[Chrysalis]

We bought "Music" this year as well. As you say, rust is the name of the game here, too!
I've stripped off the outer leaves and left the hard necks and bulbs in the ground to try and grab a few rays before lifting them next week.

The bulbs are a bit smaller than I was hoping for, but some growth, nevertheless.

But after today's rain - an inch in an hour!, I'm not sure if anything will survive! 

[Trillium]

Don't give up on Music garlic; the bulbs can be very large in the right conditions, meaning moderate rain and reasonable soil. My garlic cloves are so huge that I often use only half a  clove rather than risk stinking every thing up 

[Chrysalis]

Can I quote you on that, Trillium?   An unfinished piece of music is better than a stink up?  Tell that to the musicians 




PS.  My OH and I are both musicians!

[Trillium]

You can quote me but don't use my name   

[New shoot]

Rust city at the plot so gave up and harvested my Music garlic.  This is it on the left with normal garlic on the right. 



Had quite a few bulbs that had rotted off - drowned I expect  but they are bigger than the average garlic.  This year in particular, happy to get a crop at all so will probably have another go with it next year 

[viettaclark]

The Music I've pulled to see hasn't produced the papery sheaf round the bulb properly so although the indivdual cloves have formed with a skin they are not bound together in a bulb. Yet the other garlic has done this already although it's behind in development.
Does this mean the bulb covering won't form at all? Could rust have caused it? Can you still store them?
I'm impressed with the incredibly strong hot garlic flavour of the Music but I wish they would behave themselves and get bigger and bulb up properly!!!

[Trillium]

If you have doubts about storing your garlic, peel them and whiz them up with some softened butter. Wrap in 1/4 pound 'bars' and refrigerate or freeze. Can be used almost any way.

[lacewing]

I too am a member of the rust club, very badly affected. I am so dissapointed with the Music, I dug up one bulb yeaterday and it was just a round white ball, no sign of any cloves forming. I am now wondering if it would help to put the cloves in the fridge prior tp planting.

[Madame Cholet]

What's the best way to dry garlic to store i'm going to lift them this week. Hang them in the kitchen does it need to be warm as my kitchen isn't? Then lay them in mushroom trays in the pantry once dry?

[arugula]

Leave them out with a good supply of air around them. You can plait them together and have a bunch hanging around, like I did these shallots last year:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=72908.msg904619#msg904619

If you don't plait them then yes, just keep them somewhere airy.. It doesn't need to be warm.

[grendel]

mine had stems that didnt want to plait - so I just tied the tops of the stems together with string and hung them on the door between the kitchen and conservatory.
Grendel

[DD.]

Only just caught up with this thread.

It's very strange. Lacewing's garlic is obviously from the same batch as I sent it to her. Mine were not planted until 10th January, but they've made good sized cloves again.

[Trillium]

It's quite possible that lacewing's soil conditions were quite different than yours, DD, and perhaps amount of rainfall. Music is the #1 garlic grown here because it's so trouble free and produces well - provided it gets what it needs, like only modest rain and no rust  . I add lots of chicken manure to my garlic bed every year and am never disappointed. I didn't even water mine during our 3 month drought this year and still got respectable bulbs. 

[DD.]

Yes, I seem to recall that we were talking about a drought and a hosepipe ban on the earlier part of the year in Lacewing's neck off the woods and I did give them a good feed when planted and then again later.

I've just weighed some and we're talking of 13g-14g per clove.

[AnneB]

I grew 3 varieties this year.  Music, Albigensian Wight and Early Purple Wight.  All got rust eventually, but the crop didn't seem to be affected and all bulbs good quality.   I was hoping for the giant bulbs and cloves from Music, but the crop was slightly smaller than the other 2.  In terms of cloves per £ of purchased garlic for planting, Early Purple Wight was the best, Albigensian 2nd and Music third, but not much in it really.   Conditions have been very wet though.

Next year I am going to try Solent Wight,  Provence Wight and Carcassone Wight, none of which I have grown before.