bolted garlic harvested

[chilli_grower]

Decided to harvest my bolted/mutated morado garlic tonight.

(I posted a few weeks ago about it).

I have no idea why it has grown this way?

I still have another dozen or so bulbs in the ground, and they look perfectly normal.

THese are a reasonable size anyway, they just don't look too good!!!

[Bigmallly]

Brilliant CG, should be one for the funny veg category............

[Bigmallly]

There is a similar thread here:
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...er-skin-2.html

[chilli_grower]

I was thinking I could enter 3 of these as 'my best 3 bulbs actually'

Honest!

[Richard Eldritch]

Mine are pretty rusty and starting to flop, there are bulbs but they aren't huge. I'm not planting over wintering garlic anymore, It's to long in the cold and wet. I'm going to follow Dan from Allotment diarys lead and plant in late winter/ early spring next year.

[Richard Eldritch]

Sadly I have to report that I too have had a garlic disaster this year. Mine are all split into wierd ragged "Things" or have no cloves.
Thats the last time I'm over wintering. Gutted.

[KittyColdNose]

I seems some areas have problems with their garlic this year going by recent posts. I overwintered three types again and they are fine apart from pulling off a half dozen flower stems. Quite a mild winter compared to the -18° our first year here though so I am hoping they produce cloves. We seem to be a month behind the southern part of the country so time will tell.

[Richard Eldritch]

Has to be the warm winter. Alot of people with rust, weird split and ragged bulbs, no cloves.

[Florence Fennel]

I've harvested the Germidour tonight - about 10 bulbs half and half small and medium, no large ones at all. Bit of a disappointment, but leaving the others until the end of the month to see if I can feed them up a bit. A lot of mine were split last year, so it is some improvement, but not much. Never mind, it really doesn't affect the taste.

[BigV]

What is the matter with garlic this year? Mine has rust. Never happened before.Do I dig it up and burn the lot or just the leaves?I pulled one up but only a small unripe bulb.Help!!

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Like most other's! Persevered! and even tried, what was it?
"Household induced" somet or other! "Wee'd on em"

They did perk to a point!

But now that orange! (rust) think they've been "TANGO'D"!

[Tadpole123]

What is the matter with garlic this year? Mine has rust. Never happened before.Do I dig it up and burn the lot or just the leaves?I pulled one up but only a small unripe bulb.Help!!

You can leave the leaves but the bulbs don't fatten up as much I've noticed over the years. If you've only got a few leaves affected then cut those out to help stop it spreading to the others.
Rust can occur when they are planted in the shade or we have low sunlight levels or when there's poor air circulation around them.

I always put my garlic bulbs into the freezer for a week before I plant them in November. Here in London I can go years with out a frost but by doing this I've never had a bad garlic harvest yet.
I also plant them in tubs with old used compost and so growmore added. My London clay soil can rot the bulbs in wet years.

[BigV]

Thank you Tadpole.I will leave them a little longer and try again next year by following your suggestions by freezing them and growing them in pots.these rusty ones have had TLC ie water sunlight and fresh air! However it has not been a good year for me anyway.Dozens of slugs etc,mice eating mange toute,pigeons eating Kohl Rabbi,beans turning yellow.
However all the work is worthwhile.I have chard and Kale in pots,Mizuna and beetroot in the GH plus hopefully a lovely crop of toms and courgettes.

[chilli_grower]

I am putting it down to the realtively warm and very wet winter.

At least it is all still perfectly edible...

[hellybore]

I always put my garlic bulbs into the freezer for a week before I plant them in November.

Good tip, Tadpole. This is my third year growing garlic - the first two years I got a good healthy crop, this year they are tiny, quite disappointing.