Potato Patahto

[Phil Pascoe]

How do you grow good garlic? I bought proper garlic cloves for planting last Autumn.The largest I harvested was about the size of a marble.

I thought garlic wasn't harvested until autumn?

 

[ZippityNZ]

(EDITED)

Here in New Zealand, traditionally garlic is planted on the shortest day (22 June) and harvested on the longest day (22 December) - give or take a day.

This year, I planted my garlic seed (individual cloves) 29 April - mainly to beat this years frosts.

The seed I used is from last year's crop, which was a great crop compared to the previous year, where the bulbs were the size of golf balls

 

[Trainee neophyte]

How do you grow good garlic? I bought proper garlic cloves for planting last Autumn.The largest I harvested was about the size of a marble.

I thought garlic wasn't harvested until autumn?

I plant mine in November and harvest in May, but that probably doesn't help unless you live on the Med.

I also plant potatoes in March and again in August.

 

[sunnybob]

Hey, full circle! we're back to potatos =D>
They are cropped twice a year here.
Lots of restaurant owners drive out to whichever field is being cropped (still by hand!) and buy a bucket for their kitchens, and nothing can beat a chip that was still a potato in the ground the day before. =D> =D> =D> :lol: :lol:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It's a long time since I grew it but the consensus then was that to get a decent sized bulb in the autumn you needed to plant cloves the autumn before - if you left it til spring you'd be lucky to anything of any size. (And that was planting cloves, not seed.)

 

[ZippityNZ]

It's a long time since I grew it but the consensus then was that to get a decent sized bulb in the autumn you needed to plant cloves the autumn before - if you left it til spring you'd be lucky to anything of any size. (And that was planting cloves, not seed.)

Garlic bought for planting (not for the table) is frequently referred to as "seed" garlic

https://www.countrytrading.co/collections/seed-garlic

 

[whiskywill]

How do you grow good garlic? I bought proper garlic cloves for planting last Autumn.The largest I harvested was about the size of a marble.

I thought garlic wasn't harvested until autumn?

Autumn planted garlic is ready to harvet in mid summer when the leaves turn brown and die. Some of the leaves on mine turned brown in Early June. I dug them up late June.
The other odd thing was they did not split into multi clove bulbs and some of those I dug up were smaller than the orginal clove that I planted.

 

[whiskywill]

The one on the left is one of the larger results from my garlic patch. The other is a normal shop bought garlic bulb.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

The one on the left is one of the larger results from my garlic patch. The other is a normal shop bought garlic bulb.

Quality garlic - I can grow them that big, too! Needed more food, more sun, more water, more time, more everything.

If you leave it in to dry, it will assume the correct shape, and be an amusing talking point at dinner parties - small, but perfectly formed.

This year chickens got in and scratched over the garlic bed, so I had no idea where they were or if they were ready or not. By the time I thought to dig them up, they had all rotted. I plant garlic every year, and virtually every year I buy garlic. Ho hum. Time to get the first broccoli and cauliflower in this week, so that's never going to happen. Will be late, as always.

 

[ZippityNZ]

The one on the left is one of the larger results from my garlic patch. The other is a normal shop bought garlic bulb.

Are you comparing apples with oranges?

Are they in fact even the same variety?

The store bought garlic is probably printanor.

 

[flying haggis]

Hey, full circle! we're back to potatos =D>
They are cropped twice a year here.
Lots of restaurant owners drive out to whichever field is being cropped (still by hand!) and buy a bucket for their kitchens, and nothing can beat a chip that was still a potato in the ground the day before. =D> =D> =D> :lol: :lol:

and nothing can beat plain boiled spuds that were in the ground 10mins previous with toms from the green house that are still warm

 

[Phil Pascoe]

with eggs fresh from the hen house.

 

[nabs]

The other tip for good garlic crops - other than planting out in Nov - is to start with big fat cloves. The tiddlers never amount to much so just eat them rather than putting them in the ground.