[Mogman]

One of the probs with being a gardener in Denmark is that we don't have the garden centres that Blighty has...so I've not had any luck getting hold of garlic cloves for autumn planting...so I'm going to go ahead with planting some shop-bought bulbs.

I'm aware of the potential shortcomings of non-local grown garlic but I'd like to hear opinions of those that have tried this and what results they achieved.
Cheers, Jon

[JayG]

About 5 years ago I was given some supermarket garlic by neighbours who were off to Oz for 2 months, so in a rash moment I decided to plant the cloves - it's done very well for me every year since then (February planting) but of course it's impossible to know what variety it was, how lucky I was that it was suited to my conditions, and of course what risk, if any, I was taking with importing any diseases, although it has to be said that commercially available stocks aren't actually guaranteed to be disease-free anyway.

[Nobbie]

I've planted it before and had similar results to the named varieties I've bought. I think the main reason for not using it is the possibility of importing disease to your plot.

[Kristen]

Denmark is in the EU (I think??!) so should be no problem importing some from UK - other than perhaps companies here not being geared up to ship overseas ... if that's the case could you get a mate in the UK to acquire and send to you?  You'd be fine to replant your own harvested bulbs in following years (provided no disease) and supposedly they will adapt to your local conditions with each generation.

[tosca100]

No idea what variety mine is, but l got it from our local veg market where we only pay a quid a kilo, but it is all local and grows well in our conditions (Bulgaria)

[Kevin67]

I'M COMING TO BULGARIA!

[Mogman]

Great...this all sounds very encouraging...I've gone ahead today and planted in a pallet-sized raised bed (I've used two pallet "greedy-boards" on top of each other as an experiment) where peas had grown this year, and top dressed that with a couple of inches of improved peat. (I know...but it's the only "compost" I've got just now!)

I found some very elegant "longue" shallots at my local organic veg shop, so assume that they are not sprayed with growth retardant, which I've also planted. First time with this variety, but assume that they'll manage fine. Time will tell!   

[Steveharford]

I've not planted uk supermarket ones but have brought some back from France a couple of times and had great success with them. Always worth a try.

[fatbelly]

Today I planted out the Garlic that I sowed in pots on the 13th October. I bought the bulbs from T & M & I was very pleased with what they sent me. Each clove was big and fat and they all sprouted. I did pay a premium from T & M and got 2 large bulbs with 12 cloves in each bulb for £5.99

When I lift my Garlic in July I will save the best & biggest 2 bulbs for replanting the following October, so next years & subsequent years Garlic will be free.

Here is a picture of one of the plants before I planted them out



Here is a photo of the root ball that had grown, these roots were typical of all the pots and I'm well pleased



Finally a photo of all 24 plants in their bed.

[BabbyAnn]

That looks great fatbelly - this autumn I've got myself in a pickle due to illness then poor weather so haven't been able to do much on the plot, and still haven't planted most of the garlic out yet.  I've resigned myself to consider potting them up and planting out later - seeing how they grow is giving me a good idea of how to go about it, thanks