[danandgeorgie]

Hi

Can any advise what I did wrong with my garlic?  I bought several seed bulbs from a mail order catalogue and planted them a few days before Christmas.  I broke the bulbs up and planted the cloves.  They seem to have been doing well and I was planning to lift them on shortest day but last weekend I couldn't resist a sneak preview.  I pulled a planet with particularly vigorous growth above ground and was surprised to see what looked like a large spring onion.  I've never grown garlic before and I must say that when I roasted it with a piece of beef for Sunday it tasted great but why no Bulb?  Will they all be the same and have I done something wrong?

Advice please.

[flitwickone]

no nothing wrong give them more time

as in let them die back a bit

[Trillium]

Garlic doesn't usually 'ripen' until about July, sometimes early August depending on variety. Leave the garlic and it will keep growing and eventually split.

[Vit]

Garlic doesn't usually 'ripen' until about July, sometimes early August depending on variety. Leave the garlic and it will keep growing and eventually split.

+1

[mumofstig]

I agree, and they don't actually bulb up and split into cloves until the last month or so.
Just wait till they start to die back a bit

[danandgeorgie]

thanks folk I'm so ignorant!

I thought garlic was sow on shortest day and harvest on longest day. I guess that's an old wives tale.

Will wait till they die back.

Dan

[DD.]

That's what they say.

They also say to plant your spuds on Good Friday - a very variable date, plant your brassicas with a chunk of rhubarb to prevent club root ..................................

[Trillium]

I think when weather patterns were different you could plant and harvest on solstices, but not now. I know when my bulbing onions have past summer solstice, that they have only about another 30 days to fatten up before they finish. Once garlic leaves start to go a bit brownish, you can harvest them anytime. No need to wait until they're fully brown as they'll not grow any further once the leaves start dying off. But don't cut off the stems until they're fully brown if you plan to store the bulbs.

[shokkyy]

What causes garlic to put up two stems from a single planted clove? I've got a few like that this year.

[mumofstig]

cos it wasn't really a single clove 
It was 2 within the same wrapper 

[shokkyy]

Rats. They're extremely skinny little stems so I don't give much hope for them developing a decent bulb.

[lancashiregardeninggal]

I read shallots to be sown on the shortest day and harvested on the longest

[DD.]

And if they're still growing?

[Robster]

This was a great thread.  I had on my list to check out the garlic today.  I'll not be bothering now until next month.  They are all still green. Thanks for asking the question

[lancashiregardeninggal]

I wouldn't know - I've always sown mine in March