I don't think this has been asked before, sorry if it has and I've missed it.
Despite some disappointment with this year's garlic, and a whole lot of rust on all varieties, I'm still keen to get some more to plant this autumn, and I'm starting to think about which ones to choose. Bearing in mind the wet weather this year, I was wondering which garlics other people had had good results with, and which were disappointing.
Here are my own results, all of which were planted in November last year, and harvested a couple of weeks ago.
"Music"(?) from the Really Garlicky Company - seemed to produce what I had expected, reasonably good sized bulbs with 5 or 6 cloves, and got the chance to try 'scapes' into the bargain. Feel like growing these again.
"Elephant Garlic" - huge disappointment. From about a dozen plants i got one largish bulb, one supermarket-garlic sized bulb, and all the others were small and hadn't divided into cloves. Tried to grow them last year too, but those all ended up as small single-cloved onion-like plants too. (Is it just me doing something wrong, or are these really difficult to get right?)
"Solent Wight" - I think these were marketed as being particulary good for UK climate, so was expecting them to be the reliable ones. But, probably because the UK climate was far from 'normal', these just produced tiny bulbs.
"German Red" - Another batch of very small bulbs. A shame as the promise of "spicy" strong flavoured cloves was really exciting.
"Germidour" - The size of supermarket bulbs, or slightly smaller, although I think they're meant to be bigger than that.
"Purple Wight" - More very small bulbs.
"Oswego White" - A bit larger than supermarket bulbs, and appear to have nice big cloves. Although I think they're supposed to be much bigger than mine grew, I'd be tempted to grow them again - if I can find somewhere selling them, that is!
So from this year's harvest, based on how they grew, I was pleased with the Oswego White and the Really Garlicky Company variety. Germidour weren't bad. I was a bit put off Solent Wight, Purple Wight and German Red. I haven't done the taste test yet with them all, so don't know if that will influence my choice for next year. How did other people find their garlic harvests? Are there particular recommendations? Or varieties that did particularly badly?
Rust has been a menace this year, long with the wet. My garlic grew well, but has been coming out of the ground in a nasty grey state; with some of it, the outer coverings have rotted. I've still got the Solent Wight to lift, but the rest has been fine once it's been cleaned and dried. Elephant garlic is massive, and Purple Wight and Albigensian Wight large. How fertile is your soil? If you're in South Wales, I wouldn't expect your climate to be colder than Birmingham. How have your other crops done?
i have never heard of the really garlickly company but there site has some very intresting stuff, i love the price Hardneck porcelain seed for planting sold either at 40p per bulb or £6 per kilo (15bulbs) plus postage( £2.50)
Personaly i have only grown the "Solent Wight" and the ones i planted before christmas have formed good sized bulbs the ones i planted after are more like solo garlic ( personal favourate ) so its possible its your soil or crap weather.
My garlics were all planted in a raised bed, quite a high one with a great deal of compost added to the soil to help fill it. The plot had been unused and overgrown for a few years before, so I would have expected what they grew in to be ok. But I'm still learning as I go along, so I might be doing something wrong. Maybe it's got a lot to do with the weather. Although we haven't had serious floods this month like some areas, we always do seem to get a lot of rainfall in Wales.
Are there any useful tips to getting emormous Elephant garlic?
What success have others had with other varieties of garlic? Do you have favourites you regularly grow?
Mine?
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,34322.0.html
I'm in Birmingham.I grew less varieties of garlic this year - purple wight, solent wight and elephant, all from saved cloves. They went into 'normal' soil in the veggie garden in November. Great crops of all. The elephant garlic was still growing strong when I lifted it and could well have been left in for another couple of weeks or so perhaps to bulk up even more, but I'm doing some reconstruction work in that part of the garden & they had to come up. One bulb was tennis ball size and hadn't cloved - others a fair size tho not the monstrous size I usually get - I reckon that's due to the early lifting, tho.
I'd think that your results are much more a matter of climate rather than your soil conditions - garlic can grow in most fertile soils, tho if your soil is acid you need to lime it prior to planting - aim for a ph of 6.7 or higher.
btw....a single bulb that hasn't cloved can be replanted - it's still good to produce a cloved bulb next year.
I always get the odd one that hasn't cloved, but the secret is probably just a very fertile soil. Moisture probably helps, as long as the plant isn't actually drowned.
I will probably stick to Germidor and Marco garlic for this years planting, I lifted the rest of my Elephant garlic that I planted in Feb/March yesterday(last minute bargain from local Garden Centre), and got several massive bulbs, and a couple of more garlic sized bulbs, all growing in the same bed! :-\