[kittiwake]

Hi,

After having a reasonable first year on the allotment I am keen to try growing garlic this autumn.

My family love garlic and the stronger the better and we use it a lot in oriental cooking. We also love roasting the cloves. Could anyone recommend some suitable garlic varieties to meet our needs? We thought about elephant garlic but have heard it has a very mild flavour so I am not sure whether it is worth us growing it.

Thanks

Kitti

[compostqueen]

Garlic is easy to grow, I had my best crop where I'd had my lotty-clearing bonfire.  I expect it liked the well drained gritty soil there

I think a strong one is Solent Wight but that's a spring-planting variety. I do both cos I love garlic.  The Solent Wight is the one my friends and family comment on as being strong smelling during preparation and cooking, "stinks the house out" was one comment   I like Chesnok, Purple Wight and Lautrec Wight too.

[Sharonx]

Hi,
Have a look on this website. www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk
I have placed my order from them for the garlic lovers selection pack so you could try a bit of everything. Not sure if the promotional code GYO is still valid but when I used it, it gave free delivery.

Elephant garlic isn't a true garlic, more like leek really. Still good raosted and makes a lovely soup! doesn't take up much room so well worth putting a few in I think.

[Comfortably Numb]

Garlic is easy to grow, I had my best crop where I'd had my lotty-clearing bonfire.  I expect it liked the well drained gritty soil there

I think a strong one is Solent Wight but that's a spring-planting variety. I do both cos I love garlic.  The Solent Wight is the one my friends and family comment on as being strong smelling during preparation and cooking, "stinks the house out" was one comment   I like Chesnok, Purple Wight and Lautrec Wight too.

Hi compostqueen,

According the The Garlic Farm, Solent Wight is suitable for autumn or spring planting. I hope they're right, as I'm planting mine this autumn 

[kittiwake]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I have put an order in to the garlic farm for one of their selection packs so will try all the varieties on offer to see which one I prefer. We eat lots of garlic so I am sure we can get through the 100 plants it promises 

The GYO voucher code still seems to work - thanks for the tip Sharonx. That saved me £5   :happy:

My soil is very free draining so hopefully they will feel right at home.

Kitti

[arugula]

Kittiwake, thanks for asking the question and thanks those who gave helpful answers. I'm trying garlic overwinter for the first time this year and if it works I'll be investigating different varieties and planting it big time as I use LOTS.

[barbarella]

I ordered Aquila, Picardy and Solent from the Garlic Farm  last month -  I wish I had known about the promotional code - darn    

Solent and Picardy are softneck and Aquila is hardneck - I wanted to try both.  This info from a website might be useful -

"The stalk of soft-necked garlic is pliable and soft at maturity. The stalk of hard-necked garlic is stiff at maturity.

Soft-necked garlic is strong flavored and stores well because it has several protective outer layers of papery skin.

Hard-necked garlic is mild tasting and best used soon after harvest since it has only a few layers of papery skin and thus keeps poorly.

The garlic you are most likely to find at the market is soft-necked garlic simply because it keeps best.

But where you live may have a lot to do with the type of garlic that you are most familiar with and use.

Soft-necked garlic is grown most commonly in the United States—mainly California, Texas and Louisiana--and in France, Spain, Italy, and Mexico.

Hard-necked garlic is most commonly grown in Central Asia and Russia."

I had quite a success with garlic this year, but unfortunately forgot to note which variety I planted.  One thing worth mentioning is when I harvested it, it looked quite soft and nothing like the bulbs you see in the supermarket - it is only after laying it out to dry for a couple of weeks like onions that it gets the familiar papery appearance.

Perhaps next year we can return to this topic and compare notes?

[arugula]

Perhaps next year we can return to this topic and compare notes?

That sounds like a good idea.

Lorna. 

[Mike the Postman]

I'm considering planting some garlic this autumn and all but where my allotment is situated the soil is very damp.The village I live in is basically built on a peat bog! Is putting in some garlic a bad idea or are there ways round it?

[mumofstig]

You could always make yourself a small raised bed.....more like a mound really and plant on the top of this. I've seen this done many times on damp soil

[davethespread]

i grew some this year i cant remember what type it was it sounded japanese :blush:but anyway it grew well but it never split into cloves and it had well died down almost to the point of the stalk breaking off.does anyone know why maybe why it did not clove.

[Muddylou]

I also hope Solent Wight grows well over winter as my Garilic arrived today from the Garlic Farm (I also didn't know about a promotion). Bought nine bulbs and have to say they look very nice, my GF wants to use them for her Thai cooking, had to tell her to keep off ...lol.

[Elcie]

i grew some this year i cant remember what type it was it sounded japanese :blush:but anyway it grew well but it never split into cloves and it had well died down almost to the point of the stalk breaking off.does anyone know why maybe why it did not clove.

Autumn or spring planted?  Garlic needs a cold spell to split into cloves.

I am growing much more garlic next season than this season, really loved growing it and it was relatively easy and gave me something to look at down the plot in the winter!

[kittiwake]

Thanks for the information Barbarella, that';s really useful. Looks like the softneck type will probably be my favourites if they are stronger tasting and keep longer. The variety pack I bought has both sorts so I will compare.

A review next year sounds like a great idea. Has anyone else bought the mixed variety pack from the garlic farm. Perhaps we can compare notes ?

LOL Muddylou. Thats what I want to grow the garlic for - Thai cooking. Tell her she can have loads of bulbs for free next year 

Kitti

[wighty]

The Garllic Farm is only round the corner from me and we bought our Garlic about Five years ago from them.  We are on the same sub soil strata as them  and so the bulb we save to replant each year probably runs true to the same strain as the original.  Went there last week with a girl friend for a 'coffee' in their new cafe, for two cups of black coffee and a Danish £11.50.  Won't go again, typical Boswellness, too big for their boots. (Sorry Islander rant over).