Garlic and onions in the greenhouse?

Hi all.

I've got lots of garlic bulbs with the beginnings of green tips on the end of the cloves.
Is it worth potting them, and putting in the greenhouse to give them a start?

Also, having neglected to sow onions (this year's harvest was *very* disappointing), is it worth germinating some onion seeds indoors, and then putting them into the greenhouse too?

cheers,
Dave

 

Dave, normally you would plant garlic in the gound about September time, I missed this so I`ve planted the cloves in pots in the greenhouse, and they will then go in the ground in early spring. As for the onions, now is the time to sow the seed in the greenhouse if you want a decent crop in the summer, though I find it easier to grow them from sets, preferably Sturon.

 

Thanks David.

I've got tons of room in the greenhouse - and lots of onion seeds, so I'll try them along with garlic in pots. Most of my onions rotted in the ground last year, and the garlic got what I think was a fungal rust - the adjacent leeks got it too, but the second crop of leeks is still thankfully rust-free.

cheers,
Dave

 

Dave, you say your onions rotted in the ground? Was this from the stem down or the rootplate up?

 

David - as far as I can recall, some of the bulbs were nearly intact, but very small, and it was the green parts that went bad, down into the bulb in most cases, so I guess stem down . I pulled them all up and saved a handful that were OK, and burned the rest, when I realised I wasn't going to get much of a crop. They were bedfordshire champion (I think)

Curiously, some North holland blood-red redmate near them were OK, if way smaller than I'd hoped.
cheers,
Dave

 

It sounds as though you had a form of blight, which is better than white rot. If you intend planting ANY of the onion family in the same place next year then you should sterilise the ground. To do this you should get some Armilatox and treat the ground using a ratio of 100ml of Armilatox to 10 litres of water.

 

Thanks - I'll sterilise the ground then, as I do like veg from the onion family. I'm trying not to be *too* adventurous next year - I'd rather grow stuff that I eat a lot of.
Still eating leeks, and leef and silver beet happily right now

Dave

 

This garlic bulb has sprouted nicely so I'll plant it and hope for the best.





I've tried to grow garlic several times but had no luck. So far I have planted seperate pieces, I am now wondering if I should plant this one as is?

I also heard that December - February/March is a good time to start garlic off.

I don't have a greenhouse so would put it out in the Wintergarten. Guess it would be about the same.

 

Personally I wouldn't plant any cloves that had already sprouted as they tend to bolt,in the same way you shouldn't plant sprouting onion sets,since they are using their own "body" as energy to produce the shoot before they have develloped any roots.

I go against all convention as far as Garlic goes as I only plant in late March because when I have planted in Winter I have always got a double bulbing effect,i.e the single clove turns into a bulb in late spring/early summer and then each clove of that bulb tries to turn into another bulb resulting in an enormous mass of premature bulbs instead of one big one.

Since my soil doesn't warm up until about May then late March is early enough for my garlic to get its "cold spell"which garlic needs to grow succesfully.

I grow Wilkos garlic at 3 bulbs for �£1.50 it never disappoints,planted 1 inch deep 6 in apart on 26 March and harvested on July 30th.

Here are last years results.Not bad for �£3.00's worth of seed.




Anyway good luck.

 

That is an excellent crop, vegmandan! Although we always thought that if a bulb is sprouting, it must good for growing ( I assume that this applies to all bulbs ), what you say makes sense. It's no good having greenery on top when there is nothing to anchor and feed them at the bottom. That is a very good tip, thanks!

I'll look on the market next month for some.

 

It's not just an anchoring thing, its that they arent getting any nutrition from any roots before they start to grow.I would buy some specific planting garlic too rather than stuff from the shops as this has usually been grown in warmer climates and it'll never do as well over here.

 

hi vegmandan do you plant one clove at a time or do you plant the bulbs thanks

mary

 

I plant cloves individually about 6 in apart and 12-18 inches between the rows.

If you plant a whole bulb then you'll get about 16 new bulbs but they'll all be in the same place and won't get enough food,water,etc as they won't have the room so they'll be smaller, so plant cloves separately for best results..

 

thanks vegmandan i will do that :D