Kitchen Garden Forum

We are still working our way through the Morrison's garlic we grew last year it's small but good

I only plant in spring now after losing most of autumn planted shallots and garlic on the few times I've tried it.

Out of interest how much earlier is the crop from an autumn planting?

The shallots keep so well I usually have enough to last until the spring sown ones are ready anyway.

Plum

I usually plant shallots, garlic and onions in both autumn and spring, and I find they tend to catch up with one another eventually.
So the plan this year did not involve buying any bulbs or sets until spring.


Hmmmm, best laid plans etc. On taking a neighbouring plot holder to the nursery I use I was yet again tempted by the Senshyu Yellow onion sets and the Jermor shallots, both of which we usually grow.
Walked out with my usual 50 onion sets and 20 shallots.
Got them planted up a few days later and paid a visit to the local allotment trading shed where it transpired they had just had a delivery of garlic.

Guess what happened to the entire plan !!!!!

4 Garlic bulbs later!!!!

Now Poddington Pea didn't know I had done any of this so when she saw some very healthy looking Stuttgarter Giant onion and Yellow Moon shallot sets she decided to buy a pack of each and sent them round for me, her not being well.

So another 100 onions and 15 shallots have now been planted up. At this rate the plan might be reversed and no spring planting of onions etc

I've just planted up some onions and garlic in the borders in the greenhouse. They were a few left over that I couldn't fit into the outdoor raised bed. Then, on Friday, Monty said that garlic grown in the greenhouse didn't separate into cloves and he held up one that looked round and smooth like a golf ball. I guess it will still be usable though. Anyone grown any greenhouse garlic bulbs - and what did they turn out like?

Hi Diane,

I always grow garlic in the tunnel and it's OK. However the bottom 2'6" of my tunnel is net. Monty also said that the lack of cold prevented the division.

As has been said many times on here "Where is the commercial garlic grown?" In countries much hotter than ours. So Monty's logic doesn't stack up.

Regards,
Gerry.

Good point Gerry!

Might have to do a bit more research there! My garlic all went in the compost, not worth saving as far to small. Wasn't shop bought, but I have had some good results from those.

Westi

Thanks for the advice.

I better get and do some digging this weekend .... I may have accidently ordered one (pack) too many.........

I think it was Westi who recommended trying to grow some shallots in wooden garden boxes from the greengrocer to try and reduce the chance of onion rot. I still want to try this so will pop into the green grocers at the weekend.

I also have all my purple sprouting in a cold frame still to go in. I'm sure they'll be fine....

Pawty

You won't be running out of onions in the near future then Pa

Sometimes when a garlic hasn't split into cloves I leave it in the ground and it usually splits the next year. Also I keep a tiny patch where I don't dig the whole lot out and just let them do their own thing. You have a perpetual clump of small garlic that you can snip a few leaves off like chives (when they've got shoots on) or dig a few sweet tender little cloves to use before the proper crop is ready.

I've never grown any permanently inside so can't comment, and does anyone take any notice of Monty anyway?

So, I've managed to source some wooden boxes from the greengrocer - I pick them up tomorrow. Experiment time!

I'm going to plant some shallots in the ground, and some in boxes, and see if any getting onion rot.

One question though - in terms of soil for the boxes would you just use an inexpensive multipurpose compost?

And would you paint the boxes blue or pink

Many thanks

Pawty

I'd say mix up the colour thing Pawty, spots, stripes, stencil stars etc.

Lucky you having a greengrocer - only supermarket stuff available here and they're always just cardboard. I'm not going to buy the wooden boxes the seed companies are selling - bit of a rip off and suspect although they will last longer than a fruit crate, they won't pay for themselves.

Westi

I have regularly queried the idea that Garlic needs a period of chilling to divide properly on the basis that most Garlic is grown in warmer climates than ours. As it has come up again I thought I would have a little search and found this on the RHS site:

After planting, garlic needs a cool, one- to two-month period at temperatures of 0-10°C (32-50°F) for good bulb development.

Although it repeats the chilling advice it is not really that significant. Even under cover (without heat) Winter temperatures will be in this range, nothing like the frosting that I thought was meant by chilling. I guess many much warmer areas will also manage this.

There was some discussion of planting depth and I thought the advice given was a bit too shallow, again this is what the RHS say:

Plant the cloves so the tips are 2.5cm (1in) below soil surface. Deeper planting can encourage better yields on light soils, but do not plant deeply on heavy soils

Pa Snip, what on earth are you going to do with all those onions and shallots next year? Do you have a big family or lots of onion-loving friends and neighbours? Each shallot will turn into four or five, so you are going to have masses!

Geoff wrote:I have regularly queried the idea that Garlic needs a period of chilling to divide properly on the basis that most Garlic is grown in warmer climates than ours. As it has come up again I thought I would have a little search and found this on the RHS site:

After planting, garlic needs a cool, one- to two-month period at temperatures of 0-10°C (32-50°F) for good bulb development.

Although it repeats the chilling advice it is not really that significant. Even under cover (without heat) Winter temperatures will be in this range, nothing like the frosting that I thought was meant by chilling. I guess many much warmer areas will also manage this.

There was some discussion of planting depth and I thought the advice given was a bit too shallow, again this is what the RHS say:

Plant the cloves so the tips are 2.5cm (1in) below soil surface. Deeper planting can encourage better yields on light soils, but do not plant deeply on heavy soils

intresting that is geoff... A friend of mine works for a local university in their "agricultural research lab" (its a farm run by scientists :/ ) and this year they grew garlic in a heated greenhouse for 18 months (apparently it took that long for the tops to die off). Anyway, he says they grew massive bulbs with lots of large cloves but absolutly no flavour to them at all... I found that really strange.

so if you see "giant mild garlic" in the shops next year, we know who to blame lol

Thank you for all the nice recommendations. I have now bought two heads of garlic (early white) which I will plant in a raised bed this weekend. The only question I have left is about slugs. I know they are around having gobbled up the rest of the salad and now feasting on the beetroot leaves, so am wondering whether they will think I am am merely replenishing the buffet - am I worrying unnecessarily or should I take some preventive measures like pellets or should I invest in nematodes (still unsure what they are)?
Thoughts welcome
Thanks
O.

Oscar, we have slugs and especially snails galore but they have never touched the garlic, onions or shallots. Watch out, though, if you have rabbits - they seem to enjoy the young growth and certainly do net the garlic against birds when the shoots first appear, because birds will pull the whole bulb out of the ground. When the shoots are about 6 inches tall, the birds lose interest.