Garlic - Early Spring Sowing?

[Mal]

So, I clearly missed the old 'plant on the shortest day' thing for the Garlic last year, but we've noticed that a bunch of the catalogues have some Garlic varieties such as Solent White as 'plant February, harvest September'. Has anyone tried this approach? Does it work? I'd hate to miss out on the Garlic, it's been one of our best crops these last 3 years.

[niknik]

well herte in Andalucia they are just getting ready to start planting theirs.wouldn´t dream of planting at any other time, and will tell you it can´t grow if planted at any other time........
so go for it!

[Jacqui S]

I'm about to plant mine now the ground has thawed and dried out a bit. It will still grow but the bulbs may not be as big as they would have been if planted earlier. Although this winter I guess they probably wouldn't have grown at all if planted earlier and would have met the same fate as my Autumn sown broad beans which were just nicely sprouting before they were killed by being buried in snow for a month!

[grahamhobbs]

In the main for the best crops you need to plant early October, but some varieties should not be planted then but are better planted early in the year eg. Solent Wight. Whereas winter planted ones will be ready in June or perhaps July, the February planted oones are probably not going to be ready until August or so.

[darkbrowneggs]

If you plant before mid winter the garlic forms cloves. If you plant in the new year it more often grows into one single, though not so large clove rather than the normal head. My garlic doesn't grow all that big so it suits me to have one large than a head of small

All the best
Sue
Dark Brown Eggs