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Hi.  Can anyone suggest where I can purchase (by mail order / the web) reasonably priced garlic bulbs ?  I would like to plant some in September / October.  Garden centres seem very expensive and only sell a couple of bulbs ago.  I would really like a big bag full!  Thanks if you can help.

I've bought garlic from www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk for the past couple of years.  Seem to get lots for your money which is good because we like garlic!

Or if you don't want to buy 4 or 5 bulbs at a time, try www.dobies.co.uk

Do you have farm shop that sells local produce ?

We got ours from our local one, the advantage is that you can pick the best fattest cloves, and so get the best crop next year...  Also it is dead cheap, think we paid £0.40 for this years crop !

hope this helps...

That is quite amazing!!

However - are we quite sure that they were certified seed? Big dangers lurk.

The Garlic Farm does sell on some markets, & theirs certainly are.

There is also Garlic World.  www.garlicworld.co.uk

aatim,

What can happen with using non certified sets? I am very tempted to use organic supermarket garlic.

i´ve planted the supermarket varieties for years. the results were often disappoining - minute bulbs.
two years ago i planted a certified variety from burgundy, slightly purple. the resulting bulbs were much bigger. for the next season i just saved the nicest ones till sowing time in october. again a much better crop than i had with the supermarket stuff.

Quote from: David R on August 08, 2005, 21:34:07
aatim,

What can happen with using non certified sets? I am very tempted to use organic supermarket garlic.

That's often only suitable for warmer climates.

yes, you must use a type suitable for the UK conditions i think....

That is why i got mine from a farm shop, they had been grown in the ok...

Tim, i figured that if they had white rot then they wouldn't be looking plump and health, do you think i took a risk ?

I bought mine from the supermarket, stored them for a while in fridge and planted them in the Spring...the other day I dug up 30 lovely garlic bulbs of varying sizes, some very big.....the ones I've used so far are very juicy....

It's not all doom!!

Of course you may get away with it most of the time, but it's such a menace that it seems worth playing 'safe' - for the sake of pence?

I don't know if a 'carrier' bulb has identifiable signs of the rot.

Kings seeds autumn catalogue arrived today sporting 3 garlic bulbs for 1.95 which is cheaper than most.  Doesn't state the variety though which concerns me.  Anyone had any trouble with King's garlic in the past?  I'm sorely tempted since I'm a wee bit skint at the mo. ;D

I got to talk to the folk at the Really Garlicky Garlic company at BBC GW live. They said they sold seed garlic in September,  so I shall be contacting them then for some porcelain garlic.

http://www.reallygarlicky.com

I shall also be getting Marco, which is a hardneck. Not the largest bulbs, but the cloves within them are huge and easy to peel. Hubby thinks they're great.

moonbells

Quote from: Mubgrub on August 09, 2005, 14:25:45
Kings seeds autumn catalogue arrived today sporting 3 garlic bulbs for 1.95 which is cheaper than most.  Doesn't state the variety though which concerns me.  Anyone had any trouble with King's garlic in the past?  I'm sorely tempted since I'm a wee bit skint at the mo. ;D

At college they said that Kings supply a lot of the other companies, and that they are good, havven't tried them myself yet, but am intending to.