Is there any reason I can't grow Garlic from the bulbs you buy in the supermarket?
Most will grow OK... :)
Some people report problems with disease, but I have also always done it without problems.
Have a go?
Not just 'if' - or disease - but size too?
Most s/market cloves are 1/4-1/3rd the size of the ones I'm putting in.
See earlier. http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,57493.0.html
interesting, thanks Tim
Thanks everyone ;D
Last November I planted some cloves from a large already-sprouting organic garlic from a health food shop. I thought they didnt get much better than that. They took 6 months to grow to the size of 6" pencils, and the single bulb each clove produced wasnt any bigger than the one I put in the ground.
This Nov I planted some from the garden centre and within a week they were a couple of inches high, and are now bigger than last years ones ever got. Wouldnt ever bother with shop-bought ones again!
Most of the garlic in the supermarkets comes from climates that are very different from ours, and the results can be very much hit or miss.
Like Chinese??
Indeed Chinese. I did try planting some "solo" Chinese garlic in the autumn out of curiosity. It grew strongly, but has now collapsed, while my other garlics are fine.
Nice site.
Quote from: realfood on January 25, 2010, 20:21:36
Indeed Chinese. I did try planting some "solo" Chinese garlic in the autumn out of curiosity. It grew strongly, but has now collapsed, while my other garlics are fine.
I've got a few of those in too, will have to check them this weekend.... THere's two theories as to what they are that I've heard.... either:
Whacky cultivar/species that grows from seed to produce single bulb in a year then bolts to flower (so I'll have flowers this year) in a way much like an onion does or:
Normalish cultivar grown without a cold period so therefor goes from small clove to big single-clove bulb in its second year.....
Either sounds pretty believable to me, certainly the ones I had had no trace of ever being part of a cluseter, they were just too perfectly round..... if they fflower I will try to ensure that none of the other garlic near them gets to (I#'d habitually remove garlic flowers anyway) so if it is the seed-bulb in a year scenario I should ahve seed for next year....
chrisc
I regard it as pretty normal for garlic to occasionally form a single huge clove - 95% of the times it has been from a late spring sowing but not always...
I find it quite useful - if the bulbs earmarked for planting have some small cloves I often can't be bothered peeling them for the pot, so I save them and plant much later - turning a tiny clove into a medium clove is much more useful than turning it into 10 even tinier cloves!
Cheers.
Quote from: Vinlander on January 25, 2010, 22:40:25
I regard it as pretty normal for garlic to occasionally form a single huge clove - 95% of the times it has been from a late spring sowing but not always...
I find it quite useful - if the bulbs earmarked for planting have some small cloves I often can't be bothered peeling them for the pot, so I save them and plant much later - turning a tiny clove into a medium clove is much more useful than turning it into 10 even tinier cloves!
Cheers.
Good point... I'll try and remember that....
chrisc
Put them very close & use green.