Growing Garlic

[bunnycat]

I wish I could see what my veggies are doing, Shirl ;D LOL!

'Pot luck' - oh dear, I didn't even realise what I was typing :-[ I'm getting worse ::)

I'll be getting the runner beans into thier tub at the weekend, so that will be another trial crop all set to go.

Of course I'm hoping that I get something back but half the fun is just having a go, isn't it? ;D

[bunnycat]

[Mrs Ava]

I find the smaller 'baby' varieties do very well in pots.  I know runners do fine in pots, I have first hand experience of that one.

[bunnycat]

Thanks for that EJ ;D Good to know that the runners will probably be okay.

I've got a book with a section on growing the smaller versions of veggies in a limited space, so I might have to dig that out and have another look :)

[shirl]

Lol bunnycat im still at that stage where I poke about everywhere to see whats going on underground!  ;D

I grow pretty much everything in pots and its been fine.  I even grew my carrots in a box last year.  I popped it on a high table and never once had to worry about carrot fly!

Good luck with it  :)

[bunnycat]

I'm still quite a nervous gardener. LOL!
I read as much as I can about what I want to do, phone my Dad and start telling him about everything I've read to see if he has anything to add and he just says 'for gawd sake, just put things in tubs and see what happens'!

Very laid back gardener, my Dad ;D

[shirl]

Thats just dads in general.  I grow quite a bit of my veggies hydroponically and my dad still says that its an expensive marketing gimmik that doesnt work......... even when he can see vine heavy tomatoes growing in front of him!

My carrot boxes this year are a bit dissapointing but I dont think im alone in that.

Its a great way to grow and I can just pick em up and pop em in the greenhouse if it going to be cold!

[bunnycat]

Sounds like an interesting way to do things.
I've heard of it, but I've never seen it in action.

[weedin project]

One last thought not otherwise mentioned in this string is that I've heard one of the reasons for putting garlic in in Autumn is that they need exposing to sub-zero temperatures in order to stimulate division into more bulbs - those that haven't moved on from the original clove may be due to this?

Maybe late/spring/summer planted garlic needs a couple of overnight stays in the freezer before you plant it?  I was going to try that and pop a few cloves in the greenhouse bed when I harvest mine (late June/early July?).

[selwyn-smith]

my elephant garlic is starting to flower, should I let it? or nip the flower buds off.

[bunnycat]

Didn't know that garlic benefits from getting really cold to help with the bulb division. We've had a few frosts since mine went in, so perhaps that might help :)

[Val]

Well I put some garlic under the rose bushes last year, I heard it helps with black spot, probably the antifungal properties..they've started to grow, so I'm going to wait for leaves to go brown, see what I've got and re-plant a clove or 2.Thanks folks I had been wondering...but all questions answered ..brilliant.

[FloBen]

hey hey...

We bought two bulbs from our Allotment Association and split them down into cloves, planting them in early November last year and we now have 22 very strong looking plants out on the lottie.  They are about 50-60cm high and about 2p round.  When will they start to flower or when will the foliage start to die back?

We are very much looking forward to tasting our first clove!

Ben

[Mrs Ava]

Mine went in a similar time to yours FloBen and a few have shot up flowering spikes, which I have nipped off and I notice my foliage is already looking less than healthy, but then I do suffer with rampant white rot and rust on the plot, so it is always a race to dig them at the first signs.  All things being equal, plan to drag the kids to the plot at the end of the week and pull my winter planted onions, half the shallots and dig some garlic to see what shape it is in.

[RichardS]

EJ - I had quite bad rust on most of my garlic plants last year, due to general "I'll get around to it"-edness I left them in for a couple of weeks longer than I ought, but they still harvested ok.

Doesn't seem to have affected their storing ability, thankfully.  I think that we're down to about the last 2 or 3 bulbs from last year's harvest, and unlike the ropes of garlic bought in wine-runs to Calais the two or three years previous to that they haven't succumbed to mould either.

I'm eagerly awaiting my late autumn-planted batch coming into harvest.  We're not that far from the summer solstice now, so it won't be long...

[andyh]

Richard- should I be harvesting my garlic now as they have all started to show rust?

Thanks Andy

[Merry Tiller]

Sub-zero temperatures are not necessary, a cool period (0 to 10 degrees C) is all they need. Don't put them in the freezer the fridge will do

[Mrs Ava]

The rust I can live with, it is the rot I have to beat! 

[RichardS]

EJ - yes, I'll gladly take rust over rot any day!

andyh - I don't know, I'm not an expert by any means, but I do know that the rust didn't seem to affect the harvested garlic last year.  So I'd be tempted to leave them till optimal harvest point and not worry about the rust.

[tim]

I'll let you know how my raised beds work this year. Can't live without garlic!

[djbrenton]

I've got two sorts on the go, a softneck ( doesn't flower) and a hardneck ( which does ). You can leave the flowers on, but you're wasting some really good eating. The whole shoot, if picked before it flowers, is very garlicky with the consistency of onion and is great in salads.