quick question about garlic (MERGED)

Finella_2

silvercharming wrote: »

Wilkinsons if you've got one close are doing them cheap. Also hiomebase, B&Q, and everywhere that sells anything even vaguely garden-ish. Buy it and get it in the ground as soon as you can, hopefully this cold snap will trigger it to clove properly.

I appreciate all replies to my question about where to get garlic. My local garden shop doesn't do garlic ... said nobody wanted it!

As I have mentioned in other posts, I probably won't be able to grow anything in our garden this year (we had an extension last year and the garden still resembles a building site!) but hope to grow stuff in florists buckets (I have made friends with my greengrocer and take him and his wife homebaking!) and old toyboxes.

Will I be able to grown garlic in one of the florists buckets? If so do I use compost or dig up some earth from the aforementioned building site(!)?

Many thanks.

PS I went to Poundland today (1st ever visit) and bought their seeds and some strawberry plants, but that's another query I need to post ....

ariba10

I have in the past put ordinary Garlic cloves in and they have grown.

The old saying was that you planted them on the shortest day and harvested them on the longest day!

Larumbelle

Well, supermarket garlic will do if you can't get any 'proper' seed, (though I'm sure plenty here will disagree with me!) If I get any that sprouts this time of year I bung it in the ground to see what happens, and I have a pretty good success rate, if you are growing in pots there's nothing to lose, it's not like you're going to introduce disease into your soil or anything!

You shouldn't have any problem growing it in florit's buckets, just make sure it's got plenty of drainage holes. Each clove needs about six inches of space so you might have to give over a large number of pots to it, otherwise it will be fine.

You can use compost or soil from the garden, either should be fine, garlic tolerates poor soil. BUT if you've got heavy clay soil (you'll be able to tell you have if you can easily squidge and shape your soil into a long sausage then turn the sausage back on itself to make shapes) you should 'cut' it with some sand or compost to help it drain more easily.

Strawberries and most types of seeds should be easy to help with too, but if you open new threads for them it'll be easier for you and the others reading the thread to see what the individual questions are

Lotus-eater

silvercharming wrote: »

Well, supermarket garlic will do if you can't get any 'proper' seed, (though I'm sure plenty here will disagree with me!) If I get any that sprouts this time of year I bung it in the ground to see what happens, and I have a pretty good success rate, if you are growing in pots there's nothing to lose, it's not like you're going to introduce disease into your soil or anything!

Well there is white rot.

I got white rot last year, although that started on bought in proper seed garlic bulbs, but whether that came from them or somewhere else I don't know.

I've grown supermarket bulbs before and they have been fine, a little small maybe, but fine.
This year I am growing them again, in a huge pot and so far they seem to be shrugging off everything the winter throws at them.

Biggles

Ordinary garlic bulbs are fine from any shop, there is (apparently) no difference between 'seed' garlic and 'eating' garlic.

But yes, do it soon.

Larumbelle

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Well there is white rot.

I got white rot last year, although that started on bought in proper seed garlic bulbs, but whether that came from them or somewhere else I don't know.

I know that shop-bought garlic can carry white rot, but I was under the impression that it's soil-borne, not air-borne, if so the OP should be okay as she's using containers, so if (s)he does get it, (s)he could easily isolate the affected material. Am I mistaken there?

Lotus-eater

silvercharming wrote: »

I know that shop-bought garlic can carry white rot, but I was under the impression that it's soil-borne, not air-borne, if so the OP should be okay as she's using containers, so if (s)he does get it, (s)he could easily isolate the affected material. Am I mistaken there?

I can't see anywhere that the OP says they will be planting in containers?
Its definitely soil borne, but easy to transfer to other parts of the garden, a tool used in the soil in a infected area will transfer it to where you are using it next (apparently, I've tried to be careful)

arkonite_babe

Hi
We have a thread similar to this already, I'll add your query to it so all the replies are together. Posts are listed in date order so you'll need to read from the beginning to catch up


MOVING THREADS FOR BETTER RESPONSES

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Finella_2

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I can't see anywhere that the OP says they will be planting in containers?
Its definitely soil borne, but easy to transfer to other parts of the garden, a tool used in the soil in a infected area will transfer it to where you are using it next (apparently, I've tried to be careful)

Yes, I said that I would be planting in the black florists buckets.

My hubby has gone to the big city today and I asked him to buy me some garlic at Homebase on the way home for me to plant as soon as. He told me (Oh so knowledgeable, NOT) that I could use garlic bought from a supermarket and so I asked him is it a clove of garlic I plant and does that clove grow into a single bulb of garlic or what? And he didn't know.

So I go forth to much a place with more knowledge than my hubby and ask:

Does one plant a single clove of garlic and does that grown into a single bulb of garlic or more?

Sorry if this seems like a very basic biology question, but I really have no idea what I am doing!

With thanks.

Larumbelle

Hi again Finella!

When you get a bulb, separate it into cloves. Forget the tiny ones, they'll not do a lot. The bigger cloves, plant each one separately with a good 4-6 inches all round, and each clove will hopefull become a bulb.
That's the theory, anyway. The reason we're all saying get it in the ground (or bucket or whatever ) as soon as possible is because if garlic doesn't get cold enough weather it doesn't form cloves properly.