at least the foliage is). Trouble is i now want some of the space the garlic is growing in for a summer crop (a courgette plant).
I was given to understand that you could lift before the leaves died down, this being known as 'wet' garlic.
Can anyone advise please?
Richard, go look in the gallery. I lifted a couple to see yesterday and they are certainly useable, and one was a very good size.
Quote from: EJ - Emma Jane on June 05, 2005, 10:22:16
Richard, go look in the gallery. I lifted a couple to see yesterday and they are certainly useable, and one was a very good size.
Thanks EJ. Will do.
Richard - thanks for one thing - I've been stupidly calling 'wet' garlic 'green'.
Hope eveyone guessed what I meant.
Thought that this deserved 10/10 for trying - 30" long, just forming cloves & a flower head. In the concrete path!!
I hope you didn't need to break the path up with a pnematic drill just to get it out!
I'd dehead them and dig the soil away to expose the top of the bub so they bulb up. It's sunlight on the bulb that triggers large bulbs. You then bend down the stalks too. The larger the tops, the larger the bulb. Then dig them when the plant gets good and dry. Lay them out in a dry, cool area to dry out. Clip the tops and bag them up, if I remember correctly.
peg
My tops are pathetic little things, they always are. Maybe I need to try a different variety; what do the reest of you grow?
d**n - wish I'd known before you could eat the flowerheads. Deheaded one of mine that was just starting to flower at the weekend, but shoved it on the compost.
Forgive a slight dissent? I believe that the Garlic Farm recommend leaving the tops on for longer storage? And for plaiting!
And don't overdry, as I did last year. The tops should still be supple when stored.
Later - in case of misunderstanding - I mean the stems - not the flowering heads.
I think mine might be thinking of flowering - there is a central spike which is about two feet tall, with a slightly thickened red area about three inches from the top.
What do you reckon - whip them off?
I have on mine Wivvles.
Right - off they come! Tomorrow night -I've got a meeting tonight, and I'll look a bit odd going down there with a torch and a pen-knife...
:)Many thanks everyone for all your help. I think I've reached the conclusion that my garlic is doing everything that it should!I'll take off the flower heads and wait for the final results.Will keep you informed.
Smudger.
Notice how it's now doing a leap forward with the approach of the Summer Solstice?
I've cut off the about to be flowering stems of the stragely (is that a word?) shop garlic planted last year.
I also planted proper garlic & elephant garlic earlie this year. When are those going to be ready for pulling? ::)
actually, a lot of the garlic and onions on our allotment site seem to be 'going' over - they are starting to have yellow leaves and some have started to keel over. they are still rooted and there doesnt seem to be a problem with rot or any kind of disease. this is all the autumn planted stuff, btw.
would that be ready to get up? i am not asking for myself, but for a friend whose garlic bed looks like a storm has gone through it - they are mostly lying flat now with significant amounts of yellow leaf.
I would start looking at it &, dependent upon what is found, do 'the appropriate thing'!!
Several types of garlic are ready in June.
My purple wights are up as of today, and most are a very good size, some have rot, and they all have rust!
Right - that's one job for the weekend then - check the garlic. I hope it's better than the spuds I checked!
Have been reading this with great interest as we planted garlic at the beginning of the year. We bought it from our Lottie Shop. It looks very sturdy with strong onion type shoots which have started to go yellow now. My OH carefully cleared the soil away to have a look at the bulbs beneath but we just came across one firm white bulb, no cloves. What do we do now? As you can tell this is the first time we have grown garlic and are not sure what the bulbs are supposed to look like.  :-[ busy_lizzieÂ
BL - garlic needs a certain length of cold weather to make it split into individual cloves. Sounds like maybe yours didn't get enough. You can still eat them (yummy roasted whole - and much less peeling!)
Here are mine dug today BL.
;D nice harvest EJ ;D
Gosh well done, how jealous am i!!!
That looks superb EJ ;D Hope mine comes out looking like that.
I might be leaving mine as some other space is becoming available for the courgettes (though that should be in the singular as that is all i now have! ::) - Still one is usualy enough :)).
The garlic have a stay of execution it would seem. I can still use the space they are growing in for some late salads, so no great inconvenience.
Emma - they look fantastic - so, what are you cooking tonight to 'try them out'?.....H.P.
Not bad for a little 'un!!
EJ
Well done. But why you peeled them all in once ???Are you going to use them in one meal ;D
yuet
I didn't peel them as such Yuet. The outer skin that wrapped around them all was very rotten and horrible, and as I washed it off, the cloves were revealed like that, all squeeky clean. I have them in a bag in the fridge, with little holes in so they don't go mouldy. I am going to buy some unsalted butter and make a few batches of garlic butter to freeze, and I might try freezing a handful as a test really.
If you can see through the 'steam', these are my 'fall back stock'
;D Not really sure if this is the right place for this but in the past when we have had a surplus of fresh garlic we have done this :) Pickled Garlic. Clean sterile jars. Fill jars with peeled garlic cloves, then boil, 3 cups water, 3 cups distilled vinegar, 1/4 cup salt. Pour over the garlic & leave to cool. refridgerate when cold. they keep for months like this ;D
Quote from: Marley Farley on June 13, 2005, 08:42:18
;D Not really sure if this is the right place for this but in the past when we have had a surplus of fresh garlic we have done this :) Pickled Garlic. Clean sterile jars. Fill jars with peeled garlic cloves, then boil, 3 cups water, 3 cups distilled vinegar, 1/4 cup salt. Pour over the garlic & leave to cool. refridgerate when cold. they keep for months like this ;D
I did sweet pickled garlic last year and had to ban the hubby from eating them like sweets. I'm hoping all the garlic is bigger this year and easier to peel - though I confess to growing mostly serpentine (hardneck) varieties because they give fewer but larger cloves.
I shall be pickling away merrily in a month or so...
my recipe's a bit different to MF's:
http://www.recipecottage.com/preserving/pickled-onions13.html
is the one I've used for a few years (though I tend to skip the spicing of the vinegar and buy Sarson's distilled pickling vinegar instead :) )
moonbells