Garlic

Then it's probably time to lift them. If left in the ground the cloves may start splitting through the outer bulb wrapper (especially if left in wet ground - heavy rain forecast for the next few days? ) which can reduce storage time.

 

Well this is my haul. I dug these up last evening. I do hope you have my prize ready.



Im going to construct one of those elaborate steel meshes to dry them out.

Then I will be studying how best to preserve these treasures for winter use.

 

I'm still hoping mine will turn out as good as in other years





About another 10 days or so before lit's time to lift the first of my overwintering garlic.

 

Show off.


;-)

 

That reminds me, I forgot the really big stuff - elephant garlic:



Must get a bigger garlic press sometime. I thought my daughter would be pleased when she asked for a clove of garlic for her Food Technology lessons at school and I used to offer her ones like that, but for some reason or other she'd get upset.

 

Pulled some of my overwintering Music hardneck garlic this evening which isn't as good as in previous years:



However, I had a feel around one of my elephant garlic bulbs (not ready for a couple of weeks or so), and unless a squirrel has buried a coconut underneath, it seems rather promising.

 

I can't grow garlic like that.
:pathead:

 

Can you still use the rounds as you would garlic bulbs in food?

I roasted some of mine last weekend around the potatoes and they were very good albeit a bit small and not very strong

 

Yes I love them roasted round a joint :happydance:

 

I planted my garlic stright out in the ground in mid october with excellent results remeber we are still summer Autumn begins september

 

Well after planting my garlic in the spring, after starting it off in modules indoors I am happy to report that I have just lifted some presentable sized bulbs ..I grew them in a raised bed ,This year I will set in the autumn and also set some in the spring and compare ..

Dave

 

Most of my Autumn planted Cristo garlic have failed to grow properly this year. They were planted at precisely the same time and in the very same raised beds as my Music garlic pictured in post #21 above and my Germidour & Elephant garlic which also grew OK . Only about 20% have grown to normal size:



The same sort of thing happened with my Spring planted Vigor garlic, which only grew into rounds, which was in one of two raised beds filled with precisely the same soil/manure/fertilizers, but the Spring planted Music garlic planted in the other bed right beside it grew OK. Good job I grow several varaties. I normally also grow Thermidrome, but white rot got some of them last year so I didn't re-plant any cloves and forgot to buy some to replace them.

I can remember that the Christo was the last Autumn planted garlic to show through the ground after the hard winter and never really caught the other varieties up, so that one may be down to the cold weather. The Spring planted Vigor may have failed to grow properly because of the unusually hot Spring weather here.

 

That is roughly how all of mine have turned out from my last years autumn planting.

I still planted my usual supermarket ones as well early this spring and they are almost ready now as well. In many ways I prefer them, as while they are smaller, they always seems far stronger in taste.

I also went to France for a couple of days last week, and couldn't resist buying a string of smoked garlic for a fiver. You can never have enough garlic!!!

 

Hi folks.

Just to sidetrack a little, I too grow Garlic, but generally I'm not that pleased with the outcome, they're often quite small. What do YOU do in terms of soil preparation and feed? I read somewhere that Garlic doesn't require much in this respect, and will grow quite easily, but I'm tempted to treat them a bit like onions, plenty of 'muck' and no shortage of water.

Cheers...Freddy.

 

No-one?