Allotments 4 All

Thanks Robert. :D

I wait till they've all fallen over, a couple of times I've tried to get them  up too soon, and found tiny cloves, left the others in longer and they've been fantastic.  I read somewhere that they like a winter before sowing, so the autumn sowing ones I put a bulb in the fridge until it's time to put it in.  Don't know if this works or not, because I buy them as well, and can never remember which ones are which when they're in the ground.

And it's a good idea not to put them in a dish in the fridge, Last year they got pushed against the back of the fridge where the frosting plate thingy dripped water into the dish, it slowly began to pong, till I had to clear out the fridge and found two heads of garlic, soaking and stinking.  WHAT A WASTE!

Once again, it just might be worth listening to the grower?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/photo04/garlic.jpg

Thanks, Tim. I'll add that to my ever-growing collection of tips.  I said the other day I should start a file.  We keep a diary, but perhaps that's not enough.

Why harvest garlic if the plant is still growing, Just pick one or two if you need them. Leave the rest till the leaves have fallen over and are drying at the tips ..
As for onions, There are a lot of onions lost in storage due to picking them too early. Let them fall over naturally leave a while then with a fork ease roots out of ground let them stay there till the neck just above the onion is really pliable, this is where a lot of the moisture is and where rot starts if  harvested and hung  too early ..

Of course - use as needed, assuming you have plenty.

All our runts are used as green.

ours were planted in November and are still going strong.  I anticipate harvesting the solent wight and thermidore sometime late June/early July and will keep an eye on how they look.

As for the elephant garlic I have no idea, I'm sure it will say when it is ready.

Discussing leaf colour with TG, mine were yellower  - rather like his - a month ago than they have ever been & I was worried. Now his are 'ripening' whereas mine (October) have suddenly gone all green again.

Maybe to do with the raised bed & drought?

Funny thing is that I only just read that one lot is Rose Garlic - now where on earth did that come from??

Treat heffalump garlic the same as garlic, and harvest when 10% of the stems have gone over.

My garlic have thrown up flower buds and I have taken them all off. same as they do with flower bulbs it makes the bulbs bigger.