Growing garlic

Hi,

I just joined this evening so I just wanted to say hello and ask a burning question ! Is it too late to plant garlic, and if not, is there a particularly variety that you would recommend. I live in N Ireland where it tends to rain a lot :-(

Thanks,

Paula

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Permalink Reply by Flighty on November 21, 2011 at 20:38

Hello Paula, and welcome to UKVG.

I don't eat garlic so don't grow it but I do know that you can plant it right through to December, and there are also varieties that you can plant in late winter/early spring that are ready to lift and use in July.

This list of varieties may be of interest - Garlic Vegetable Seeds from Allotment Growing

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Permalink Reply by Plot Notes Phil on November 21, 2011 at 22:25

It's not too late to plant your garlic but If we get another Winter like the last one you might find the ground too hard to plant anything for a while if you don't get it planted in the next week or so. I left mine too late last year and ended up planting it in the Spring. Some of the bulbs did not store well over the winter and turned to mush before I could plant them. I still got a decent crop from the ones that I did manage to plant.

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Permalink Reply by Sue Gollop on November 22, 2011 at 0:13

Not too late as long as the ground is soft. Build up firm ridges in the soil and plant on top of the ridges to keep the garlic cloves out of the wet. My favourite soft necks are albigensian wight and solent wight, both of which I plant at the back end (as they say up North!) ie. any time up to December as long as the ground hasn't started to freze-after that it is about March. Welcome to Uk Veg- a great place to be!

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Permalink Reply by Paula Green on November 22, 2011 at 10:00

Thanks for the tips folks. Just checked and the ground is still soft as it has been so mild of late so nipping down to the garden centre later and will hopefully get some garlic planted today!

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Permalink Reply by Colin Dixon on November 22, 2011 at 13:25

Just get them in the ground anytime before January, as they do require a good few frosts whilst in the ground. Regarding variety: well for the last 20 years or so i've just bought the biggest bulbs available from my local grocers. Ideally try and get the ones with the big red cloves as these tend to be european varieties (Spain/France) more suitable for our climate. I've just planted cloves from 6x very large hardneck bulbs bought at my local asia supermarket (cost me just £1.14). Finally in my experience the hardneck varieties tend to produce the biggest bulbs but dont store as well as the softneck varieties. Also you do need to break off the flower stems from the hardneck types. Hope this helps

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Permalink Reply by Paula Green on November 22, 2011 at 15:15

Thanks Colin. As luck would have it, I went to the garden centre this morning and no garlic bulbs in sight! Typical!

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Permalink Reply by Sue Gollop on November 22, 2011 at 16:32

contact the garlic farm online

Paula Green said:

Thanks Colin. As luck would have it, I went to the garden centre this morning and no garlic bulbs in sight! Typical!

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Permalink Reply by elaine rickett on November 22, 2011 at 16:54

Hello Paula and welcome. I think everyone else has just about covered your question so I have nothing to add, look forwrd to reading more of your gardening exploits.

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Permalink Reply by VP on December 4, 2011 at 10:28

Hi - if you do find some garlic bulbs and the ground's too hard by then, you can start them off in pots. I do that every year because I'm on clay and they'd rot in the ground. Leave them outside so the frost gets to them - they need a good dose of cold to encourage clove formation, otherwise you get just one single very large clove in your bulb!

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Permalink Reply by John Cross on December 4, 2011 at 12:40

Hi - I buy whatever bulbs look good in my local greengrocers and plant them and have always had a good crop-in fact one year I invested in bulbs from a garden centre and the bulbs from the greengrocer did better - I also grow some in pots in case those sown direct have a problem - its often quite wet where I live so I always put grit at the bottom of each planting hole as a bit of extra drainage-I agree with Colin re the red bulbs also if you have a Lidl near you they tend to name their garlic varieties unlike most other supermarkets

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Permalink Reply by VP on December 4, 2011 at 12:43

Interesting - I did the same comparison one year with the opposite result!

John Cross said:

Hi - I buy whatever bulbs look good in my local greengrocers and plant them and have always had a good crop-in fact one year I invested in bulbs from a garden centre and the bulbs from the greengrocer did better - I also grow some in pots in case those sown direct have a problem - its often quite wet where I live so I always put grit at the bottom of each planting hole as a bit of extra drainage