Planting Garlic.

[jonohanson]

I have 3 Garlic bulbs, how do I plant these(apart from the obvious in the ground) do I split the bulbs up or do they create more bulbs from the one(like spuds)??

Cheers

[TEB]

you split the bulbs and plant the individual "cloves"

[Eyren]

If you have three heads, like the ones you buy in the supermarket, split them into cloves (like you would if you were cooking with them) and plant each one separately (about 6-8 inches apart). I stick them far enough down so they have about their own height of soil above them. Also, they need to go in ASAP, as they need cold weather in order to tell them it's time to divide into more cloves to make new garlic plants.

Have fun - I love growing garlic

[selfraising]

hello. Well I planted mine in pots about 2 weeks ago and left them outside. I would suggest you split bulb into separate cloves and then plant with just the tips showing. I'm not sure what would happen if you plant the whole bulb. I guess you could always plant a whole bulb as an experiment and split the other 2.

[muslimgrower]

you would get stunted growth, and the roots will intertwine each other and just compete for root space and moisture, its best to plant individual cloves in my humble opinion

[Eyren]

I was thinking that, muslimgrower - it's not like onion seedlings, where you can plant a small group and they will push one another apart as they grow. Cloves in a head of garlic are anchored to a base plate, so they will struggle to grow in such close proximity...

[jonohanson]

Thanks for the replys, ill be popping them in at the weekend to make sure they get some cold weather.

[TEB]

you could always put them in the fridge, tis what I do

[Iamhanuman]

put them in the fridge?
can you elaborate TEB?

[TEB]

Some garlic needs cold weather and are usually planted "Sept/Oct ish" to achieve this, I couldn't do that last year so have put mine in the fridge for about a week to simulate over wintering temperatures.

[FionaH]

Now that is clever!

[Lazgaot]

Isn't the necessity for cold a feature of only certain varieties of Garlic? I.e the overwintering variety? Hence you have the OW ones planted in Oct/Nov and the spring sown ones? Or am I completely wrong?

[nelliegemini]

Some garlic needs cold weather and are usually planted "Sept/Oct ish" to achieve this, I couldn't do that last year so have put mine in the fridge for about a week to simulate over wintering temperatures.

Do you plant them up in pots and then put in the fridge, or just bung the whole lot in the veggie drawer? Or the freezer?

Yes I didn't plant mine either - glad I didn't because they were going into next to asparagus, and I've only found out recently that that's a nono.

[Iamhanuman]

Do you plant them up in pots and then put in the fridge, or just bung the whole lot in the veggie drawer? Or the freezer?

that's what I was wondering.
not sure i've got room in our fridge for a tray with a load of earth and garlic cloves in it, not with all the milk and veg and water bottles

[Iamhanuman]

oh and the overwintering variety question too!