On Mon, 9 Dec 2013 08:39:21 -0000, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

"Jeßus" wrote

I have a large garlic patch this year (approx. 300), a friend reckons
I should leave them in the ground to regrow next year... and they
should be even better than this year.

If I do this, I may harvest every second or third bulb and leave the
rest as suggested above.

Is this a good idea? Thoughts/suggestions appreciated.

Each clove in a Garlic bulb grows into a new bulb so what will happen, and
would be happening already if you lived in the UK, is that the bulbs you
left in will split up into separate cloves and each will sprout. As they
have no room between each they will compete for the same nutrients and water
and none will grow very big at all, in fact they will be unusably small. I
tried it myself some years ago by mistake when I left one in the flower
border.

I plant individual cloves 9 inches apart in September/October to get them
growing well before the worst of the winter weather and harvest when the
tops brown/die usually in June. For you in Oz it will presumably be 6 months
different.


Thanks very much Bob, exactly the info I needed.
The tops on mine are starting to brown... so it looks like I'll be
harvesting soon. I might go mad and plant three rows of garlic between
my fruit tree rows next year, seems to be a good market for it where I
live. Cheers.