Advice needed about garlic

[mrbiffo]

Hi firstly a merry christmas and a happy and healthy new year to all .
My question is , I planted garlic bulbs { not sure what type } in november and they have started to sprout above the compost about an inch, they are in pots.
Will i lose them to the frost or will they be ok.
Many thanks in advance
mr biffo

[Hazel at the Hill]

Hi Mr Biffo!

Garlic is tough as old mother hubbard's boots and will be fine through the winter.

[Gema13]

Yeah same advice really I find anything that grows under ground grows well and some taste better after a frost

[BertieFox]

Garlic will only truly succeed if it is planted in the autumn as the key thing is for it to make a really good root system before it really begins to grow away in the spring. It has a very short season as it is normally harvested in June or July at the latest so a delay until spring gives it no time to produce decent cloves. We had minus 21C here one winter and the garlic already had green shoots through. I still remember harvesting a good crop though by June.

I usually for convenience start my garlic cloves in pots in November and grow them on until late January or February when I plant them out at a good spacing (assuming the ground isn't frozen!) That seems to work really well as you don't waste space with cloves that fail for some reason and it gives them a really good start in life.

[planetologist]

I plant garlic around July when I harvest them. That works well. I've never done a proper comparison.

[marcofez]

Garlic needs a spell of cold/frost to help it divide into cloves.

[BertieFox]

There's no logical reason not to plant in July except that you are using ground in which you could grow something else until November. It is interesting to see the huge clumps you get if you leave the entire bulb in the ground... we often use this as 'green garlic' in the spring. The key thing is giving the clove time to build a root system during the winter months.