PLANTING GUIDE

A few golden rules: - 

1. Choose carefully where you plant your garlic: plenty of sunshine, well drained, well prepared (with garden compost and not synthetic fertilisers) loam based soil will be preferred.

2. Plant the right way up - pointed end up!

3. No competition from other plants, garlic is a greedy feeder and will just give up if it's competing for nutrients.

4. Never plant you garlic where you have previously planted garlic or grown other alliums. Legumes and asparagus are also not good garlic neighbours. 

5. Garlic is a long maturation crop - 8/9 months (hence greedy feeder) and best planted in late Autumn.  It requires a period of vernalisation (cold weather) to encourage bulbs to subdivide into cloves.

6. If your garlic sprouts early after planting, don't worry - cold weather will soon slow growth down.

7.  The weather/climate hugely influences your garlic yield:  its probably best to grow more than one variety: those varieties grown successfully locally are generally the ones to go for.

October - January.

1. Plant each clove to a depth of about 2" (5cm), at least 1" (2cm) below the surface and 6" (12cm) apart.  Larger cloves require a little more space.

2. Weed regularly - garlic will not compete.

3. Feed periodically throughout the growing season with an organic certified liquid feed that has a higher potash (K) content.  Stay away from synthetic based products - its not good for your soil microbes, worms, solitary bees etc or your garlic!

4. Watering is required if conditions are dry through spring and summer. Stop watering at least four weeks before you think you might harvest.

Garlic can be grown successfully in large shallow bulb pots - just don't let it get waterlogged, don't water from the top and keep a close eye on nutrient requirements.  Please don't be tempted to use synthetic fertiliser - organic matter is best or organic matter based organic certified fertiliser.

How to tell if the garlic is ready for harvest?

Hard Necks - harvest 2- 4 weeks after the scape or racombole has been removed.  The scapes need to be removed quickly, when they are curly, if not, the garlic puts all its energy into this flower stalk, which although edible and delicious,  will grow at the expense of the bulb. 

Soft necks - the green leaves will die - when about 6-8 leaves have died your garlic is probably readying for harvest.

Pests: Please don't be tempted to use chemicals or eradicate completely - everything in nature has its place in a balanced happy ecosystem. Most pests don't like garlic but wireworm (the larvae of the click beetle and we need more beetles) will have a go at the roots and can affect bulb development.  Nematodes offer effective control in lowering / not eradicating the population to a manageable level.

Rust: unavoidable in our climate, it's airborne.  The best method of dealing with this is to ensure good ventilation and plant health through appropriate nutrient application.  Stronger healthy plants have natural defences.  A blight of rust is not the end of the world.  Your yield might be a little less, but the bulbs will produce edible cloves.  

Harvesting.

Choose a dry warm day, if possible.  Lift with a garden fork quite deep under the bulb.  Leave to dry on the ground for an hour or so, then remove any remaining soil.  Hang in bunches of 3-5 in a well ventilated dry space for at least 4-6 weeks to cure.  Avoid excess humidity and fluctuating temperatures if possible, not easy, but a dry garage or garden shed might be ideal for curing.