Last year's garlic still in ground - leave or pull up?

[hollychap]

I'd leave them in - when I left mine in, some of them turned into a large single bulb instead of a split head of cloves. I discovered on one of the cooking programmes that these are quite prized to cook with!

lidl sell garlic in small baskets they are single bulbs not too strong either

[Two_Sheds]

I planted them at Easter...

pourquoi? I know, ust because you wanted to get something in!

I wonder why someone hasn't bred a strain which does it every time, if they're so prized...

Elephant garlic does the 'one clove' thing: Elephant garlic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I've bought a couple of different varieties to try this year

I've always had more success with ordinary supermarket garlic than the expensive seed garlic.
Garlic really does like a cold spell: plant it in the autumn, either direct or into modules in a coldframe/gh (mine does best started in modules over winter, then the young plants go into the ground in spring)
How to Grow the Garlic herb.

[Kaiya]

I planted some garlic in March 2011 also (same time as you? I planted mine in March because we took on the allotment in winter) and it's doing the same thing - it was slow to come up, is small now, has always been a bit - weedy. Hard to tell from robust grass some days! I actually thought they had died as I'd planted them in clay which then set solid over them. Though small, they aren't showing any signs of giving up, so credit to them. However for my autumn planted cloves I planted them in October in modules in compost, planted out in November into a prepared bed with a half hearted mulch of damp grass and leaves, and they are absolutely gorgeous now; stocky green leaves, no damage from the snow. So maybe the March planted garlics just need this year to get going/catch up? Mine aren't really in the way but I may move them to the garlic bed just to give them nicer ground to grow in. It'd be quite fun/interesting to get some monobulbs...

When saving seed garlics is it better to save a whole bulb and only separate them at planting time? Or can cloves be saved separately? I don't seem to have much luck even saving unplanted bought bulbs (or sets, or seed potatoes, or asparagus crowns, or rhubarb crowns) - they tend to go mouldy/soggy/start growing.

[Capsid]

I usually have bulbs left over by around October/November time that I then split into cloves and plant around 30 of the biggest ones.

[kathyd]

[QUOTE=Two_Sheds;950846]pourquoi? I know, ust because you wanted to get something in!

No no no, (well not entirely ), it was because I bought it in the spring in the UK, came to Brittany on holiday at easter and planted it while I was here. We were over at half term in June when I weeded it a bit, then again end of July when I had trouble finding it amongst the weeds and field grasses.. lol . So weeded again, then we moved here in October and it's been sat there ever since, with me waiting for the moment 2/3 of the leaves turn yellow like they tell you in the gardening books.. see, perfectly logical explanation .

[I've always had more success with ordinary supermarket garlic than the expensive seed garlic.
Garlic really does like a cold spell: plant it in the autumn, either direct or into modules in a coldframe/gh (mine does best started in modules over winter, then the young plants go into the ground in spring)].

Well now I know I don't have to buy special expensive bulbs, I can try autumn planting too. If I'm lucky I'll even be able to save some of my own bulbs which I'm about to plant any time now (as per the way things are done over here!!), and harvest in the summer or early autumn. We'll see.

Thx for the links, very useful .

[kathyd]

When saving seed garlics is it better to save a whole bulb and only separate them at planting time? Or can cloves be saved separately? I don't seem to have much luck even saving unplanted bought bulbs (or sets, or seed potatoes, or asparagus crowns, or rhubarb crowns) - they tend to go mouldy/soggy/start growing.

It's comforting to know I'm not the only one then . I'd guess you'd save the whole bulb - that's the way you buy the seed garlic in the shops. I think you'd hang them up to dry as though you were storing them for food? How long do you try to keep your sets and potatoes etc for? Are you keeping them somewhere cool and dry? I kept my pots in the fridge last year in brown paper, and they lasted quite well, but they were planted after a few weeks.

[kathyd]

I usually have bulbs left over by around October/November time that I then split into cloves and plant around 30 of the biggest ones.

These are bulbs you've harvested in July and August presumably, and dried for kitchen use?

[Two_Sheds]

How long do you ... keep your ...potatoes etc for?

Mine have been in the salad drawer of the fridge since harvesting in the summer. One or two went mouldy, but most are perfect: they're now chitting on the coolest windowsill

[Kaiya]

I never thought to keep potatoes from one year to the next... is there a risk of blight? I suppose the ones that keep are unlikely to be infected. That would be much more economical, especially as my absolute favourites are the pricey Anyas.

How long do you try to keep your sets and potatoes etc for? Are you keeping them somewhere cool and dry?

From slightly dodgy memory I would have bought my onion sets in winter, Jan perhaps, maybe even in December, then planted them in March. Some had started to grow, some had gone all empty and sad looking. Even when I bought some bulbs (tulips etc.) I lost some in the 3 weeks or so between buying and planting. I keep eveything in the garage, which is dark and cool, but perhaps is actually too cold sometimes? I don't *think* we get frost in the garage, but over this last cool spell it was definitely warmer inside the garage fridge than outside of it. Or maybe they sweat in the polythene-with-holes-in bags they come in?

My Anya seed potatoes this year are in an eggbox bottom in said garage and I'm watching them like a hawk - at £2 for the 15 of them, I do not want to lose them! They have tiny green sprouts at the moment, which is better than my usual of finding them in their bag with 6 inches of white growth. These Anyas need more light but I've been waiting for the weather to get slightly warmer as the only window in the garage is often opened for ventilation - they'll be moving to that windowsill next weekend if next week's forecast continues like this.

[kathyd]

That's very impressive Two_Sheds - my maincrop potatoes all got blight and scab and eaten by slugs, so we didn't have any to save at all! Earlies and second earlies only this year, bought in a gardening centre. They're chitting in the porch, which is nice and light but swings between freezing cold and stifling hot, so goodness knows how they'll turn out.. will plant them very soon I think, and cover them with straw in case it freezes again.