Garlic - too late?

[Amanda1]

I haven't managed to get my garlic planted yet? As its now snowing and the ground frozen, it's unlikely to happen this weekend? Am I too late anyway? Has anyone planted this late and still been successful?

[WiZeR]

same question from me? although with the way things going I wont be ready to plant for about 2 weeks anyway.

[shirlthegirl43]

Thank goodness I am not the only one who hasn't got the garlic in yet!!! Am I too late to plant overwinter onions too?

[smallblueplanet]

Yeah, best to get the spring planting variety though. But last year we tried some Garlic Solent Wight (spring planting - didn't go in 'til Apr.) and Albigensian Wight (autumn planting - put in modules end Jan.) - both grew okay, but the solent bulbed up nicely and stores well, we're still using it.

If you want to get them started plant them up now in modules until you can get them into the ground later.

[Protea]

I can second the spring planting of Solent Wight - i grew this last year alongside the other varieties i'd planted in the autumn.

I'm sure i've been told that as long as you get it (autumn planting garlic) in the ground before mid-Feb you'll be ok but you might not get such big bulbs.

I think my elephant garlic i planted in Autumn has rotted as its not up yet, and the other varieties are. I've got a bulb left over from last years crop which is starting to shoot in the house - think i'll pop it in a bucket/deep pot and see what happens!

[la cebolla grande]

You'll be fine growing garlic in the spring, but just don't expect big bulbs. I planted ours last spring and it was delicious, but not huge. If you manage to get it in asap - even in cold ground you may be OK. In order to grow big big bulbs garlic NEEDS a period of frost.

Winter onions too will be ok, but again you probably won't get big bulbs. Use them as a crop of spring onions - works really well, we've done that this year - even though we planted ours in the autumn they still haven't bulked up yet, but are delicious none-the less. Try planting the crop close, and use alternate plants as spring onions which will open up the crop for good spacing as they start to bulb up in the spring.

LCG

[Ratty]

Doh! That's one for the diary then - I planted my garlic last spring and got some delicious but quite small bulbs in September/October - Will do the same this year and get some planted in the Autumn to over-winter!

[smallblueplanet]

Ratty I think the variety planted matters for the size of the bulb too - solent wight have been bigger than all our other spring garlic varieties.

[Nicos]

I planted elephant garlic in April (ish) 2005 and by the autumn it was the size of a cricket ball, but it had not segmented, and looked more like a small turnip.
I left it to overwinter and this summer it was fantastic and although on the small size -compared to the picture in the catalogue-was a great success.
No idea if it should have been planted in the autumn or spring,but it ended up in the ground for about 16 months!

[smallblueplanet]

To get garlic to form cloves it has to have spent a certain time at below 10degrees - hence planting over winter. Don't know about elephant garlic for sure as its not a true garlic.

[Jothegardener]

I planted my Solent White garlic in November last year and I have kept some that I was going to plant next month, so hopefully even though Solent White is a spring variety it will still be ok.

[rustylady]

If you've got the bulbs and the space plant them. You could try planting in modules, but they do reckon garlic needs a cold spell so you may as well just plant them outside. On my lottie I've got plants growing from bulbs I missed last year and I'm going to leave them to grow and see what happens, they've got to be better than last year's crop.

[running_muttley]

Should I leave my garlic in the fridge for a few weeks rather than planting it to make sure it forms cloves?

[serenity]

hope someone can help If I planted some garlic now when would it be ready to harvest?

[madderbat]

Hi there Running Muttley
I had some garlic in my fridge for the last week, because it was beginning to shoot indoors and I wanted to eat it. It didn't seem to be very happy, and went a bit mouldy, so can't recommend it.
However, if you plant now, you should be lucky enough to get some frost before spring (depending on where you are of course).

Serenity, as I understand it garlic takes about 6 months, so if you planted now you should get some in July. But of course I am willing to be corrected!