I have never grown garlic so I thought I would give it a go, now I have a number of cloves sitting in 4 inch pots on the bench in my greenhouse looking rather good, Now do I leave them in the pots and over winter them in the cold frame or do I plant them out now
I would be grateful of any help on this please
Kind Regards
Arnie
I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.
I would get them outside as soon as you can. They need to get their roots down. It's a good root system which supports rapid growth in the spring, which is what a good garlic crop depends on. There's no need to start them in pots, unless of course you didn't have room for them in your plot until now. Even so, November is not too late to get them in. Be sure to plant them deep enough, at least twice as deep as they cloves are high. If you don't plant them deep enough, they will split. It gives them better winter hardiness, too.
Arnie, I have grown garlic for years because we use quite a lot and I plant the bulk in October (or even late September) outside, but always keep a few cloves back and plant them singly in pots in the cold greenhouse just in case the ones outside are "drowned" by a very wet late autumn and winter. There are always a few losses in the outside-planted ones but never any in the greenhouse-planted ones. In early spring, say mid-February, I plant those in pots also outside to complete their growing.
So I would suggest keeping them in their pots without mollycodling them and plant them out in early spring.
For 2014 I am growing Bella Italiano (had a very large crop this year) and the old faithful Solent Wight.