quick question about garlic (MERGED)

angie_loves_veg

You are right PQ, split the bulb into cloves and plant them separately as madhouse advised. (4" apart ish). Flat end at the bottom, pointy end up. There is nothingg wrong with planting all the cloves if you have the room, but the biggest cloves will give the best bulbs.

Garlic also likes a period of cold in order to form the bulbs, so get them in sooner rather than later, and *don't* protect them from cold/frost/snow - they need it to form the big bulbs you are after.

LJM

another handy hint to know,garlic will be going back on my list

ariba10

They also say you should plant on the shortest day and harvest on the longest day.

Jnelhams

You should try and plant only Garlic that has been grown in the U.K. or from a cool country as Garlic from Spain or similar will always struggle.

You can buy Elephant Garlic, a type which produces much larger cloves, do not plant it too deeply either as it needs the Sun to ripen well.

comping_cat

A couple of months ago, i planted a clove of organic garlic (from a bulb i bought at Mr Ts) and it now has a lovley long green stalk sticking out, so im assuming that something is happening!!!

Now, how do i know when its ready to be picked? and can i assume that all is growing well seeing that it has produced the stalk?

mjr600

Did you plant an individual garlic segment, I guess you did and not the whole thing. Garlic is best if it is overwintered, planted in Autumn and harvested in late June-July.

That said if its growing all well and good, you will know it is ready when the leaves have turned light brown, dried and wilted.

To get an individual buld to produce a full segmented garlic clove normally requires a period of prolonged cold weather around freezing, if not the garlic will flower, produce a single large buld, it will look nice since it is a member of the Alium family but won't be much use in the kitchen.

moozer_2

I tried growing garlic a few years back using bulbs bought from a superstore. Unfortunately, it didn't come to anything. I subsquently learnt that it's best to buy special seed garlic for growing on - like you buy from a garden centre.

That said you never know, let the bulb grow and once the leaves have turned, see what's there! It is lovely to grow your own veggies and things.

Edited bit: Actually I should clarify it's a seed bulb of garlic - if that makes sense? HTH!

comping_cat

Thank you both, so i will wait until the stalk has died off, and then i can look and see whats happened, and the best thing is to either get some garlic seed, or plant a clove in the Autumn, ready for the following year!!!

CountryWife_2

Hi Catherine,
I got a load of garlic last year from the garlic farm on the isle of wight. Some varieties have been more successful than others, but they supply varieties bred to be grown in this country, although you can plant from a supermarket variety. They are best grown overwinter, but worth experimenting anyway. The other thing is that it is best to dig it up when it has gone '10% over' rather than fully died off, as it will keep for longer. Then leave it to dry as you would onions. hope yours is successful, if not try again next year!

Big_Bird_4

I've grown perfectly good garlic from ordinary supermarket bulbs, but I guess I was lucky that it happened to be a variety that performed well in Britain. Each year pick the biggest and best head of garlic you get and keep that so you can plant the cloves to provide next year's crop. I aim to get mine in by the end of November, but some varieties will do ok from an early Spring planting. It's worth planting the cloves in slightly raised soil to reduce the risk of them rotting if the weather turns really wet.