For the second year in a row my over wintered Jermor shallots have not done very well, smaller bulbs and more bulbs withered so useless. My usually reliable Marco garlic has also suffered, so I'm rethinking my usual autumn purchases....has anyone had success with any other varieties? And where are we all buying from (or avoiding) this year?
I'm not pleased to hear that, but you know what I mean.. I thought it was just me... :wave:
I replanted my garlic for the last ten years, the bulbs getting bigger each year, this year all I got was Tesco sized garlic very disappointed but the shallots did quite well just one of those years, next year will be better.
My Garlic and others on the allotment had a bad year. Maybe as it was a late warming up in spring. I'm going for he same garlic - planting as they arrive in October - holding my breath and hoping I have a good year. To be fair garlic has been my only failure this year so far - have yet to see how the parsnips and sprouts fair. Take care. Al
Garlic here did "OK" but not great.I found this site with the most comprehensive guidance and feel others may appreciate its contents. It is from a commercial grower in Zone 4 Canada, possibly similar to the UK average . I would be interested in learning what special treatments/conditions you each give your garlic
https://www.garlicfarm.ca/garlic-varieties.htm
Best garlic harvest ever. Decent sized bulbs except the elephants which were a tad smaller than last year and not as many as expected turned into cloved bulbs. I just replant the best cloves from the previous year. Trouble is I don't know their names as, as far as I can remember, most of the original bulbs were given to me although at least one of them came from a garden centre. The rest were normal shop bought ones I think. They seem to have acclimatised to my plot okay.
My Marcos were very disappointing this year - useable but very small. In fact, the plants practically disappeared and I was surprised to find anything under the soil. However, the Iberian Wight turned out fine. Trouble is, the family have discovered the pleasures of roasted garlic heads so they've nearly all gone. Nice while it lasted...
Germidour and Thermidrome did OK for me this year, Marco was a total write-off pretty much, adn they all went in together at the same time. Elephant did OK.... I grow shallots from seed (Banana, Prisma and Creation) adn the crop wasn't as big as last year but not too bad.... My elephant garlic did get leek mothbut thankfully the "Grow-Your-Own" pack of nematodes treats it and there wasn't much damage..
Interesting Chris, my banana shallots grown from seed were fab as well, it was just the overwintered stuff grown from sets that were a bit pants.
Just got an email from Franchi advertising their Italian grown garlic (apparently a 2/3rds of what we buy is Chinese grown?), £9.99 but for 5-6 heads, anyone tried these before?
Our overwnter garlic just grew into 1 bulb, all of it where the spring sown were great. These were sown in modules and transplanted so I'm going to try it again this year, definitely not buying marco. Didn't do shallots this year :happy7:
My garlic which I have grown from the previous years best cloves for 6 years has been a complete disaster in terms of size and quality. I feel unable to reset any of it this year so I have ordered 4 new types from the Garlic Farm : Vallelado, Provence, Avignon and Carcassonne. I have not grown any of these before so I experimenting a bit.
On the other hand I grew Longor Shallots from T & M and I am highly delighted with the results. From just 20, sets I have filled 4 blue mushroom type trays and they are big long shallots. I have kept 30 odd in the top of the garage in the hope that I can use them for seed.
I have come to the conclusion this year that I think over wintering shallots and onions are not for me. I loose too many to quantify the expense and the spring planting ones soon almost catch them up.
My Jermors were poor this year too so I am struggling to justify the expense of them for this Autumn.
The overwinter onions just disappeared over winter but they are cheap enough to buy (so I have!) and will try again.
Garlic was fab which was a nice upside.
Growing stuff eh? The triumph of hope over experience. Or a mugs game. Take your pick.
Edited to say: Marshalls website have an interesting new overwinter shallot Biztro pus some Toughball onion seeds which I would order if they weren't sold out. But maybe they are all much the same. I read on one of the allium breeder sites that Senshyu are now very close to Radar and think that maybe some companies give their products "Trademark"-type names when really they are all a bit generic.
