Mulch for Garlic

Garlic need's a frost on it to help the cloves form, so a mulch for protection against frost/snow is not required. If you are mulching to improve your soil/supress weed's etc Bark is ok but remember to add some fertilizer in the spring.

Sorry to hijack thread But i'm planning on planting out my onions this weekend and my garlics in early November. I was planning on mulching them with straw to supress weeds. Should I do it now when planting or should I wait till spring to put on the mulch when the plants are a bit more established. Also how thick a layer of straw mulch should i use?

ok thanks for the advice. Also are wood chips a good alternative to straw for mulch. I read somewhere they rob the soil of nitrogen? even on the surface would that be a problem?

It just i've been reading about aminopyralid (SCARY STUFF!!) and am a bit hesitant to use the straw incase it's contaminated with the stuff! (i got the straw on freecycle from a school and have no idea where they got it from)

I'm going to try and test the straw anyways by soaking some in a bucket and making a tea colored brew. I will then use this brew to water some test pots of broad beans and see how they grow. ( i guess i will have to do this for each bale!)

ok thanks for the advice. Also are wood chips a good alternative to straw for mulch. I read somewhere they rob the soil of nitrogen? even on the surface would that be a problem?

You need to feed the bed anyway before you plant so the bark chips will take some of that food to break down, but I find that in actuality, they use very little extra food so it's not really a worry. Fresh wood chips, however, can rob the soil so you'll want to age them first to one side and spread them out in spring if you intend to immediately mulch crops. If it's a bare plot, spread chips/bark now so it's ready for spring planting.

Can't imagine where you'd read that garlic doesn't like manure because garlic LOVES manure. It's the age old feed for it.

You can feed the garlic either now or in the spring, garlic isn't overly fussy. If you can't access actual manure, then you can use pellets.

I make holes through the fabric with a blow torch and just push the sets through these.
Tim

I've successfully used weed suppressant sheets for big stuff like courgettes, sweetcorn, toms but the thought of making lots of tiny holes for sets would be the last thing I'd consider until I read your post - LOL, I can just see me on the plot armed with a blow torch and a bag of onion sets    Nice one.