Hi all
Searched for garlic answers but gave up as there were so many pages!
I lifted my garlic a few days ago as it had gone yellow, and I have had it on the greenhouse staging to dry out. Today I took off the papery outer layers and I have some lovely white scrummy looking bulbs.
two questions:
I am planning to try to plait them, but shall I store at home or will they do better in my shed? (shed has windows on one wall, so not as cool as it could be.
I read on the forum that it was good to keep some garlic for planting next year as it will adjust over the years to your conditions. Do I need to give it any special treatment to make it suitable for planting? eg drying it out for longer or string in a different way?
Here's a pic of my harvest - small, but not bad for my first attempt. It was bog standard garlic from garden centre, marked for spring planting and put in about end Feb.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3206/2686529498_1e3d4ddd63_o.jpg)
Dry your garlic, plait it and store it in the coolest, darkest place you have, probably your shed. As long as it is dry in there it should keep til next spring.
I've always found it is best to eat what you have grown and buy new to plant next year (or later this year as I have found the best garlic comes from November planting.)
Yes! Well me being a tightfisted so and so, I remove one or two of the largest cloves from each head at cooking time and store them in a small bag in the meter cupboard until planting time. The garlic crop is tied in bunches and hung in the shed at the allotment with one bunch at a time taken home as needed.
Some people have said that it is not good to remove and store individual cloves for planting but I have never had any problems.
I plant the biggest cloves; I've done so for several years now, and they've always been fine. I think that way's better than buying bulbs, and having to plant cloves of all sizes.
Mine hang in the kitchen after I've plaited them. The biggest cloves go at the top as the rule in our kitchen is we work from the bottom up and they are saved for next year. Never had a problem yet with them sprouting.
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t87/ninnyscrops/DSCF1038.jpg
Wow Ninnyscrops!
I'd show you mine but you'd be too busy running off for a Tena Lady. Mine are teeny and number only about 10.........thats it.
So I can only congratulate you and everyone else for their big ones and lots of. I guess thats a penalty for having to grow in a shady garden. :-\
Star, there are things you grow that would prob make me green with envy - I can't grow a carrot of any worth to save my life! Albeit working on horizontal ones at the mo ;D
What a display!
We always hung ours in the kitchen - until the rot hit us!
Hello.
I'm new on here, but not new to allotmenting. However, garlic is a new crop for us. We've harvested a good crop and (I think, foolishly) have cut off the foliage to about 4 inches, thinking this would help the bulbs to dry out better. Have we done a really stupid thing (we'd never planned to plait them, so that's not an issue for us)?
Hi Helen, Jane, Wing and Wong ;D
Don't think it will be too much of a problem. Once the stems have dried out you could probably string them like onions.
Excellent - that's what we hoped. Thank you.
Hmmm, yes, ridiculous isn't it?! ::) It was my Mother's nickname for me as a child and it was the only name I could think of that wouldn't already be in use by someone else.
I am afraid i have never bothered to plait my garlic,usually just tied in a bundle and hung in a cool dry place. Last year however I put them in old tights like the onions.
hiya, helenjanewingwong, welcome to the site ;D
String bag in the garage
I have also lifted my garlic and produced two nice plates. :)
I have found that when you have an excess crop remove all the papers and freeze the cloves. These can just be thrown in with your roasties, and make a really smooth paste when defrosted and crushed.
This will reduce the waste from posible rot and save time when you just need a couple of cloves without the fiddley bit of removing the skins.
Humble Bumble
SOP!!
This is my crop and it is hung up in the garage;
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/Veg/Garlic.jpg)
I have saved the five largest bulbs I grew and just tied them up seperately and they are just hung up in one of my greenhouses on the allotment until I need them for planting.
Highly commended!
Shame to break into it?
Quote from: tim on July 25, 2008, 17:25:30
Highly commended!
Shame to break into it?
How come they are so clean - are you supposed to give them a wash and trim? Unfortunately I think I left mine in too long as there isn't a wrap round the bulb and I have big cloves growing round the side.
I've got mine drying in the greenhouse - would it be best to give them a bit of a wash and brush up or do you reckon a bit of muck don't hurt anyone
If you want them to plait and look nice, lift them as soon as the first few fall over. Let them dry for ten days or so, then twist off the outer, now dried, layers of skin, leaving the nice white clean skin underneath.
QuoteHow come they are so clean
As Robert mentioned the secret is in the drying.
Once dry, the soil just falls away as does the outer skin. Then its just a case of cutting off the roots and shortening the stem.
I wouldn't wash them, this defeats the object of drying them, and as you mention your cloves are exposed so in your case, this could create a harbour for diseases derived from damp conditions.