What varieties of garlic are you going to sow this year

[diggernotdreamer]

Just wondering what you might be sowing in the way of garlic. I usually sow my saved stuff year on year, but I am not sure what varieties I am growing, probably early purple wight and a couple of other Isle Of Wight garlic farm varieties which I have got mixed up over the years, but they do well in our climate, until this year when they got completely flooded out and rotted off a bit, but I have enough to plant. Anything new I should be looking at; any good recommendations? Members in Ireland, I may be planning to buy some different things from the IOW and would be willing to get in extra via my usual channels and send on the internal post to you - Odsox and Doofer, would you be interested in sharing an order?

[MKG]

None. Garlic is one of my consistent failures (and yes, I know - you plant it and it grows. Not here).

I'm trying to work out a "protected environment" for garlic. As far as I can see at the moment, it needs to be open to the elements but devoid of stray weed seedlings, 6 feet above ground level, not subject to any deviation from normal temperature, and totally pest-free. Have I missed anything?

Oooohh! There you go - we need some garlic maestro to produce the ultimate garlic how-to. Roll up, roll up.

[Odsox]

but they do well in our climate, until this year when they got completely flooded out and rotted off a bit,

Now this is very odd.
I planted mine as normal in the tunnel, with no floods or anything untoward, but 3/4 of mine rotted as well. They were in the tunnel that had it's ripped cover removed and replaced in one operation, so I can't even blame it on that.
So yes, I have to buy some new stock this year and would be very interested in sharing an order.
What site are you thinking of ordering from ?

[Green Aura]

We're not very good at it either, although it does better when we interplant it in the onion bed. We often end up with just one huge clove rather than lots of little ones. But as we tend to shove it in and harvest it at any old time - for some reason we can never remember when to do it - that might explain the poor performance.

One year we had some success growing it in a bulb bowl - broad and shallow.

[ina]

I've not had much luck with garlic, either... It just doesn't justify the cost of buying to plant, when I get less back than I stuck in!

[Zech]

This thread is very reassuring. My garlic has a tendency to disappear completely, then reappear the following year about the same size as it was when I planted it. I thought it was just me!

[diggernotdreamer]

This is the garlic I planted 2013. Garlic actually grows in mountainous regions and it what it likes best is to be covered in snow for most of the winter, the colder the better, the year we went to -21 I had the best garlic ever

I was thinking IOW garlic again, I bought some 6 years ago and have been saving ever since, they have some interesting European varieties, but they are quite expensive, but I am open to suggestions

[ina]

Very nice! Maybe that's the reason, then - we don't get that much hard frost around here.

[diggernotdreamer]

I live in North West Ireland, we don't usually get much in the way of frost here either, usually wet and windy over the winter, we had two record breaking winters here 2009/10 and 2010/11 hopefully, they will not be repeated again in my lifetime I hope

[ojay54]

We don't have a prob with garlic.I'm not sure about the frost thing,it grows easily in Basilicata.I always plant ,near as poss on the shortest day,and lift,near as poss,on the longest.Keep well weeded,it won't ripen without a bit of sunshine.Keep trying,it'll work.Now,you tell ME how to grow a cauliflower ....please!

[Flo]

I seem to be able to manage brilliant elephant garlic but for the rest .... small, miserable attempts. Not sure if I will plant anything but elephant garlic along with the winter onions this year.

[Odsox]

Now,you tell ME how to grow a cauliflower ....please!

What's the problem, sow them in a seed bed, transplant when big enough, water during dry weather, cut when ready.
One tip, grow quick growing cauli, All Year Round is the main variety I grow, ready to cut in 16 weeks from sowing. If you grow varieties that need longer, you have longer for something to go wrong.
I'm growing a purple variety this year as well as my normal AYR, I sowed them on the 3rd of March and one is just heading up now. Won't be growing them again, I have had 2 crops of white between March and now.

Oh, and cauliflower cheese with GARLIC in the cheese sauce is very nice (to get back on topic )

[ina]

Anybody good tips on soil/fertiliser for garlic?

[Green Aura]

I have a solitary self set cauli in the polytunnel - we're just waiting to see what happens. At least we're presuming it's a cauli - it's roughly where we planted some 2 years ago.

I'll try the shortest/longest day thing. For some reason I can never remember when to plant garlic. I was planning on doing similar with my onions as my neighbour is having great results from over wintering hers.

[ojay54]

OK back to garlic(sorry).I grow in 4ft beds,so 3 rows to a bed. I really like my 5 prong cultivator and use it to make a decent tilth.add a 2inch layer of nice bit of compost,or old grow bag,and work that in.If I lived near the sea ( I wish) I'd collect loads of sea weed,compost it for 12 months,then use that,brilliant stuff.I plant the bulbs 2 and a 1/2 inches deep.