Garlic Questions

[Elaine de Saxe]

Photos of what might be 'Italian' garlic, just pulled this morning. I bought the planting material from an Italian woman at a market, so whether the variety originated in Italy or not, I don't know.

Anyway ... I planted out the individual bulbs in mid-March 2009 and they grew quickly (in relation to Elephant Garlic) to be ready to harvest now in mid-July.

I notice some bulblets on the stem - second and third pix - are these plantlets to be put in the ground now or do I need to wait until Autumn again?

I've mostly grown Elephant Garlic which is a different species and with some differences in its life cycle to the traditional garlic.

Any info will be very useful :-)

[Hung Yee]

I'm having some problem with my garlic - bought the plants from the Garden show in Nambour, planted them in the ground, they were doing ok until about a week or two ago, they started to wilt, started with one, then two, now about four have bent over. I wonder what's wrong with them?

[Donna]

Depending on when you planted them, maybe this means they are ready to harvest... can you very gently feel around the roots to see if there are any cloves?

It seems that Elephant Garlic is *supposed* to take three months (although mine are not ready after six) while normal garlic is best in our climate when planted in Mar/ Apr and havested in Aug/ Sep.

Are they still the right colour, or have they started to yellow?

[Vanessa Thompson (pomare)]

wow, i just started to experiment last night with garlic.....i was watching a youtube clip on how to grow garlic and then went and got the ones out of the kitchen and broke up and stuck bottoms in water.......see if they shoot. lol.
(after cooking my steak for tea with the garlic I was thinking these are ready for composting. as going soft....then wonderd how do you grow garlic......and then jumped on net to see how lol)
so wait and see what happens............dont know what kind of garlic i got but i get them all the time in the shopping?

[Elaine de Saxe]

I'd make a wild guess that if you bought it at a regular supermarket or fruit shop and it was cheap (say 2 to 5 $ a kilo) then it came from China. Northern hemisphere, plants march to a different tune. As well, I've heard they are dipped in something to stop them from growing - someone might have better info on this. You hear all sorts of stories not all of which are true.

Now - I spoke with a woman working in a fruit shop in Toowoomba (darned sight colder than here in Briz) and she successfully grew many garlic plants from the Chinese cloves. All it does here is make a single bulb not that there's anything wrong with that, but it means it's probably too big for one meal (but when was there ever too much garlic ;-)?) That's all I got when I grew some although I did not put it into the fridge at the time as I did for the first time this year. And I've seen those single fat round cloves at markets and I guess that the growers used the Chinese cloves to get that result.

Instead of putting the cloves into water which I reckon could encourage rotting, put the cloves into a pot/bowl/box-whatever with some potting soil and just keep it damp, put the cloves under the soil surface and await results. If they shoot, dig them up with a bit of a root ball and transfer them to the soil outside.

[Donna]

Green Harvest is usually a good source of information for our climate, they recommend planting in March/ April for harvest by September. Just checked out my blogs (see there is a good reason for blogging lol) and I mentioned on 24/03 that I had it ready to plant so assume got around to planting in April, so based on this maybe in October for me to harvest...

Vanessa, sometimes at the supermarket you see cloves that have already sprouted a bit which are probably best to plant rather than soft ones. The idea time for our climate is March, but there is no reason not to give it a try if you get any to sprout - might just get smaller cloves.

http://www.greenharvest.com.au/Plants/garlic_info.html

CULTURAL REQUIREMENTS
Recommended Planting Time: Separate the garlic bulb into cloves before planting. Garlic should be planted in March – early April in warmer climates (Qld and northern NSW). Planting after April will reduce the size of the bulbs. Garlic planted in March will be ready for harvest by September. In cool climates it can be planted in autumn or spring.
Planting Depth: The tops of the bulbs should be just below the soil surface. The flatter or root end should be pointing down.
Sowing rate: Plant cloves about 10 cm (4”) apart, in rows about 40 cm (1’4”) apart.
Harvest and Storage: Garlic usually takes about 8 months to produce a bulb. Harvest when the tops begin to turn brown; don’t wait until the tops have completely died back. Treat the bulbs gently as bruised bulbs do not store well. Hang the whole plant in bunches, or spread on racks, and allow to dry undercover for 2 to 3 weeks. The skins will then become papery and dry. Either plait the garlic or remove the leaves and roots, to store on racks or in net bags. Good air circulation is essential. Bulbs store better stored whole, not separated into cloves.

[Vanessa Thompson (pomare)]

Thanks Elaine and Dona, heehee. Ok one thing i forgot too check was if it was the right timeing to plant garlic...hahahahahaha. Oh well, the kids can muck around with it and see if it grows....heehee. (i just got the ends in water, on window pane and they are starting to get roots and 1 got a tiny little green thing on 1 top????) Oh well even if it gets a green top on them, the kids will think its neat.

[Donna]

Vanessa, let the kids plant the bulbs anyway especially the ones sprouting at the top - maybe they could put it into a pot and have it as a special project.

As they are bulbs I would think that you might even be able to leave anything that does grow this year in the pot if they are too small to eat, and once it dies down cut the leaves off and put it in a corner to forget about (don't water it - or at least not much in case it rots, even in a shed would be ok) then start watering it in Feb next year and see if it comes up again, they you should get a few decent sized bulbs...

[Vanessa Thompson (pomare)]

cooliz. See how they go and yeap the kids will love it.

[Donna]

I have just harvested my elephant garlic, see my blog post dated 11/11/09 for more information if you are interested...

[Mark Thomson]

I had tried garlic a few years ago and was unsuccessfull.I thought that we could not grow them well in Brisbane so I gave up. My wife stuck two aussie organic sprouters from pantry into one of the big pots last April and both plants did welI. I recently lifted them and dried them out. I was so suprised when I did use one and it actualy had a good strong flavor. I will have to try and keep the other bunch and and re sow the individual bulbs next year.Maybe local organic. varieties work best ?

[Donna]

Wonder where you get local organic varieties though? I can't get Food Connect at my place so that's out, I buy Australian from supermarket but that's not likely to be local...

Certainly an inspiration though, I thought it couldn't grow here as well!

[Florence]

You can try markets.. I bought some from New Farm market last year, but they were sucked dried by Alphids... didn't think they would attack allium... killed some of my spring onions too... probably not a good example, but there's different stalls selling different varieties of garlic there must be some local ones...