Garlic spacing

I'm waiting for some hardneck garlic bulbs to plant out in seven gallon grow bags. I've been trying to find the best way to space the cloves out and am told everything from a foot apart to three or four inches. One US site said a clove for every gallon which seems a bit close.

I get the impression that the closer the cloves the smaller the bulb.

This is the first time that I'm taking growing garlic seriously having previously just used a few cloves from the local supermarket so I'd like to get it as right as I can.

I would be grateful for any practical advice.

Thanks

 

15cm between clove/plant, 25cm rows and 2.5cm deep for us.

 

I plant mine 6"/15cms apart in rows which are 12"/30cm apart but that's in the ground where I need to get a hoe between them for weeding.

In a grow bag, as long as you feed them I expect you could make the rows a bit closer. The fertilisers in commercial composts and grow bags are enough to last a maximum of 90 days so you'll need to be prepared to boost your bags with blood, fish and bone or pelletted chicken manure in spring and again a couple of months later.

Plant each individual clove about an inch below the surface and water them in but make sure the bags don't get water-logged as garlic doesn't like we feet. Keep them weeded to reduce competition for nutrients.

 

Is there any reason why you are using grow bags?

Not sure how big a 7 gallon one is, is it just a standard grow bag?

I just think if you cant use open ground you would be better using a fairly deep square sided container.

 

@JWK I plant mine in November usually as that's when beds get cleared of other stuff.

Mine were also small this year but I think that was due to the long, cool, wet winter followed by a long, cool, wet and grey spring. Garlic likes sunshine and not too much wet.

 

Thanks for the replies.

I think that I will get five cloves per grow bag, spacing them 4” – 6” apart. We have what we call our summer house at the bottom of the garden. It has a waterproof roof and fairly open sides. By placing the garlic just inside they will get watered but avoid the heaviest of the rain.

Hi Pete. Most of our garden has been landscaped on a woodland/wildlife theme, the back garden also has three small water features. We have hard standing around our greenhouse and use this, along with a small piece of open land. These are the grow bags that we have just bought and which replaced a variety of plastic pots:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BRKMBXH6?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

Hi JWK. The garlic will be from The Garlic Farm and is meant to be planted in October or a little later. I started growing vegetables about three years ago following my retirement and this too was the worst for almost all my veg., apart from potatoes which I always seem to grow. Friends across the road also had the same problems of failing crops. We are about 750m feet up in the Western Pennines which doesn't help.

I’m a retired Chartered Accountant and have already worked out that any garlic I get will probably be the most expensive in the country!

Many of the YouTube videos show people using straw or leaves as a mulch on the garlic. We live in the countryside and have an abundant supply of leaves so is this worth doing?

 

Definitely a different kind of grow gag to the kind I was thinking of, not seen those before.

 

Good advice has already been given by other members above.

But, here is what you can expect if you grow them in 10Lt pots (known to UK gardening forums as Morrisons flower buckets), 5 cloves per bucket spaced just over 2 inches apart, planted in late October and harvested in late May (about 1 month early) the following year.





I grow them for garlic greens including the scapes as well as for the bulbs.

Since I harvest them early in order to make room for my tomato crop (which must be potted up by early June), the biggest bulbs are about 70% the size of the original seed bulbs.

With the fresh bulbs cut and left to dry, they last just as long in kitchen storage.

 

2 inches apart is quite interesting. I think that i will experiment a bit and try different spacing.

The general view is that about 6 inches is right but then I see YouTube videos where they are planted almost next to each other and have grown well.

Garlic arriving tomorrow!