Kitchen Garden Forum

I hope there is someone out there who can help. I ordered a garlic kit from the garlic farm on the Isle of Wight last year and planted the cloves as per instructions. However although I used a permanent marker pen on the labels, all I have now are little pure white sticks with no writing on The instructions for harvesting said not to wait for the leaves to go yellow but to dig them up beforehand and also to stop watering ten days before anticipated harvest
My problem is that the different varieties ripen at different times but I have no idea which is which, so I don't know when to stop watering and what am I supposed to do about the rainfall Do I cover them up Sorry for the rant, almost lost the plot completely there. And yes, the answer is 42

Blimey Tea-shot that all sounds very complicated I stick my garlic in during the autumn, water if it's very dry and then pull them in June/July when the tops die down.

Having said that, garlic is not my strong point so perhaps I should be following your rules

The people at the Wight garlic farm do give some quite specific instructions.

- Don't worry about the rain. What could you be expected to do?!
- They advise not leaving bulbs in the ground for the maximum time (as some people do to try & get the largest bulbs). Their logic is that if left too long, some bulbs can become discoloured & there's a danger that some people might forget & leave them beyond their best. Whilst their garlic seed isn't cheap, you should still get a good crop provided you don't go on holiday for 4 weeks just before its ready!

If you've bought a kit, you may well have some due to be dug before others (my 4 varieties of Wight garlic are at different stages of readiness).


Colin

ps. I can sympathise about the labels. I also used this approach - all of mine are anonymous now!

hello tea shot!
If you can see curly flower stems appearing from the tops of some of them, these are the earlier soft neck type, and should be ready at the end of May. They also have quite fat stems. The thinner stemmed ones with no flower spike are most likely hard neck, later maturing variety. These store for longer than the softneck types. Hope this helps, and that I haven't made any mistakes!!
Emma

Thanks everyone I now know to make a 'floor plan' for next year's planting I shall keep an eye out for flower stems, although the only ones that seem to be about to flower are the elephant garlic. (I know that it's them as I only had four cloves to plant so they are in a row on their own)

Hi Tea-shot,
Sadly there is no such thing as a Permanent Marker as they are all affected by sunshine.
For a number of years now I have used white labels and a normal graphite pencil. Alternatively you can use Crayon as this will not fade either. I use pencil because it is very permanent when you want it to be but easy to remove and reuse the label should the need arises.
JB.

Dear Emma,
wrong way round hon. Hardneck varieties have the flower spike and the softneck ones dont. The easiest way to check for ripeness is to wait until the first 4-6 leaves are brown. On the flowering hardneck types yield is increased by the removal of the top of the flower spike.
regards Sally Wright.

oops, I knew it!!!