Garlic growing

Hiya F/C
I wouldn't bother with supermarket stuff. It may well have come from a much different climate from our own. As for medium, in the ground is best, imo.

 

If you can bare it, buy some decent quality certified cloves and plant them - you split them into individual cloves and plant them - don't push them in, wiggle a little hole and pop them in - best not to have compressed soil under the clove, as it slows the speed of root formation.

So long as you don't get any disease you can then save & plant your own thereafter, so hopefully the extravagant purchase should only be necessary once.

Worth having a look at these folk - definitely not the cheapest, but probably best for quality etc.
http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/Grow-your-own-Garlic.aspx

I have bought from several large seed companies over the years and all of them have substituted varieties, shipped late, and generally let me down - clearly they sub contract to someone else, so are not able to actually control stock on their web sites etc.

 

Duplicate of http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/garlic-growing.73457/

 

@sue young @fat controller
I started off planting garlic bulbs that had sprouted in the kitchen, one spring, these did well enough to encourage me to buy some good quality garlic from a seed company and plant in autumn.
I typically plant mine in early November but it has been as late as December.
Any good garden soil, so long as it doesn't get waterlogged seems to work. Avoid planting straight after onions and leeks, same family. I split the bulbs into individual cloves and plant these, use a trowel, about 3 inches down and 4 to 6 inches apart. Shoots come through after 4 weeks or so. Fertilise in spring.
I've never lost a crop yet due to bad weather and they are pretty pest free, apart from rust in my case.
I generally save my own bulbs for planting, but several times I have bought fresh certified stock.
I haven't grown in pots but I would use a deep pot, Long Tom type, and a John Innes type compost and plant two to three inches down.

 

Reckon they'd do FC, just had a look at mine, planted a few weeks back, 2 of them are up

 

@fat controller

More than deep enough, you'll get a number in each one. I'd try them 4 to 6" away from each other.
My only concern would be drainage, you might need to improvise some feet.
As for the compost well my preference would be JI 2 but anything would probably be ok so long as it doesn't get too soggy.

 

I planted some at the weekend, not tried autumn planting before, so maybe I'm a bit early, hope that dont mean they bolt next year.

Quite often by Oct my soil is very muddy, in some years, so I got in while I could, its pretty dry now where the spuds were.
I just bought it from a garden centre, buying on line is OK, but cant see the point for something like this, might save a few pence I guess.

Should point out garlic is garlic to me, so not that fussed about varieties.

I planted some elephant garlic back in the spring, it grew a few leaves and then disappeared, hoping to see it again sometime next spring.