I'd like to grow a small amount of garlic next growing season. What do I need to know? An idiots guide would help! I haven't looked in the wiki yet, is there anything in there? ???
The simplest and cheapest way to grow garlic, is to buy a few heads from your local market stall or supermarket, then split them, and plant them between one and two inches deep (root down!), about six inches apart. They really need to be planted now, so they get the frosts needed to ensure they divide to produce cloves. Harvest in the summer when the stems die back.
Most supermarket garlic will be from abroad, and thus perhaps not particularly suited to this climate, so you can also get 'seed' garlic from garden centres etc which will be a specific variety that should grow better - it will also cost more !
Good luck.
Then, providing all goes well, save some of your harvest for the following season and thereafter, then will be be accustomed to your soil ;)
To add to ninnyscrops contribution ...
Save your largest cloves for seed, as they should then produce bigger heads.
For a bit of background, see
http://thegarlicfarm.co.uk/shopgarlic.asp?catid=7&cat=Planting+Garlic+Order+now+for+delivery+Sept%2E+2005&pcatid=1
http://www.reallygarlicky.co.uk/
And give it the widest rotation that you can.
Mine goes round with the onions Tim... should I give it seperate space? Have two lotties infected with White Rot so not grown any alliums there for 7 years.. leaving it to 2011 season!
:-[
Beware of garlic from garden centres; it's often miserable little bulbs which produce nothing worthwhile. The Garlic Farm is good.
"Garlic requires a long rotation of more than six years to prevent the build up of diseases such as white rot, and nematode pests such as eelworm. " Quote, The Garlic Farm.
And do so agree about the piddling cloves from the s'markets.
Delicatessens usually have good stuff, but mostly Continental.
still give big Thumbs Up for The Garlic Farm, tho....good reliable disease-free stock...way to go 8)
Reminds me, I need to get my own cloves planted, saved of course, they are sat on a pallet on the plot, showing root threads appearing, so need to get into the ground ASAP. Next weekend, all being well ...
I got some from T & M (against my previous experience!) wight cristo and albigensian wight. The later had 12 huge cloves per head about the size of 3 normal cloves. I'm expecting big things from these!!!!
I had already made planting holes with my dibber before separating the cloves and i had to make the holes bigger.
I am growing Cristo and Thermidrome from these peeps: http://www.taylors-bulbs.com/1/default.asp bought from my local garden centre. £1.99 for three very healthy bulbs with about 15 plump cloves per bulb.
Mine have been in the ground a couple of weeks now and I noticed this morning that a few shoots have started to appear above ground. Now, while normally this is a cause for joy I'm a little worried since I had pretty much assumed the reason for planting them in the autumn was so that they sat queitly in the ground growing very very slowly over the winter ready for the first warmth of the spring to really start. So I'm a little worried my garlic's getting over excited and moving on too fast. Is this normal? Will it survive any frost/snow etc we get over the winter if it's already a few inches high?
Can you tell I've not done this before... ;)
Don't know if I should be excited or worried!
Quote from the grower - " Isle of Wight Garlic is planted from October to February and the first garlic shoots mark the rows from January onwards. Garlic requires a spell of cold weather, generally 1-2 weeks at 0-4C, to prepare itself physiologically for bulb formation later in the year."
Quote from: tim on November 06, 2007, 15:39:29
the first garlic shoots mark the rows from January onwards.
d**n... does that mean mine have 'woken up' far too early?
I could always cover them with some more soil, earth them up a bit kind of thing...
I'm with Cuke: my 'Scottish' garlic from the Really Garlicky Company are showing about 2 inches of shoot, about 5% of the others which were much larger (from IOW) are just appearing.
Do we need to do anything?
Sounds about right to me. Garlic is hardy.
......PHEW :)
And do let OH know where they are planted. I too have white rot on the `veg` garden so I planted a load nearer the house in the `flower` garden.
I forgot to tell Jenny where I had planted them and she only went and asked Alistair(the chap who comes round to help out) to dig over the bit of ground they were in :'(
And dont do what i did last week !!!
Saw 'garlic bulbs' so i bought 2, got them home and went to seperate them only to find they where a solid bulb ??? thought maybe they had not had a cold spell !
Went back to the garden centre and was chatting to the boss and said about them, only for him to burst out laughing soooooo much he couldnt speak ::)
What i bought where alliums not Garlic !!!
Good job i didnt use them to cook with :P
That would be something I would do too flower ;D ;D ;D
My garlic & Electra onions, planted 3 weeks or so ago in the midlands, all through now....but the growth will slow down when the temp drops? Has happened before - no probs?
My Garlic is about 2" and very healthy looking... onions about an inch and getting established.
;D
My garlic is about the same as saddad's. I'm trying an early variety called sprint this year, and I'll follow it up with a late dormancy one after Christmas.
My garlic and onions are just starting to sprout. They went in about a week and a half ago.
Don't worry flowerof,
If you eat them - don't worry, you'll be out in the spring!