Garlic

[HotStuff]

Is there anything else that can be planted alongside the garlic? Or should it be in a bed by itself?

Thanks

Winter 2008/9 I did alternate rows of Garlic and hardy carrots which worked quite well.

[Two_Sheds]

Likewise, TS....Same for me with onions

My onions have been awful this year too: small and not very many of them. Spring onions though: best year ever.
Go figure

[toastie]

Have grown garlic for four years (since we've had an allotment) and usually buy from Isle of Wight garlic (but not the big elephant bulbs). Some years we have planted in December (in theory the shortest day) but as the cloves have gone into a raised bed haven't had a problem if the ground is frozen/damp etc although this year we planted in March. Bulbs usually ready between the longest day/July. Read somewhere that once they are planted they need 30 days at a low temperature - perhaps one of the garlic growing websites e.g. Isle of Wight Garlic might give you a lot more information/growing tips/drying tips etc. Good luck.

[Smiledmb]

Do you just plant the bulb inthe ground? How far down? Do you split it durst? You can tell I haven't done this before!!!!! I have 2 massive French garlic bulbs left from a summer camping trip in France that I'm thinking might be good to plant?

[Torquemada250]

Split the bulbs into individual segments (cloves) and use only 'juicy' ones for planting as garlic will deteriorate with storage.
Plant so the top of the clove is about an inch under ground (pointed bit up) and space the cloves about 6 inches apart in the ground. If your soil is heavy and gets waterlogged make a small mound and plant them in that as they don't like wet feet. Plant in October. As toastie says they perform best and produce the largest bulbs if they have had a cold spell. I've never tried bulbs bought in a French supermarket so good luck.

[Smiledmb]

Thanks I've never planted garlic ever so here's to my first go!!! Never done tomatoes or cucumber til this year and they've gone ok ish !!! Toms are splitting badly these last few days and yet they've been watered everyday by me and extra by this lovely rain..... Wonder if it's the cold nights and wind...

Thanks again.... Will report back next year when will garlic be ready to eat if planted oct?

[gojiberry]

Already have my first lot of garlic and onion sets in. The garlic has shot up with green shoots within 4 days. Will be staggering the planting over the next couple of months. Have found that the garlic does better if it can get a good bit of growth before it gets to cold. Last year I had about 6" of green before the cold weather and had a record crop of garlic, same with the onion sets.

Ian

[Mizjazzi]

Shop or garden centre garlic!

Bit early to plant just yet, but as Roitelet says garden centres will have plenty of choice. I must admit I have had better success rates with buying bulbs of garlic from the supermarket and splitting them into cloves and planting than I have from several types of expensive "special" garlic from garden centres and seed suppliers.

'Ditto'! I had a huge crop from shop bought garlic this year ( the spring planted were very small), not much from the bought in stuff.

My friend who bought loads of garlic in from centers had little succsess also,and was really miffed!

I'll do the same this year then.

PS. Tip for peeling small cloves easier: soak the cloves in cold water for 5 minutes and then they peel off easy.

Mizjazzi

[Crundy]

I've only ever grown Cristo, which is excellent. I normally just break it into cloves, and push a few inbetween the plants in the flowerbed to ward off the bugs. As an added bonus you get bulbs of garlic in the autumn.

At the beginning of this year, I noticed that I'd forgotten to pull two of them up the previous year, and they had split into new plants and started sprouting. So I dug them up, split them into about 20 plants, and moved them into rows in my veg patch. Would've been fine except I didn't bury them deep enough and they all wilted (although I did go to remove the corpses recently and noticed tiny little bulbs, so I'll probably leave them to sprout next year and do the same, only properly).

Garlic is probably the easiest veg in the world to grow. Just plant the cloves, and, well that's it. Good luck

[ladylottie]

Already have my first lot of garlic and onion sets in. The garlic has shot up with green shoots within 4 days. Will be staggering the planting over the next couple of months. Have found that the garlic does better if it can get a good bit of growth before it gets to cold. Last year I had about 6" of green before the cold weather and had a record crop of garlic, same with the onion sets.

Ian

What variety are you growing Ian? My garlic (Solent Wight) didn't do very well this year or my onions. Last year I just grew supermarket garlic and that did much better. If you live near to me I just wonder if I would get better luck with the varieties you have been growing?

[hailtryfan]

I've just planted some Isle of White garlic. Really hoping it will do well as it cost £2.99 for a bulb with just 8 cloves! Not even enough for half a row :-(

Gonna plant a shed load of supermarket garlic too as an experiment. Will report back on my progress.

[planetologist]

I stumbled upon this page that explains about the difference between hardneck and softneck garlic:
Flash in the Pan | Flash in the Pan | Missoula Independent - StumbleUpon

[Crundy]

I prefer hardneck, so you get the scapes

[Alison]

I prefer hardneck, so you get the scapes

But it doesn't keep so well so I grow a bit of both - although I never get very big bulbs for some reason no matter when / where I plant them. Onions are fine but spring onions don't really grow at all. Sowed some of them back in the spring and they're still not really big enough to harvest

[Crundy]

Garlic needs very rich soil to produce big bulbs. Even feeding doesn't seem to help if they're planted in poor soil. You could try digging in some well rotted manure, and leaving it for a year before planting your next batch.