Hello all :)
I'm about to plant my first ever crop of garlic this weekend and thought I'd see if anyone has any hints before I go and mess it up.
Is there anything I should add to the soil that garlic particularly likes? Do I need to keep it watered or just let the winter weather keep it alive...?
ta muchly!
:)
I planted mine 2 weeks ago and the are just coming up, they were planted where last years spuds were (only space I had) 6inch apart and just under the soil so they are covered.
that sounds pretty much the same as what i do. dont need to water them. there will be enough moisture in the soil to start them off and it will rain soon enough. pop them in and leave them. they do like a bit of potash i believe, but i dont know if its advisable to put it on now or in the spring. its not vital though.
My garden centre recommended a dusting of potash on japanese onion sets after they were a couple of inches high. I wonder if this applies to garlic ?
toughens up plants making them more resistant to disease, and can help to counterbalance any excess of Nitrogen. Potash plays an important part in the formation of sugars and starches which can be stored by the plant in swollen roots so idea for bulbing plants.
A deficiency of Potash shows first as yellowing of the leaf margins, these may later go brown and scorched looking. Sometimes scorch shows up as leaf spotting and often starts at the base of the plant. In severe cases the whole plant can collapse and die. Both Galic and Onions are prone to rust which is this brown scorched look.
Just be careful as an excess of Potash is also bad for plants since this can cause too much water to be absorbed by the plant, giving reduced frost resistance. So make sure that there are no more frosts due before you do this.
I have heavy clay, and the winter weather is usually very damp. I grow them in two ways:
1) Start them off in pots of well drained compost outdoors, and plant out in final position in March
2) Add a little sharp sand/grit to the bottom of the planting hole if planting directly.
I always leave to its own devices once it is in the ground, it seems to do OK.
Mine went in 2 weeks ago as well and is coming up nicely. I will try the potash in spring
I'm still waiting for my garlic ordered in June to arrive. However today i missed a parcel which was noted as perishable. Unfortunately I'm going to Bath for the weekend leaving early tomorrow so won't be able to collect it until Monday. Fortunately as it's garlic (I hope can't remember ordering anything else) it should be ok.
Foresterone - Potash, yes. In the Spring. And N.
Did you order from Dobies Kea? Mine turned up today...
Thanks all, very helpful :)
Mine were from Dobies and they arrived Tuesday....
What did you get, Cuke? I got the collection of 4 and have noticed the German ones smell like German sausages! All look to be a good size & quality.
ooh I have mine all ready to go in, maybe do that this w'end. As I was so disappointed by last year's attempt, this year I scrounged some from the nice Vietnamese couple that sell Asian veg on my market, it was dead cheap, about 30p a head and the cloves are huge!! The guy told me it would grow well in our local area, dunno what the variety is. SO I am going to give that a go and plant some of my hopeless crop again as green garlic :-) surely I will get soemthing
But what is POTASH? where do you get it, what is its chemical composition??
Potash is the general term for potassium compounds used as fertilisers.
If you have acid soil, you need to use fertilisers containing potassium nitrate, KNO3 and if you have alkaline soil, you need to use potassium sulphate (sulphate of potash) K2SO4
jennym thanks, didn`t realise there were one for acid soils etc long time since I did chemistry !
(Potash is the general term for potassium compounds used as fertilisers.
If you have acid soil, you need to use fertilisers containing potassium nitrate, KNO3 and if you have alkaline soil, you need to use potassium sulphate (sulphate of potash) K2SO4)
Can I ask why you recommend the different types of potash?
I use bonfire ash - that way I know its organic. Oh and Comfrey - that has potassium doesn't it?
Monty planted his garlic tonight on Gardeners World. He put it about a inch under the surface, 9 inches apart. He said to plant anytime from now to Christmas. It likes a rich, well drained soil, in a sunny position. If manure was not added to the bed last year, then he recommended you add it now. Softneck is ready earlier, but does not keep through the winter.
Mine have just arrived from the Really Garlicky Company and the instructions say, basically, plant 2" deep, 6" apart, feed nitrogen little and often from early spring, remove and eat the flower shoots when they appear and harvest when the leaves start to die back. I'll do as they say. It can't be worse than my last year's crop.
Geoff.
Got some from a neighbouring plot holder, don't know the variety. Went in the ground last weekend. I put in 8 over a 4 ft row at the end of my onions. Same place as my spuds were last year.
First year for me planting garlic. When will it harvest?
Mine were fairly small last year, I dug them up a bit too soon to make room for potatoes...which I put in late. This year I planted them 1" deep, 4" apart and mounded up the soil first as it can get fairly wet.
I think the best time to dig up is when the leaves go brown kt. Mine were still green...hence smaller bulbs.
Tasty though ;D
plant pointy-end up!
Louise
Planted mine over the last 3 days. The deeper the better, about 4 inches according to RHS
"Garlic cloves are planted into individual holes 10cm (4in) deep, which are then backfilled with the trowel. The cloves should not protrude from the soil surface, and are placed in the holes with their pointed tips upwards."
