garlic is a disaster

[Redfox]

no change to soil, planted them out late oct/early november, can't remember which. Did give it a balanced feed in spring, everything looked fine, started dying back a couple of weeks ago, dug them up yesterday all very small. some rot. Not a lot of problems with slugs, but we do have a lot of snails and there has been damaged leaves from these I think.

[Geoff]

Try this for disaster, I haven't looked underground yet.

IMG_3131_R.jpg (421.5 KiB) Viewed 3052 times

[Redfox]

I'd be happy if mine looked like that,

[oldherbaceous]

Geoff, i think you will be pleasantly surprised.

[Ricard with an H]

Geoff, from I learnt from you people I should have left mine in the ground until the foliage was the same colour as yours and whilst the slug damage and rot I had was minimal what I'm asking is do we get to a point where we have to lift the bulbs to reduce the risk.

If I had left my garlic another month would if have been twice as big ? And might it have succumbed to twice as much rot and slug damage.

I feel a complete coward lifting my garlic so early after seeing your plantation, come-on, lets see whats underneath.

[Geoff]

Go on then - nothing special. I don't usually harvest until well into August so as there is still some green I'll keep feeding and watering and see what happens. Planted 26th September by the way.

IMG_3132_R.jpg (334.06 KiB) Viewed 3041 times

[Ricard with an H]

Thanks Geoff, thats a great help to me. It loosely answers one question and hopefully the other question will be answered when you eventually lift the remaining crop.

If the ones that stay in the ground become larger and still have a good taste it's worth leaving them though presumably you don't have any rot spores in your soil.

Ok, only one of mine showed rot but another month in the ground and I may have lost 50% to rot and slugs.

We all like bigger garlic don't we, less faffing about with peeling and if the larger ones aren't as strong it suits me because whilst I love garlic I tend to slice it rather than crush it to get a milder flavour. Because I eat so much garlic I've become immune to the smell other people exude who have just eaten garlic, always preferable to smelly breath.

I love garlic and still haven't managed to get a wild garlic plantation going, it grows down the lane and in many other unkept places but I never get to pick any leaves and flowers for eating. Does anyone grow wild garlic ? I notice that it does fend for itself amongst the invasive growth on unkept ground, even amongst Japanese knotweed.

[robo]

We used to have a holiday chalet in caernarvon, we had a river flowing passed the back with wild garlic growing on a small bank it was lovely in salads especially the flowers