I have 3 ropes of home grown jolimont hanging in an airy (draughty) shed. I received 2 cristo bulbs and 2 albigensian wight from TM. Cristo were ok, fairly small but not bad and they have all gone into the one tall raised bed at home
The albigensian bulbs were soft and showed bad spots and had a musty smell, I instinctively didn`t trust them to be good bulbs. I did manage to find 5 fat cloves which looked ok, so I planted them in a row. My own jolimonts were very good ie big, nice looking cloves, so I planted 20. That 25 are on the allotment now
What does a good planting clove look like? Does it have brown bits anywhere on it?
If you received the bulbs in mushy condition from the T&M..I would have sent them back with very angry letter..
When I choose my planting cloves..first I select the biggest bulbs for the 'job'. Then from each bulb I look for the biggest/fattest cloves and I inspect them for any signs of marks that doesn't 'belong' to perfect clove of garlic. No soft spots, no brown marks...that way I minimize any chance of disease being transplanted into ground or effecting the next years bulb.
The biggest cloves are chosen to ensure the cloves being able make into decent size bulbs..but you can use all the cloves for planting if you have room..but the smallest cloves may only make one big solid 'clove' without dividing into separate cloves. Those now 'big cloves' you can use as usual or plant again next autumn and get the 'usual' bulbs following year.
Small cloves just take one growing season longer to make into divided bulbs.
I bought my garlic from T&M this year too, 2 each of Lautrec and Abigensian Wight .
They were all solid bulbs but the Abigensian pair were clearly different - one was a hardneck, the other a soft neck. But by the time I'd clocked this, they were all broken up and ready to go in so I planted them.
I've bought a few bags of onion sets from them before and they have been good looking sets but for heavens sake what are they doing sending out squishy bulbs! And they are not cheap either.
I plant the biggest cloves I have, and never mind the fact that I'm despoiling a lot of bulbs. The bigger the clove, the bigger the bulb. Mine's mostly from the market.
Just to be different......!!
Yes to being choosey, & yes to planting the fattest (maybe 8) for keepers (at 6" apart & 18" between rows), but the others (maybe 12) go in at 2-3" spacing for Green Garlic & smaller bulbs.
This is what they should look like.
(http://downtheplot.com/images/2011/garlic-cloves.jpg)
Incidentally, I find it somewhat amusing how just a few months ago my suggestion that you only plant the biggest cloves was derided, yet on reflection you see the logic of it. I'll make gardeners out of some of you yet.
The image shows a 2kg margarine pot with this seasons cloves ready for planting, and they have been saved up since July-August without harm disproving the notion that they must not be removed from the head until the day before planting.
I've been saving my own cloves for planting over 10 yrs now. With the careful selection of the best cloves out of bet bulbs, I rarely have bulbs now that has many small cloves in it. In some of the bulbs all the cloves are planting size..I try to select those for planting, with the hope that one day all my bulbs are 'super bulbs'.. ;)
In past I bought some proper 'seed' bulbs..but they have always been such a disappointment and it takes few years before they produce anything decent. I like my cloves bit and fat, don't like peeling fiddly little things.
Who's put a funny in my message?? I said '8'.
Interesting - so why do they say don't 'open' until planting time?
And if almost all cloves are a good size, the bulb must be ginormous??
And if almost all cloves are a good size, the bulb must be ginormous??
I wish... ;D Fewer cloves per bulb but bigger.. ;) And perharps they are good size bulbs too but nothing monstrous like elephant 'garlic'.
Interesting - so why do they say don't 'open' until planting time?
'they' say it so that the cloves stay in optimum condition until the planting.
"Keeping the garlic heads whole protects them from deterioration and ideally you should not break bulbs apart until a day or two before planting"...however..."One Israeli study found that large-cloved bulbs could be broken apart as far as month in advance"..."when a small cultural practice such as this is combined with many other small practices, the overall effect is multiplied, ultimately making the difference between good garlic crop and an outstanding garlic crop" -from complete book of garlic. ;)
So why should there be fewer cloves - non sequitur??
As said elsewhere, I was very surprised at the different numbers in the different varieties this year.
And how best to split a bulb without bruising?
So why should there be fewer cloves It not case of 'there should be'...I just prefer have fewer and larger cloves per bulb. I find all those small cloves 'hard' work when trying to peel them. If just peel one or two large cloves ,I get away with less work.. ;) ;D I find bigger cloves much more useful..big is beautiful.. ;D
As for splitting them..with hardnecks its easier..I try to bend the neck in the middle to get the bulb to split or trying to shove my finger into middle gap to break the bulb apart.
Quote from: tim on October 19, 2011, 08:10:44
Who's put a funny in my message?? I said '8'.
Time,
You typed an 8 immediately followed by a )
These two characters one after the other represent the cool smiley. No-one (except you!) put anything in your post.
goodlife - was just wondering why your selection process should mean fewer cloves. One would have thought that, like petals on a flower, there would always be the same number.
Ceres - Oh!! Thank you.
Ahh..I see what you mean Tim. Well, generally different garlic varieties have their own number of cloves that are one of the identification features...but it is not 'set in stone' as such. Some bulbs can vary and growing conditions do also play part.
I'm playing with natural selection and trying to multiply only from those bulbs that show uniformity for that particular character= bigger,fewer cloves.
When I first started some of bulbs did produce odd smaller cloves...but generally the large glove bulbs carry that character within their cloves to next generation..as I've always eaten all the 'small bulbs with odd smaller cloves' out of my stock I've eventually left more bulbs with 'big and few' clove character.
You can sometimes see varieties described by their clove count per bulb (like 6-8 cloves per bulb)..it is that variability that I have been trying to single out..generally each variety has tendency reach to certain maximum size, so if variety description is 6-8 cloves per bulb..those bulbs with only 6 cloves, with maximum size reached, those cloves will be considerably bigger than bulb with 8.
When you get growing conditions chucked to that 'plan' as well..8 clove garlic with not so good growth for that year will produce even smaller cloves where as the 6 cloved bulb will be still half decent.. ;) I doubt I'll ever able to 'out grow' the character for those few smaller cloves totally as it is in that variety's 'make up'..but certainly I've been able to reduce of the occurrence of them.
If you pick handfull of same variety flowers...there will always be odd flower that has slight difference with the petal count..it is like looking that 4 leaf clover..;0
I buy supermarket garlic! I haven't seen any advantage in garden centre bulbs so I will keep doing it that way. I look in Lidl until I see a batch with big cloves and snatch up a net of them! Last year I got over 30 head like that. I break off the outer cloves that are bigger, make sure they are firm with papery skin and stick em in. I eat the inner cloves!
But I certainly would not plant any that are soft or mouldy they will just rot in the ground and might give the others some lurgy.
Some spiel, goodlife - thank you!
PS - bit disappointed by the aged colour of my bought-in seed this year.
what variety is that garlic?
Now she asks......!!
4 varieties - 'cos we haven't had our own for some years through white rot - decided to have one more go - can't afford the Tesco eating stuff - all planted & forgotten.