Kitchen Garden Forum

I've just taken delivery of Albigensian Wight and Early Wight garlic from Edwin Tuckers. Their website recommends to plant immediately on receipt, but I'm worried that this might be too early. Shall I delay a while or plant them straightaway?

I've been told that September onwards is OK for garlic. I usually plant later but only because I've never organised enough.

I bought mine from Harlow Carr last weekend and intend to plant it in the next day or two. It is Marco from Taylor's Bulbs the same as I have grown successfully this tear. It was £1.99 for a pack of three bulbs, I bought two packs and they have broken down into 83 cloves that I reckon is good value.

I always plant mine from mid September. It gives them enough time to really get their roots established before it gets too cold, giving them a really good start in spring.

I have problems with garlic. Should I plant them now or in the spring. I'm on quite heavy clay and, in the past, the cloves have just rotted. Would it be worth while adding a bit or well rotted horse manure before planting with some extra drainage?

Would be interested in the advice given.

Thanks

thanks for advice, have gone ahead and planted the garlic in raised beds, good drainage, pretty light soil. Lizzie, I think the general advice for planting garlic on clay soils is to wait until spring to prevent the rotting you say you've had before.

lizzie wrote:in the past, the cloves have just rotted

Do they actually sprout etc before winter comes, or lie "dormant" over this period?

I can understand them rotting if the latter, but the idea of an autumn sowing is to have a good 4-6 inches of sprout up by the start of the following year.

Other than that, I wonder if some ordinary compost under each clove might be an alternative to well rotted manure (in case that's more rich than they need at that stage of their development). I guess you're just looking for something to allow a bit of drainage?


Colin

When planting other spring bulbs, like flowers I plant on half an inch of sand to make sure the bottoms aren't sat in water.

Might work.

David

Hi David,
I rather feel that without an outlet for drainage putting sand under the cloves may well have the reverse effect and cause a draining point which cannot move anywhere and so becomes a little reservoir. I know I am a miserable sod for saying so but I feel that the possibility is very real.
I have tried to grow winter Garlic here without ever having success and even in well drained soil and I have no clay on the plot. I feel that it is a temperature thing here as we get some pretty horrific frosts like -16C for 5 days which cost me a fortune a few years ago.
It's being so cheerful the keeps me going!
JB.

I plant my garlic and overwintering onions in ground which has been heavily manured for the previous crop (French beans, celeriac and Florence fennel). They seem to like that and usually give very good results. This year's crop (onion Radar and garlic Albigensian Wight and Thermidrome) were particularly good.

I'm going to try garlic in outdoor growbags this year, with holes punched in bottom - top cut off to admit bulbs, just laid on the ground to root through. I did this three years ago as an emergency measure because I'd fallen behind with ground preparation (I think I planted in November) and it was the best crop I ever produced, so I'm going to do it again on purpose this time because last year's crop, so carefully prepared and planted, was crap. (Apart from the elephant garlic which I've taken quite a fancy too now, so more of that, but in the ground as it likes to go deep and seems to survive anything the weather or I throw at it.)

I only planted autumn garlic last year, courtesy of Lidl, and the crop was wonderful. Large, tasty bulbs.

I'll do the same again, but also plant out a few cloves from seed stock as comparators.

do lidl do seed garlic then or was it the eating stuff, when does it come in ?

mandy

Colin_M wrote:

lizzie wrote:in the past, the cloves have just rotted

Do they actually sprout etc before winter comes, or lie "dormant" over this period?

Hi Colin

They sprouted about 4 inches and then just seemed to die off. When I pulled the bulbs up the cloves were tiny and really not of any use cos they were so small.

Maybe it is the clay and they need more drainage. They were planted in an old tin bath with my normal soil and some growbag stuff. The tin may have got colder than the ground. I should perhaps try Guilas method. She's not far from me I'll go and have a nose at how she does hers.........

Eating stuff. But it was wonderful.