Growing Garlic

[red]

i dug my garlic the other day too.. they are drying out now. Last year i plaited them after they dried using these instructions, from someone on here.

something I learnt this year is adding lots of compost to the bed before planting makes them grow lots bigger, they are so much better than previous years.

[Millymollymandy]

So do you reckon it is best to dry them horizontally then? The ones in the blog instructions have got very long stems compared to mine - but good instructions on how to plait them properly!

[Millymollymandy]

How come they are so clean and there's no yellowing of the stalks and leaves??? Or have you pulled all those bits off? Mine look a right filthy old dried out mess compared to that. But then they are hanging in the potting shed/boiler room so it doesn't matter if the bits drop on the floor!

[Millymollymandy]

Oh shucks!

[Cassiepod]

I'm lookign forward to trying this. Thanks for the link red the instrucation are very clear! I had abandoned my garlic, they didn't sprout as quick as the onions and I assumed all was lost. Iwent to look at the (overgrown) onion bed last weekend and about half of them had sportued after all. I don't htink it''ll be a mega crop, but better than nothing The onions are looking fabulos too. I gave them a weed and might even give them a feed if I'm felling really generous this weekend.

[Derry]

i am absolutely in awe of your garlic growing skills.. all of you!

first time we've grown any this year, and we did them at completely the wrong time.. the ones that were put in the garden were eaten/have all rotted =[ but we've got some more in the greenhouse with stalks about 6 inches high...

[eccentric_emma]

Thanks for those plaiting instructions I will be trying those this weekend. I have so much garlic - will upload a photo soon. Reckon we have about a years worth! My garlic just seemed desperate to do well this year, we had self seeded garlic all over the allotment from last years crop which barely grew, and garlic seems to have sprouted in the oddest places! And even a garlic grew when I planted the clove upside down - it just made an odd shaped bulb! Must have been my year for it.

[SarahJane]

I dug the garlic I planted last winter up today. They are small but well formed. A few of them though have developed small amounts of cloves about 6 inches up the stalk. I was wondering, if I dry these out, can I use them to plant out this autumn?

[Mal]

So I took up one of my garlics at the weekend, just to see how they were doing. The outside was papery, but the cloves are surrounded by a thick skin, a bit like an onion's outer layer, which seems logical. The cloves were still good to eat though (summer vegetable risotto, since you ask)

Does the skin around the cloves go papery if I leave the garlic in for longer, or is that a result of the drying process once they're hung up and braided and what-not?

I guess I'm also asking how you tell when they're ready for pulling, and whether it is a good or a bad idea to leave them in the ground for longer?

[Odsox]

Does the skin around the cloves go papery if I leave the garlic in for longer, or is that a result of the drying process once they're hung up and braided and what-not?

Yes it does go papery and it does go that way when you dry them out.
It doesn't take long either because the one in the picture at the start of this thread (the outside one) wasn't totally used up and coincidentally I've just this minute used a clove from it and it has dried off totally.

I guess I'm also asking how you tell when they're ready for pulling, and whether it is a good or a bad idea to leave them in the ground for longer?

Rightly or wrongly, I always treat mine the same as onions and shallots ... i.e. I pull them up when the tops go brown and fall over.
Of course a lot get pulled up when still very green for the "wet" garlic I'm so fond of

[Millymollymandy]

Hmmmm my garlic went very brown but was still upright, whilst my onions are all falling over but are still very green. I didn't know that garlic was supposed to fall over as mine never has done.

Anyway I am glad the onions are nearly there because my leeks are getting very big and congested but they have to wait until the onions are out before I can transplant them!

[Odsox]

That's interesting as mine have all fallen over but are still mainly green.
Mind you, I do have the wind to help them (not personally I might add)

[Millymollymandy]

Plenty of wind here too and I have to stake everything, including all the sweetcorn and the french beans. Trouble is I never know in what direction the wind is going to come so ideally every plant needs a stake on either side of it. Right now my sweetcorn is rocking cos the stake's on the wrong side!