Plant shop-bought garlic

Hi all,

Is now a good time to plant garlic? Ive heard its good to plant in autumn as the winter frosts help them grow.

Am I ok to buy supermarket-bought garlic rather, and plant that, rather than garlic bulbs from a nursery? (I dont know when Im next going to get a chance to visit a nursery)

Thanks

 

I don't grow it, but I believe the problem with using shop bought garlic is - it won't necessarily suit your growing conditions.
Many people grow it successfully, but it may be worth doing a bit of research on a good supplier's online site to see what will work best.

 

I’ve used supermarket garlic a couple of times in the past and I’ve always had a crop but the cloves are usually smaller than those of the original and not always 100% success but then that might be my growing conditions generally.

As said more likely to get a really good crop from a variety suitable for UK climate. I’ve grown IOW garlic before but it’s quite pricey once you factor in postage. Also the crop was good but not dramatically better than when I’ve used Supermarket cloves, again that might be my growing conditions and care - I’m not an overly attentive gardener and usually leave them to get on with it.

We have a weekly organic veg delivery and they sell British garlic when is season, available now, so I buy some for planting. Worth taking a look in the Supermarket, grocers or maybe a local farm shop/market and seeing if you can find some British grown.This year the bulbs are quite small but I’m told that’s just a reflection of the weather we’ve had over the last growing season.

 

Grew both this year in the same raised bed, neither were very good in terms of size, but I put that down to the wet weather. I'm going totally supermarket bought (large bulb Tesco), simply to try it again. A quick look at the Garlic Farm site £19.95 for x6 bulbs, 55p each supermarket.
I did wonder the other day if autumn planting is going to be viable for much longer in view of the lack of frosts?

 

I find that so long as the country of origin is European, then the garlic from supermarkets is fine.Select the ones you buy, typically in better condition than those in garden centres, suspect thats because they are likely this years crop, rather than overyear prepacked and stored.You will often find the shipping carton has a producer label with date picked/packed and name of variety.
I have found that planting the best of the produced crop in subsequent years gives even better results; I have the notion its a crop that 'localises' to prevailing conditions.
Regarding size, you will find its a 'hungry feeder' that, like other alliums, responds to feeding and watering once Winter has passed.

Currently Lidl have purple Monaro from Spain. A cultivar that is also grown around 3000ft up in New South Wales.I will try it 4ft above sea level here in The Solent, within view of the IOW!

 

Fantastic - thanks so much for your comments. Very interesting.
As it happens, I bought some garlic from Morrisons yesterday. Ive just looked at the label and it says 'grown in China'!
Im not sure if the east Dartmoor climate is similar to China, but Ill give it a go!

 

The best variety I've grown from UK supermarkets is Spanish morado, it's a creole hard neck, quite small but strong flavour and lasts ages if it's cured correctly. None of the soft necks I've tried from supermarkets have amounted to much, including some of the isle of wight ones waitrose sold a couple of years ago. Overall supermarket garlic has been more miss than a hit for me, but it's cheap and fun to try imo as garlic is an easy crop to grow as it's in the ground when other things aren't and you can interplant or succession sow many other veg with it

Germidor soft neck is a good named one to try if you want to buy seed garlic, it's been the most reliable for me and is available from most seed suppliers

 

No. Buy on line from Isle of Wight garlic farm. I buy mine from them with great results.

 

I bought just 2 bulb from the farm on IOW in 2018, been growing them on since.

 

In Nottinghamshire I had a self perpetuating area of garlic from a few IoW bulbs. I never did anything to them, just went out and pulled a few bulbs when needed.
Here, it's so damp they don't seem to form decent bulbs.

 

Perhaps you could partially shelter them, improve the drainage and feed. Do you do well with leeks and onions?

 

Unfortunately @infradig I don't grow many vegetables - broad beans, runners. That area was improved by a few tons of council compost. The drainage isn't bad, but we've had incredibly wet weather for the past 18 months - wet even for coastal south Wales!