In the November issue of Gardening Which, they give the results of their garlic trial, which I find hard to credit!!
They trialled 5 varieties of garlic at a site in East Anglia and an unknown site in Scotland, sowing both in November and February.
In all cases, they got much bigger crops from February sown garlic. The best crop came from Solent Wight garlic, Spring sown in Scotland where the crop was 4 times greater than from the East Anglia site sown in early Winter.
How to explain these extraordinary results, which go against all the wisdom of the old hands on our allotment site, where they have been growing garlic for over 50 years?
Which claims that a lot of the early winter garlic rotted, but I have never found that a problem. Mind you, we all sow our garlic late September or early October.
They also had a lot of rust problems on the East Anglia site.
How do these results square up with your own experiences?
February works fine for us.
Am an October gal here - they're already poking up ;)
Hi all ,
jucy wondered how long after planting should you see something :-\? I planted mine on the 25th october nothing yet! Its my first time so i hope i have planted out at the right time.
Thanks
lucy
They'll pop up when it suits them - pretend to ignore them, it always works ;)
Ninnyscrops
That made me chuckle. What garlic!!!! ;D
I have found that Autumn planted garlic tends to be more surceptible to disease/failure.
Taken overall though over the years, I get plenty of garlic either way, and whether hard neck, soft neck, Tesco or expensive seed catalogue garlic, it always gives me enough for the year!
To avoid gaps this year, I have planted cloves in individual containers and will photo and report in due course.
http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments_Vegetables_garlic.html
I always get better results from Autumn planted, and as for rotting I lost the whole of my February crop this year.
While we're on the subject has anyone else noticed that a certain person seems to have almost cornered the market in seed garlic?
My October ones were great, did get some rust though but only on one variety and it didn't affect the crop. This year they're hopefully going in next week...half term got in the way.
What is supposed to be the latest time for planting over-wintering garlic? I have read about some that can be planted as late as December ???
There was a saying 'Plant garlic on the shortest day and harvest on the longest day' but I don't know where it comes from.
Well....i'm doing something different - for me - this year! I usually plant my garlic in the autumn, but due to pressure of work/family etc and the bed not being cleared of crops, I deceided to pot up both my garlic and shallots this year and have stuck them in my greenhouse! It will be interesting to compare the reults next year! .....watch this space!
I think it's good sometimes to get out of your comfort zone and try a different method - just to compare results!
Louise
I was just about to start a topic asking when they plant their garlic and luckily I found this thread first!! I haven't had any success from Autumn planting of garlic. I bought seed garlic and planted the cloves last Oct and they came up then all rotted away and no sign of anything when I dug the ground to see if anything was there.
Interested to see if many more people plant in spring?? I'm sure I've heard of people planting in March?
Quote from: Barnowl on November 05, 2008, 10:57:58
While we're on the subject has anyone else noticed that a certain person seems to have almost cornered the market in seed garlic?
No. Is it a secret?
It's the Slavemaster of Wight. some years ago he was on the receiving end of a record fine for poisoning his underpaid immigrant workers with illegal pesticides.
Got mine from Dobies today. Looking good!
What variety? If the name ends in 'Wight' it's slave garlic.
Funny, isn't it? Our workers are getting poisoned every day but, when it comes to Immigrants, it's not allowed!
What's done is done & he paid the price. Now let's buy British Garlic rather than Continental?
I may not be following this well but I dont think its true that either british nor immigrant workers are 'allowed' to be poisoned!
Unfortunately it seems it is is all too easy to employ immigrant workers for low pay and charge them high rates for appalling housing conditions. etc (as has been reported in recent legal cases) - which British people would not put up with/are more likely to know how to access legal support with.
I will certainly look into this as I had not been aware of issues around 'wight' garlic and had been going to buy some.
Quote from: gwynleg on November 08, 2008, 18:57:57
I will certainly look into this as I had not been aware of issues around 'wight' garlic and had been going to buy some.
Save you looking around gwynleg here's the thread. Not someone I want to give business to despite the free PR he gets here.
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,43562.0.html (http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,43562.0.html)
Quote from: caroline7758 on November 08, 2008, 16:17:27
Got mine from Dobies today. Looking good!
