Did I plant my garlic too deep?

[HeyWayne]

Pulled the garlic up last night - and I mean "pulled up". The whole bulbs were burioed under the soil - my neighbour said they should be like onions, on top - ish.

The bulbs have split nicely into cloves - some have a "skin", others just seem to be open cloves.

The other thing that concerns me is that they've all (every man-jack one of 'em) bolted. I'm guessing this means they won't store?

Oh well, there's always next year...

[di]

We plant ours below the surface & the bulbs grow underground.ie when planted you can't see them whereas with onions we leave the tops showing.Can't say it's THE right way but has always worked for us!? re the bolting~prob due to weather not how you planted.

[JILLY JACKSON]

Whens the best time to plant garlic/What type is most reliable?

[di]

Ours usually goes in in November~then if we come across either cheap or different types up until early spring. ~Sorry not very good with names so can't help you without going to lottie to check!

[HeyWayne]

I used common garden supermarket garlic.

[Capsid]

I take 3 bulbs from this year's crop and plant the cloves of those, no need to buy them. They are Solent Wight variety from stock I bought the year before last.

[djhs196]

Hi HeyWayne,

My garlic bulks up underground - it's never been an issue, while my onions are always more a half and half affair. I do plant the garlic much deeper though.

Some hard neck garlic and elephant garlic grow flower stems "scapes" - there's mixed opinion on whether to take them off or not to get larger cloves. I'm not sure how it would affect storage.

However, when fresh the best reason to remove them is because they're tasty - recipes abound on the internet from pesto to steamed like asparagus:

Garlic Scapes - Home Cooking - Chowhound

I've had a few with thin layers and some with none at all - and the reason was i think i pulled them up just a little late. Next year I'm aiming to pull the garlic up when there are 4/5 leaves left (counting form the scape stem). When these dry out, 1 or 2 can come off to give me a clean bulb, leaving three skins to cover the bulb.

Jilly - I usually plant in late Oct / November, and last year planted Marco from Wyevale. Produced some excellent bulbs this year with big and strong tasing cloves.

[JILLY JACKSON]

Thank you all very much,much appreciated!

[Newbie]

I want to save some of my garlic from this year to plant again, whats the best way to treat it so that its still viable by planting time?

[HeyWayne]

Hi HeyWayne,

My garlic bulks up underground - it's never been an issue, while my onions are always more a half and half affair. I do plant the garlic much deeper though.

Some hard neck garlic and elephant garlic grow flower stems "scapes" - there's mixed opinion on whether to take them off or not to get larger cloves. I'm not sure how it would affect storage.

However, when fresh the best reason to remove them is because they're tasty - recipes abound on the internet from pesto to steamed like asparagus:

Garlic Scapes - Home Cooking - Chowhound

I've had a few with thin layers and some with none at all - and the reason was i think i pulled them up just a little late. Next year I'm aiming to pull the garlic up when there are 4/5 leaves left (counting form the scape stem). When these dry out, 1 or 2 can come off to give me a clean bulb, leaving three skins to cover the bulb.

Jilly - I usually plant in late Oct / November, and last year planted Marco from Wyevale. Produced some excellent bulbs this year with big and strong tasing cloves.

Thanks for that dj, it would appear that I left mine in too long then...

Next year however.