Garlic (not wild but maybe someone knows...)

[Amoeba]

Sorry if I'm not allowed to post this since it isn't about wild garlic but I hoped maybe with plant enthusiasts frequenting this forum someone could tell me if garlic (the type you buy in stores) is supposed to need a support for when it's growing? Mines seems to be leaning over and it's very tall and thin.

[tcvarlh]

Mine never needed it but I guess it depends on where you have planted it. It will bend if the spot gets a bit stronger wind. Try 'corralling' it maybe with posts and string.
h

[Dorts]

Amoeba, Sounds like yours may be going to seed!
Dorts.

[Amoeba]

I'm keeping it indoors as a house-plant. I may plant more outside in the autumn, but this was just an experimental to see if I could get it to grow from a clove. Could the lack of a wind and the constant sunlight from one direction (window) be causing it to bend? I tend to keep turning it to prevent this, but it's still bending. I will try a post and some string.

Dorts, I'm not exactly sure what you mean, could you elaborate a little please? Bear in mind I planted this just a few weeks ago and it hasn't shown any signs of flowering yet.

[nightshade]

I grow Garlic here in a small, well drained, South facing, stone walled bed. The stones hold the heat for longer and the cloves, at least the size of the top of your thumb (or 1"x1/2") are pushed into soil/ compost. You can buy these large bulbs online (most come from the Isle of Wight) plant tip showing about 9" apart. Ordinary cloves do grow and grow well.

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by Amoeba

Dorts, I'm not exactly sure what you mean, could you elaborate a little please? Bear in mind I planted this just a few weeks ago and it hasn't shown any signs of flowering yet.

Sorry, I should have made myself clear. Members of the Onion family, including Garlic, have a tendancy, instead of producing 'cloves', to go straight into flower and then to seed. This will take all the 'goodness' from the bulb and you will be left with nothing except a' cluster' of small white flowers.
If your Garlic has one tall, thick, stiff, hollow stem, shooting straight upwards, that will almost certainly be a flowering shoot and there is nothing much you can do.
If everything is fine, you should have a cluster of leaves from each 'clove'.
Hope that clears things up a bit.
Dorts.

[Tringa]

Don't know where you are in the country. Amoeba, but if you are in one of the warmer areas and have some spare ground, I'd plant some garlic now.

Autumn planting is recommended but usually for the hardier varieties that you'd probably have to buy from a nursery.

Planting now you can just use the garlic from the shops. The crop won't be a heavy as earlier sowings but, unless we get a wet summer, you'll get something.

Garlic can't stand being too wet and needs as much sun as possible.


Dave

[Paul mabbott]

Sounds as if it's 'going to seed', as Dorts suggests. If there is just one thick, rounded stem (as opposed to flat, leek-like leaves) then I suspect this is true. Otherwise it is leaning away from the dark.

Under normal circumstances this would be a very odd time for garlic to flower but I note that (a) you are growing it in a heated place (will accelerate flowering) and (b) it's not a "seed" clove.

Garlic for growing in UK is treated depending on whether it's for autumn or spring sowing. This is not a chemical treatment but involves manipulating the growth seasons by shading, cooling or whatever the cloves (much the same as the manipulation of onion sets, I believe). Using culinary garlic is very haphazard since the cloves, as well as being of different varieties will also be adapted to the seasons and weather of their land of growth: trying to grow them in UK may result in total failure or reasonable crops but they won't be as good as using 'seed' garlic. Garlic grows well in UK - certainly this far north; generally better than it does in the drier, warmer south: low temperatures slow growth but paradoxically give a longer growth period and more sizeable cloves; they will need to be well-watered in dry areas but, of course, don't want to be water-logged.

It is possible to grow garlic in pots but I would suggest in a sheltered place outside or a non-too hot place such as a cold conservatory or garden shed.

[nightshade]

The best for the UK are "Purple Wight" and "Solent Wight" (Marshalls and Dobies)
Spring sowing for June

[artdemole]

Last year I grew garlic winter sowing in an ornamental plastic bath,also round tub.On the patio.It lasted all year round.Clove was bought in a local garden nursery.Nothing special was done to it. .Grown in previously used compost for lettuce...aDm...