Probably my best year for garlic - Sprint, Vayo, Purple Wight and Germidor. I lost none over winter - my garlic usually has only a few losses that way but the problem is that I have to lift it at about end of May/early June when it gets rust. This year the rust was a month later, due I guess to the weather conditions, so I got more larger bulbs.
I've given up on autumn onions because I lose too many to rot. This year I tried heat-treated sets but I wasn't impressed by the quality, particularly as they were quite expensive, but on the plus side I lost none to white rot. So I've got to think whether to try them again or go back to ordinary spring sets.
Shallots I've abandoned - just devastated by the wet over winter and then white rot in the spring.
I'm going to try watering with garlic solution next year.
Well in a way I'm a bit pleased that I'm not the only one having overwintering problems, at the moment I think I'll definitely plant more garlic, but will just do the shallots from seed. I noticed the Marshalls shallots too, not sure if itight be worth buying one bag as a trial?
I grew Golden Line Red and White garlic a couple of years running (there is a chappie on the local market who sells Franchi stuff) and it wasn't great. I have been buying seed every year for a bit now and Lautrec Wight is hard to beat in terms of solid performance. But it seems so dependent on the weather and maybe just dumb luck.
My shallotts - from a neighbour; I don't know the variety - were brilliant this year; the first time I've succeeded with them. The less said about the garlic the better. I'm getting rather mixed results from the new raised beds, but the crap I'm filling them with probably needs time to develop into decent soil.
All a bit rubbish for me this year too - I think the garlic actually came out smaller than it went in!
But elephant garlic someone gave me did ok - well badly for elephant garlic, but that's still big!
This year I've bought some elephant garlic. (Having a battle against white rot and it's said to be less susceptible). And I will perhaps buy in shallots as well, as I worry even healthy looking ones from my plot might have some white rot on them...
Well, I bought the Jermors, 3 packs of 8 bulbs for (hold on to your hats!) 9 quid.
I saw them yesterday in Rowena and thought "oh look ! Shiny !". I am an idiot :tongue3:
radar onions were rubbish and most produced flower buds. Jermor were great. Garlics were small but useable, so a mixed bag for me. Jermor and germidour are ordered from t and m. Not bothering with onions any more. They will go into two raised beds that I enhanced with improvers a few months ago, so pretty light soil now, which used to be solid clay. Also had phacelia dug in and potatoes previously, so won`t get water logged
Quote from: Ellen K on September 22, 2013, 12:45:21
Well, I bought the Jermors, 3 packs of 8 bulbs for (hold on to your hats!) 9 quid.
I saw them yesterday in Rowena and thought "oh look ! Shiny !". I am an idiot :tongue3:
Ha ha, I know what you mean...I do the same all the time! I am so weak when it comes to buying stuff for the lottie, kid in a sweetshop..... :blob7:
Marshalls had a stall at Harrogate show, 3 packs for 5.00. Supposed to be 1 shallots, 1 garlic and 1 onions
I managed to persuade them to let me have 4 packs of provence wight and 2 packs of 100 shakespeare onions for 10.00
Bargain :toothy10:
Quote from: manicscousers on September 23, 2013, 16:41:26
Marshalls had a stall at Harrogate show, 3 packs for 5.00. Supposed to be 1 shallots, 1 garlic and 1 onions
I managed to persuade them to let me have 4 packs of provence wight and 2 packs of 100 shakespeare onions for 10.00
Bargain :toothy10:
There's value!
Just ordered my garlic today, decided to go with the 'Really Garlicky' peeps in Scotland for some UK grown hardneck 'Music' and 'Castano' garlic as you can buy it by the bulb. Still not decided if I'm going to bother with shallots yet......waver waver...
Hi the garlic farm link that was on earlier is 5 hours drive from me and is cooler than our area . We are much more like the Uk here. The garlic was poor here this year for pretty much everyone due to excessive heat. XX Jeannine