[Glosterboy]

I think the trick is to plant early as the cold weather encourages the cloves to split.

Is this statement a myth? Previous requests for proof have not been answered. The Med countries being one of the largest (if not the largest) area of growing garlic surely are not waiting for frost to enable their cloves to split and mature?

Surely, Oct/Nov planting means a long and beneficial growing period. 

[Kristen]

"The Med countries being one of the largest (if not the largest) area of growing garlic surely are not waiting for frost to enable their cloves to split and mature?"

Good point, never even thought of that before ...

[SG6]

I had and it has always puzzled me. Equally a couple of weeks in the fridge isn't a get deal of effort

I know that when a neighbour did not "cool" his he got small bulbs without cloves. I did cool mine and got fair sized bulbs with cloves.

So it seems safer and putting the bulb in a fridge for 2-3 weeks isn't exactly difficult.

Could it be a difference between hard neck and soft neck varieties and we simply now make sure that both have a cold spell? Assumes that it is necessary for one type and harmless to the other.

[Yorkie]

You are, of course, assuming that the varieties grown here and those in the Med are the same.

They may not be, and may require different growing conditions.

[Trillium]

You're right Yorkie. the Med areas grow short season soft neck garlic which doesn't require a cold spell to divide. They do have the specific daylight hours to do this where we colder climate people don't. Ours needs cool weather to initiate the clove splitting as well as longer warm season daylight. The daylight hours really do make the difference to the two types.

[zazen999]

The cloves split if they have long enough time in the ground.

If they go in in sept they are ready late may/juneish [8-9 months]
If they go in in dec they are ready in june [6 months]

That extra warmth at the end really kicks them into swelling.

What I also found on my last trial was that the smallest cloves produced the biggest final bulb.

[Oliveview]

I think the trick is to plant early as the cold weather encourages the cloves to split.

Is this statement a myth? Previous requests for proof have not been answered. The Med countries being one of the largest (if not the largest) area of growing garlic surely are not waiting for frost to enable their cloves to split and mature?

Surely, Oct/Nov planting means a long and beneficial growing period. 

Last year I just planted up garlic cloves from the ones I bought at the market-  I got a good crop back- one of the garlic heads weighed in at 1/2lb before it was hung to dry out.   I´m going to plant up some more this weekend.  We hardly ever get a frost here (just south east of Seville) if we do it is just a light one (hope I´m not tmepting fate)
Pamela

[Salmo]

I may have this wrong but I think the low temperature requirements are only below 10 degrees for 10 days and hard freezing is not required. Normal fridges are usually about 5 degrees. Even stored in the average shed/greenhouse/garage wouls be sufficient.

Maybe if garlic is bought from a warm garded centre and not planted until late March or April the soil could be too warm and they will not split. I usually plant mine in mid-February and have no problem. They are softneck Solent Wight. Hardnecks may be different?