Garlic

The last couple of years I've grown peppers from seeds saved from Tesco (pointy peppers) as well as "sure fire" bought seed. Tesco peppers actually did better than the bell type.
I've got a box of garlic growing from Tesco cloves, it's looking good at present but the proof of the pudding........ Actually if I'd had the time and foresight I'd have bought some UK bred stock but left it a bit late!

 

Looking around garden centres regarding garlic, most varieties appear to be french, sorry forgot the capital F.
Are there actually British varieties?

OK, I'll get me bike,... and me stripped jumper and beret.

 

french don't deserve a capital f, at least not for that word. After burning lorry loads of our sheep alive in their "protests" they don't deserve anything other than total contempt.

Local Garden centre is selling Isle of Wight Garlic in the green ready to go.

 

I saw a TV prog about the garlic growing on IOW - looks like a good source!

 

I used to get narked off in the 90's when the tellybox said the Isle of ~Wight was the only Garlic producer in the uk.

I was growing & supplying loads of restaurants, pubs & veg shops in the west country but they just didn't know about me.

 

Hiya folks.

Sorry to slightly sidetrack, but I was wondering, does Elephant Garlic taste pretty much the same as 'regular' garlic? Thing is, I understand that it's actually more closely related to Leeks. While I was away this weekend, I popped into Wilko's, as you do, and they had three cloves for less than two quid, which I thought was reasonable, given prices elsewhere. On the pack it said that it should be planted around now, so got them in straight away. Should I expect problems with division?

Cheers...Freddy.

 

ebay IS your friend

Jack McH

 

Don't forget the wild garlic, loads around now. Much milder flavour but eat the leaves and the flowers and it takes up no garden space 'cos it's just out there waiting to be picked!

 

Bit milder than normal Garlic Freddy, leeks, onions & garlic are very close.

Don't recon you'll get a brill crop from planting now but worth a shot, at that price it'll be worth doing even if its for seed cloves for next year

 

Bad news on the garlic front. Mine started to die back and look a bit sickly. Goodness knows why. I gingerly dug one up and it just looked like an average spring onion. The rest look the same. Are they all badworded?

 

The outside leaves should be dying back, they use the energy in them to make the bulb, but they won't be bulbing up yet, not till July/august.

 

I planted six single cloves last year (from Londis not Tesco lol) anyway, they popped up and have sat there in the veg patch ever since, however, they are all doing different things? three plants are large (like ziggy's in his foto), but three went underground in the winter and have now come back up as "Garlic grass"!!! they look like a clump of small Leek plants or grass, but have the red stem.

I was wondering if they needed digging up and thinning out? or burning lmao

I'll get a foto when it stops raining.

Plant Potty.

 

The spindly ones are very unlikely to make decent blubs, even if you thin them out at this stage

 

the red arrows (hope you can see them ok?) are pointing at the spindly ones/clumps...


one of them is a whole clump of ten or more plants, shame tho, thanks for letting me know.

Plant Potty.

 

My garlic beds have been too messy to take pics of for ages, but have finally dried out enough for me to have a go at the weeds. The Music (hardneck) is up to 1m high:




And the elephants are looking sturdy;



Only about 100 spring sown garlic left to weed.