Keeping garlic in the ground for two years

[hellybore]

Does anyone know if it's ok to leave garlic in the ground for two years running? My crop is so pathetic this year, I have loads of weeny garlic bulbs that are too fiddly to peel. While they are fresh I have been roasting the whole bulb and eating the whole thing, but I am tempted to leave some in the ground to see if they will get bigger next year. I did want to keep some cloves of each bulb to replant so that I didn't have to buy any more garlic sets this year, so is it better to keep tiny cloves and replant them in autumn or just leave the whole bulbs in the ground? Any info gratefully received!

[snakeshack]

better to keep the cloves and replant in the autumn,if you leave whole bulbs in situ each clove will shoot and have no space to grow.what variety did you grow? Varieties designed for the british climbate are much more productive than ,for instance supermarket types which are used to a hotter climbate.
I now only grow elephant garlic as the cloves are so much bigger and easier to peel and the flavour is slightly milder

[fishpond]

As I dig mine up, I tend to split some of the better ones and replant straightaway, after 10 years I now use different ground.

[Scarlet]

You really need to split them into separate cloves. Let them dry out and they will be easy to split. Has the foliage fallen over? Mine aren't ready yet.

[sparrow100]

Left mine in the ground by accident rather than design, but they hadn't cloved, they were more like large marbles. I think they were the start of my rust infection so I won't do it again.

[hellybore]

Can't remember what variety they were, they were organic ones from Tamar. They grew well last year and the year before. Yes all the foliage had flopped and was dying off. I wonder if it's worth trying to grow from these teeny cloves though? Maybe I'd better start off with fresh.

[Scarlet]

I agree with Snakeshack with using supermarket cloves. I've tried lots over the years and found supermarket hit and miss. The best rests I've had were at a farmers market where a local man was selling his farm crops. They were absolutely fab and I've been growing them ever since!