Garlic Sets

[lainey lou]

Good morning all

Just recieved my pink lady garlic from Marshalls, and wondered when is the best time to plant the cloves? Is this week too early?

lainey lou

[pigletwillie]

Not at all, I generally plant mine from now until Mid October. My "music" have just gone in and the "Lautrec" will go in once a bed is clear for them.

[lainey lou]

Great! That's a job I can be getting on with then.
Thanks Piglet

[andrewo]

I used to plant my around halloween but the weather is that bad now I would get them in the ground asap and give them plenty of growing time, make sure you plant them nice and deep to get good sized cloves.

[stv]

I planted them around this time last year - and all was looking good until we had loads of rain.
When it came to harvest most were mouldy from the top of the cloves and all were undersized. A total disaster in fact.

Can anyone let me know where i may have gone wrong and what may remedy it?

Stv

[hawthorns]

i put my garlic in last week. its my first atempt so will wait and see what happens

[andrewo]

I planted them around this time last year - and all was looking good until we had loads of rain.
When it came to harvest most were mouldy from the top of the cloves and all were undersized. A total disaster in fact.

Can anyone let me know where i may have gone wrong and what may remedy it?

Stv

It's a good idea to plant your garlic in the same bed your potatoes were in during summer as the potatoes have done most of the work for you and broken up the soil. Always use reputable garlic clove companies, don't plant the ones you get from the supermarket. Each clove should be nice and fat, small cloves won't make great garlic. They do not like sitting in the damp for long and need a good bite of frost, planting them deeper, means that the heads will form better and won't be subject to collar rot, mildew or just plain rotting away. Clay soils have it harder, as garlic can't stand prolonged bouts of damp and will rot. I too have had the same problems with garlic and sometimes the weather will just kill them, when it rains heavily now I try and cover them with a long plastic cloche.

[pigletwillie]

Or do as I do and plant them in raised beds.

[BigstU]

I started mine off last year in large deep pots, which were planted out during a few dry days in Jan, as my ground can get water logged

[mrskp]

My garlic is moving up to the lottie this winter but as I'm certain that we'll get flooded at some stage, they're going into a huge trug with holes precut in the bottom, sling in a good layer of polystyrene chips and fill the rest with compost. I'm not buying any new sets this year, but using my bestest and largest home grown Solent Wight.

I was going to give them another month before planting, but as we've already had frost, perhaps I should get them in now. I'll see how much time I've got at the weekend.