garlic

[MINESAPINT]

This is my understanding: Plant in September ISH using own cloves saved from previous year. When leaves begin to turn yellow (about now) cut the tops down to about 12 inches above the ground. This will help bulb to swell. Harvest about 2 weeks after cutting tops down. Hang in dry airey shed. If you leave in the ground too long the outer protective skin rots away and the cloves become dirty.

[Jules]

Thanks all. Was wondering whether to pull mine up or not. The leaves have gone yellow now..

Think I'll trim to 12 inches as suggested and pull up soon.

[JR]

We have harvested all of ours that we planted last November, OH platted them today after a couple of weeks drying. They are fab, some small some fairly large, very pleased. We have more in that were put in early this year.

[Michelle]

I just plaited mine too - found some good instructions: http://www.bloomingfieldsfarm.com/garbrdhow.html
Here's my attempt: http://tinyurl.com/62y7zg

[Millymollymandy]

Mine went all black and funny and all the cloves split apart from the bulb just in the two weeks I was in England! I pulled one up before I left and it was very 'wet' garlic. I find it hard to believe they'd go too far over in just two weeks.

[Turf cutter man]

It is probably due to all the rain we have had combined with warm days. If it was dry it would last a while in the ground

[red]

I just plaited mine too - found some good instructions: http://www.bloomingfieldsfarm.com/garbrdhow.html
Here's my attempt: http://tinyurl.com/62y7zg

nice job Michelle, I will have to refer to this - last year I made it up as i went along.. and my plaits were a total mess!

[Michelle]

Thanks! The instructions really helped!

[Millymollymandy]

It is probably due to all the rain we have had combined with warm days. If it was dry it would last a while in the ground

What rain? It was drought like conditions!

[Kitty Ballistic]

I pulled up one garlic with yellow leaves yesterday and it looked like a shallot, so I was disappointed. I'm glad I read this thread, as I expected my garlic to look like, erm, garlic. We go on holiday in a couple of weeks, so hopefully that will be enough time for the rest of the garlic to become ready (although we've had some wet weather recently).

[Turf cutter man]

It is probably due to all the rain we have had combined with warm days. If it was dry it would last a while in the ground

What rain? It was drought like conditions!

Most of france has a HUGE amount of rain recently, you must have missed out up there

[Millymollymandy]

We usually do in this department (apart from last year!).

[Thurston Garden]

I have just pulled my first batch of garlic. The tops had not yellowed and the stems were almost in flower. I have bunched them and chopped the stems in half to remove the flower head and hung them up to dry off a bit. These bulbs were from the Garlic Farm and planted in Feb.

I still have half a bed of garlic which were free from T&M with my onion order. I forgot all about them and planted them in April when I found the bag in the greenhouse. The tops on these have all fallen and are drying nicely. I have left these in the soil but will lift them in a week or so.

Both batches were grown in the tunnel and have bulbed up nicely. Just not sure why one has flowered and the other has died back properly?

[SarahJane]

I planted my garlic a little late this year, they havent gone yellow yet but they are almost lying flat as the tops are fairly tall. Should I just leave them until they turn yellow? I have noticed that one of the bulbs have split as you could see it as the tops lay down.

[Millymollymandy]

Sounds like time to pull them up! Enjoy!