Garlic Crop failure

certainly does this spring! if i dont water my pots every 4-5 days theyre like a desert. the cause is bad potting soil for me, its all commercial barely rotted woodchip. maybe ill dig up some clay

my garlic isnt doing well either still alive at least

 

Well pots are a different matter, but my point was that the garlic planted as late as December is unlikely to put down a decent root system to survive the dryer spring.

Mine usually gets planted in late October and has two or three inches of green growth before the first frost.
It then stands still all winter, December to March.

 

I haven't watered my garlic at all. Autumn winter and spring was drier han normal, other than december. Had so much rain in August last year the ground has been saturated since then! Now we've had a month's rain in a few days

 

I have just checked my garlic, bulbs very disappointingly small. I might give them a feed as there is still time for them to bulk up a bit.

 

I have to say my hard neck garlic is looking super! Planted in October in bed that drains well. Cloche over the top. Cloche taken off about 2nd week of April. Watered quite a bit during very very dry period from April until about 10 days ago. Scrapes appearing already which is a good month early. Judging by the top growth the bulbs will be a very good size. The Elephant garlic is likewise. Scrapes on these already pulled out and eaten, yum, Did have a wee look and the bulbs on these are huge. Amazing what a super spring will do!

 

I contacted supplier ... they responded that for: Picardy and Solent Wight, we advise to plant these October - March but the colder months (December/January) being the optimum time.
So I was 'on time' will have to try other varieties this year

 

I grew Caulk Wight and Carcassonne Wight, both hardneck types, planted in October. I've just looked at them and removed the scapes and yes the leaves have started to yellow, but they will not be ready for harvest before the end of June.
So I'm surprised that yours @Sargan were ready for harvest so long before mine.

 

I assume it depends on your location.
IOW is almost frost free, where I am in Kent I wouldn't plant anything in December or January, IMO it's even too late for Daffs and Tulips, but in those cases you are not really relying on getting a decent bulb the following summer, just some decent spring flowers already in the bulb.

I have grown spring planting types with reasonable success, but again, you are planting something at a time when the ground is at least warming up.

I tend to look at what something like garlic is doing when in storage and quite often I've had to freeze mine in late summer because its forming roots, in other words, it wants to grow, it's its natural cycle.

 

Harvested everything today, some had a bit of green left but most had dried.
Some have formed nice meaty bulbs, others only small bulbs, a handful didnt grow at all, and another handful grew large but never became bulbs. Odd! Those will be saved for bolognese where I want a tonne of garlic in one serving

Well not a total crop failure! Will try again with a named variety.


Do you think its worth saving cloves from the two bulbs that did well? Or just eat it all and buy from IOW?

 

I'd buy new from a reliable company, I used to just buy from garden centres, one called cristo comes to mind, I think you can spring sow that one if my memory is correct.
but yes, still got a few of my IOW bulbs which I bought at the farm there in 2018.

 

My garlic bulbs are decent, especially considering they were just sprouting supermarket cloves tucked in a spare box in October.

However, now I can't harvest the rest because the plants are flowering and it's just too interesting to watch

Any ideas what I should do with the flowers?



(And please do not judge the elegance of my garden, this is the part I haven't tackled yet. The mountain is in fact my pond upside down. )

 

The top part is called scapes and should be chopped off to make the bulb bigger and stronger. They can be cooked in various ways and eaten.

 

Thanks @waterbut , this was a good thing to learn. I googled and apparently they are delicious https://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/blogs/news/garlic-scapes-what-they-are-and-how-to-cook-them

 

Harvested our garlic yesterday. All very small but given I haven’t fed or watered them, it’s still more garlic than I planted so have decided to be pleased anyway. The original cloves were quite small so it was probably unrealistic to expect anything more. Mine are IOW garlic farm but from my veg box so sold to eat not grow.

I might order some “proper” to grow garlic for next years crop but it was expensive last time I ordered from them and they didn’t do at all well. Thinking about it, they were no better and possibly worse, than those just harvested.