On Mar 10, 1:18*pm, Stewart Robert Hinsley
wrote:
In message , Bob Hobden
writes

Ive bought seeds - carrots, dwarf/bush bean and peas (these seeds all
say to sow from late March, apart from carrots being May)
* * * * * * * *bulbs etc - garlic and onions (just say plant in early
Spring)

Garlic can be planted outside now but it would have been much better
planted in Sept, early October. It's as tough as old boots and will
come through a winter growing well and you get a much much better crop
from autumn planted cloves.

When you buy garlic in the shops the instructions on the packets say
plant in February or thereabouts. (But you can't plant them in the
autumn because they're not sold them.)

So last year I did as instructed, and they didn't do very well - though
a wet allotment and last summer's weather probably didn't help them*. I
didn't get round to replanting them last autumn (round the allotment the
wisdom seems to be November) (but some of a batch that I thought had
failed completely have come up again this year), so again I've planted
them in February.

So my question is, how late can you plant garlic, i.e. will you get away
with planting in December and January?

* A planting of shallots was killed off by flooding, as were too many
other plants.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsleyhttp://lavateraguy.blogspot.com* * * *http://www.malvaceae.in

It depends on whether you're planting hard neck or soft neck garlic
(the type you usually see in the stores). Hard neck garlic is usually
planted in the fall in cold weather climates. This allows root
development before growth actually occurs. When you plant in spring,
it tends to put all its effort into greens, not the bulb. Soft neck
garlic is usually planted in December-February in warmer climates like
the UK or the southern States, with which I have no experience, but I
think it is likely a faster growing garlic.

I've read the ideal sprouting temperature of garlic is about 4 degrees
C, btw which is the temperature of your average refrigerator and my
experience seems to indicate this is true. So you can store your other
seeds in the fridge (not the freezer) but don't use it for garlic or
onions.
Dora