Garlic

Anyone got pointers towards a garlic variety that will give me larger than average bulbs, (excluding elephant garlic which tastes pretty bland). I have no trouble growing them, just fed up with their paltry size. Thanks in advance.
Paul.

 

I would say they need plenty of feed and water through the growing season. I sow November and they don't do too bad although this year the dry spring will have caused problems as some have already gone over.
I've pretty much given up on softneck varieties, softneck garlic produces more smaller cloves than hardneck, but is less hardy and requires milder winters. Hardneck produces fewer, larger cloves and doesn't store as well.

 

I plant around 8" apart and fertilize with chicken pellets and bonemeal. Varieties I've used are all hardneck types from legitimate seed merchants.

 

@Paul Beard what do you call paltry size?
I dug some of mine last night and while some are very small, a single round clove, others were about normal with 7 or 8 cloves of a usable size.

 

I dug mine the other day, around 70/80 bulbs, the biggest was maybe an inch and half with the vast majority being around and inch. What I'm after is the size of the supermarket big ones that are pushing two inches across. In my years of growing garlic I've never had any that big. If I need big onions there is a good choice of varieties to go for. It must be the same for garlic should't it?

 

Seems a bit early to be digging them, mine are still growing, or would be if the foxes hadn't flattened them all.

 

@Paul Beard That sounds like the sort of size I get.
I think lot of the supermarket ones are from China, commercial growers even in the UK will have access to different varities. Abroad you will have a longer growing season.
I don't recall ever seeing seed garlic being sold on how large the bulbs will be; unlike onions and leeks where there are specific varities sold for size, altough once again the enthusiasts start them off December - January time to get a long a growing season as possible and water and feed steadily through the season.

 

I think it depends on your particular conditions, some of mine had definitely gone over (tops like straw) others still have green upright stems.

 

For the last few years I've been growing the same variety, and I just save a few for replanting.
Originally they came from the Isle of Wight, can't remember the name but they grow it commercially there.

I usually plant in late October.

 

I, generally, start my garlic off in root trainers in the greenhouse in September-ish so that I can get them going early. The (flawed?) logic is that they should be strong and healthy bulbs I can plant out before the first frost in November.
I think that experience says that it's not worth the ***** effort. :-))

 

Thoughts are that last winter was not severe-enough. Believe they require phosphate when planted ,to make good roots in reasonably well drained soil. Protection with straw/hay mulch and plenty of early nitrogen as soon as growth returns, February. Liquid feed during spring and no competition from weeds or companion plantings. My crop was 'average 'this year but finished early with rust, for which there seems no remedy.

 

As I understand it the idea is that you plant just early enough for the bulbs to root and make a couple of inches of green growth before the winter, when they go dormant.
The cold weather should then make them form multiple bulbils when they restart growing in the spring.
It may not have been very cold last winter but the plants would still have stopped growing for two or three months.

I've not tried mine yet this year so not sure what has happened but the tops are still green, I treat them like onions and if they still have green growth and good roots I leave them as long as possible.

You can get spring planting types, I grew those one year and they turned out reasonable.

 

Like Pete mine go in the ground late October and are generally a couple of inches high before Christmas. I've never protected mine even in Essex 20+ years ago.
My understanding was that roots formed well in the warm ground and then were ready to go when the spring arrived.
I believe that hard neck garlic need a cold winter to grow properly, apparently 40 days below 5°C (40°F).
Mine always get rust as do the leeks, but not the onions.