I ordered Solent Wight from them 2 days ago. My in-laws partner is going to plant them for me in my absence. Apparently it can be spring and autumn planted. So once I get a few bulbs from next summer..... ::)
Quote from: tim on November 08, 2008, 17:15:56
Funny, isn't it? Our workers are getting poisoned every day but, when it comes to Immigrants, it's not allowed!
What's done is done & he paid the price. Now let's buy British Garlic rather than Continental?
That's ridiculous, quite frankly. I don't whether you're an immigrant or not, but I do object to people having to work for next to nothing, and I do object to people being poisoned. The fact that they were immigrnats is relevant only to the extent that they get exploited rather more than the natives!
:(
Still nothing showing from the garlic i planted at the end of september Around the 25th i think! Pants maybe i did that wrong too??
How deep did you plant them?
I cant remember exactly but i did follow the instructions on the pack as i didn't want to get it wrong? ???
Just read somewhere that i wont see anything till spring because of when i planted is this right?
Lucy
You may not, or it may come through earlier, it depends on the weather.
I will just have to keep my fingers crossed!
Thanks lucy
Quote from: tim on November 08, 2008, 17:15:56
Funny, isn't it? Our workers are getting poisoned every day but, when it comes to Immigrants, it's not allowed!
What's done is done & he paid the price. Now let's buy British Garlic rather than Continental?
Why restrict yourself to British garlic? You're depriving yourself of some high quality, great tasting stuff. And is poisoning on the scale for which he was rightly punished, whether it involved immigrant workers or British workers, something to be dismissed so lightly?
Apologies for Off topic but this was the last thread to which Ninnyscrops posted. When I try to PM, I get a message saying "Unable to find member 'ninnyscrops'". Anyway just to say seeds are on their way.
Quote from: mummybunny on November 12, 2008, 09:44:43
I will just have to keep my fingers crossed!
Thanks lucy
Don't worry about it. I've planted garlic in December, had it sit till spring without emerging, and had a good crop. It's overwintering onions I worry about, if they're not up and well established before winter, the crop's going to be rubbish.
Don't worry about the depth, Lucy. I did an experiment last year with depth and it didn't make a lot of difference.
my niece used a bulb planter to put mine in, they're all up and showing now ;D
I dib a hole and drop the clove in. They always seem to work their way fairly well down by lifting time.
Well I am interested in the comments on garlic. I have always planted it in November but the last couple of years have been disappointed with the crop so perhaps I will have a go at Spring planting. This year they all tried to sprout again in September! They are supposed to need a period of cold to build up the root system to guarantee big bulbs but I am not convinced and the Which trial would seem to point the other way.
On another tack what are peoples experiences with shop bought garlic?
My experience is that selected shop bought garlic always outperforms specialist seedstock bought from proper sources. I plant at the end of October as this gets them out of the way rather than leaving them in the shed all winter to shrivel.
The garlic I planted on 10th and 12th October - some good quality French and Spanish varieties from a British supplier - is beginning to poke its head above ground. This is quicker than last year. I think I'll mulch it tomorrow.
I've planted 2 kinds: Thermidrome and Marco. The Marco popped up after less than a week which seems ridiculously quick, and is now about 4 inches tall. The Thermidrome has only just started peeping through after 3 weeks.
In previous years I planted naughty Wight garlic (before I knew about the "issues". I'm not keen on poisoning of immigrants or anyone else - plus I think he's very expensive) and this always seemed to take a good 4 weeks or even longer...seems garlic just does what it wants, when it wants.
My mission this time around: to get bulbs of a decent size rather than the teeny tiny minibulbs I seem to specialize in. Cute but useless ???
My Solent Wight went in at the weekend. My in-laws partner did it in my abscence. Hopefully my garlic crop will be better 2nd time around ::)
My purple wight and elephant garlic are in, albigensian wight and solent wight still to go. The overwintering onions are coming up nicely, which is a relief. they need to be up before winter if they're going to do anything. With the cold weather we've had, and more forecast, I was getting a bit worried.
My Germadour (short dormancy variety) are coming through strongly. Never seen anything like it before. Hope they'll be all right. I've mulched them with some home made compost.
Overwintering onions are growing strongly too.