Hi everyone. I'm about to plant some garlic but since I've only had my allotment a few months I haven't been able to get my hands on any manure as yet. Will the garlic grow well without it? I have a clay soil, not too heavy. Any suggestions for quick drainage/soil improvements would be appreiciated. :)
I have clay soil and find that unless you prepare the ground properly it is very easy to loose things to rot during a wet winter. I dig in loads and loads of coarse horticultural grit and manure as deeply as I can manage and that seems to have worked wonders for improving drainage, you only need to do the grit thing once. Not sure if grit will be a problem if you plan to grow carrots though. I did read somewhere, I think Tim posted it, that you can plant garlic in early spring rather than autumn, that's a big help when you have clay as there will be a tendency for rot during a wet winter.
I have a clay soil, and found that the spring planted worked better for me. The winter planted survived though.
Jeremy
ok. Thanks guys. I think I'll try half now and half in spring and see what happens :)
I'm going to do half in around November and half around Feb.
I have a very light soil. I might rake in some fertiliser about a week before sowing. And i have read that on light soil I can sow up to 4 inches deep (I used to leave the little tails sticking out in the heavy soil of previous lottie).
Have also read not to sow it onto newly manured land and that it isn't too bothered if the soil is on the poor side...
Sarah.
Onions you leave poking out, garlic you plant like a regular bulb. (I inadvertantly planted my winter onions last year a little deep, and they were whoppers! :o)
I put my garlic in the ground always at 15 October.
I have Chinese garlic with very big cloves.
Keep every year some cloves and plant them 20cm deep (save from fost) in good manured soil. I have sandy soil.
In July I harvest them, heavy crop and each clove is about 3 cm. ;D
The size of the garlic I plant in spring is much smaller than my garlic I plant in autumn. And less.
This thread reminds me.............buy garlic! ;D
Ok thought i was being clever ..Onions keep poking out must do the same for Garlic so now I have them in the ground (poking out) can I just earth them up or replant and how far down????