Planting Garlic

[Durgan]

http://durgan.org/2010/October%202010/9 ... rlic/HTML/ 9 October 2010 Planting Garlic. Hardneck Garlic (Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon) rocambole or serpent garlic. This type of garlic produces a curved scape and at the top bulblets form, which are not seed but clones of the main clove. Bulblets take about three years to attain full size, by successive plantings.

The bed is 64 square feet, and 196 cloves were planted, bulblets, garlic from my crop in 2010, garlic purchased from a Farmers Market in the Summer, and some of the smaller cloves to determine if they produce as well as the larger cloves. The spacing is essentially six inches between cloves, and depth is about two inches between the top of the clove and the soil surface.

After planting a layer of compost was added, and after the next heavy rainfall, he bed will be covered with about 3 to 4 inches of wood chip mulch. A raised bed was made, since that area of the garden can get wet if rainfall is excessive. Usually the planting date is about the 25 of October, but it was so beautiful today that I considered a few days early wont be a problem.

[Harasimow]

Looks really good!

[mockturtle]

Looks fab, must have taken ages. Hope you eat alot of parsley with that

[Big Al]

Looks fab, must have taken ages. Hope you eat alot of parsley with that

... You phillistine....... there's nowt wrong with crushed garlic sandwiches........ unless of course you are within 1 sq mile of anyone else that is....

Seriousdly though, theres nothing better than to slice up a couple of cloves of garlic, sprinkle with salt, using a knife to puri the garlic then spread on fresh bked bread with lots of home made butter....

[Durgan]

Looks fab, must have taken ages. Hope you eat alot of parsley with that

... You phillistine....... there's nowt wrong with crushed garlic sandwiches........ unless of course you are within 1 sq mile of anyone else that is....

Seriousdly though, theres nothing better than to slice up a couple of cloves of garlic, sprinkle with salt, using a knife to puri the garlic then spread on fresh bked bread with lots of home made butter....

Once knew an old country Ukrainian, who advocated a large raw garlic sandwich nightly before going to bed. He stated that he never got a cold. One wit mentioned that nobody could get close enough to him to pass on germs.

[Sinmara]

ohh that looks great, very tempted to plant some garlic too...

[gregorach]

ohh that looks great, very tempted to plant some garlic too...

Go on, you know you want to! Given the price / quality of it in the shops compared to home-grown, and considering where it can fit in your rotation and how easy it is to grow, you'd be daft not to.

[Durgan]

ohh that looks great, very tempted to plant some garlic too...

Go on, you know you want to! Given the price / quality of it in the shops compared to home-grown, and considering where it can fit in your rotation and how easy it is to grow, you'd be daft not to.

Garlic is one of the easiest plants to grow. Yet, our supermarkets sell great quantities of garlic imported from China. The quality is good. I muse about those who hype "Green".

[Sinmara]

ohh that looks great, very tempted to plant some garlic too...

Go on, you know you want to! Given the price / quality of it in the shops compared to home-grown, and considering where it can fit in your rotation and how easy it is to grow, you'd be daft not to.

Last time I tried (indoors, as I had no outdoors ) it was a disaster - they just wouldn't grow

Now I've got a patio I may well plant a few this weekend

[Big Al]

It really is simple Sinmara.

If it's a plant pot on a patio then fill it with soil, put your seperated cloves in the soil and cover with soil / compost etc. Water in well and you'll be amazed at how easy it all is and the best part is if you keep a few cloves for next years crop and the same for a third year then the garlic you grow will be accoustomed to your plot / soil etc. This way you will get much stronger and hardier plants year on year.

[Sinmara]

thank you - I'm off to plant a few :) (I'm using some Sainsbury's bought organic cloves... I know I shouldn't, but I can only afford to buy proper ones next month and I don't want to wait that long lol)

[dave45]

Back in January I bought a load of garlic sets and planted them in the greenhouse. They started really well, loads of foliage, and I was hoping to crop them before planting out toms and peppers... It was not to be... a goodly %age of them died back before properly splitting into cloves and they got lost amongst the tomato plants...

Guess what? - they are growing again - green leaves shooting up in neat rows exactly where I planted them .. should I just leave them or is it another waste of time?

[gregorach]

Well, if they're already there, it's not going to do any harm to leave them, is it? What I don't understand is why you planted them in the greenhouse to begin with - they're a hardy bulb, and they need a good frosting over winter.

[grahamhobbs]

I'd transplant them outside.