Mine got white rot last year and were very small (but useful and tasty, using them now) but I have another allotment 5 miles away and have just finished planting about 40 cloves hoping they will do better in virgin ground.
4 inches seems incredibly deep to me!! I have never planted them with more than an inch of soil cover, and they always do well. I reckon that they are more liable to rot if planted too deep, especially in the wet West.
the gardener that did the pot kiln garden, Hannah something said to plant them 6" deep, in order for them to clove, I'm afraid we didn't take her advice, it seemed way too deep for me, ours are just covered ;D
I forgot to say, I put last years ones in at 4" deep, then talking to people they put theirs in at 1". Thats what Ive done this time, I will compare at harvest time ;)
I planted my elephant garlic today - about 2-3inches deep. I was plannig to put the other garlics in at about 1inch deep. I planted mine in well manured soil. I have never grown garlic before so fingers crossed :)
mine are in about an inch and a half in but i plan on adding a mulsh to the bed next month so it will be more like 2 inches in the end. I had planted 2 bulbs of white garlic, just come back from the lotty with 2 more blubs of red garlic which i will but in in the next couple of weeks which should still allow them to get a good frost but will allow a small harvesting delay between the white garlic i planted a couple of weeks ago.
Ours went in this morning where the spuds were, but turned over and BFB'd, before planting same depth as the bulb size, so...
our own saved elephant garlic 3-4 inches down
Solent Wight and Spanish Red 1-2 inches down
We've been advised to hoe some nitrogen in in the spring, then potash later as the bulbs form
Hmmmm well my Solent Wight went in on Saturday and the instructions from Dobies was to plant them 'just under the surface' so mine are at probably an inch deep at most.... :-\
Should I push them a bit deeper when I get home, or pile some more soil on top of them?
oh well, I seem on time - mine went in on Saturday. I tried to get them down at least a finger length so I guess they are 2 or 3 inches down.
Last year I spring planted but that was no good so I hope this year they work better :)
I planted them where the beans and peas had been which I hope will be a nitrogen boost for them. I also forked some of our compost into the soil before planting.
This is against my teaching, but................
http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/grow-garlic/
I've heard that they hate compacted ground :)
Quote from: OllieC on October 18, 2007, 19:58:09
Did you order from Dobies Kea? Mine turned up today...
No I ordered mine from T&M.....against my better judgement based on past experience but lured in by a free postage offer. I picked them up from the parcel office today as I was visiting Bath for the weekend. However they look ok so now i can get them in the ground. After reading everyone's comments i can't decide how deep to plant!
don't worry about it, just stick your dibber in and drop the clove in (right side up), approx 2 " is fine. You'd probably be planting garlic in a bed that's just been used for brassicas so there will be some richness in the soil and it will be friable as well, no need to water now but it won't like it when it gets too warm and dry :)
One can always ask the growers??
web@thegarlicfarm.co.uk <web@thegarlicfarm.co.uk>
Could it be that a suitable depth of planting garlic, depends on which area you are growing in? Garlic is very shallow rooted and I can see that in the south East of England, where garlic is planted on well drained ground, drought may be a problem in the spring. It might therefore make sense in such dry areas, to plant the garlic 4 inches deep, to prevent the garlic drying out too soon.
However, in wetter areas like Glasgow, I know that shallow planting of the garlic works well.
I think we're a lot more concerned about planting depth than plants are! I just dib a hole, drop the clove in, and don't worry.
Well said Robert....... :D
I've done the deed and planted mine today (I do 3" deep, 6" apart pressed quite hard into the hole if anyone is interested, works for me!)......took me longer to split the blooming cloves up than to plant them!
Pleased with my Elephant Garlic though, got some HUGE cloves from my saved bulbs, I'm planting them earlier this year, we shall see if it's an improvement.. :-\
Last year I planted in Christmas week one row with the top of the clove about two inches from the surface, one about 1" and another quite shallow. There was no discernible difference in the results - they were all small :D
I've already planted this season's first batch but we have light soil so, following the reasoning above, I'll do some at four inches and some at one inch in both the next batch and the spring planting to get a comparative.
Actually I suspect it mostly depends on the weather pattern and there's not much you can do about that.
planted mine 3 weeks ago 2 inches deep. A large hardneck variety from Brittany bought from a trendy deli near me. No sign yet.
I got the last of mine in today.
My seed garlic still haven't arrived yet, so today I bought 8 bulbs from Tesco.
Half are going into a prepared bed outside, and half into my new polytunnel.
I'll do the same with the "proper" ones when they arrive and will be very interested to compare results.
Onion sets planted in the poly already have 6-8" of growth while those outside are barely showing.....
I haven't got mine in yet due to children being home for half term and wanting to do other stuff. i've decided to try two planting depths just to see what difference it makes. My bulbs from last year were quite small with not many cloves. I'm also trying a period of pre-chilling in the fridge before planting....though I've put them all in so i won't be able to compare that treatment.
Mine arrived from King's today, so hope to get some of them in tomorrow.