On 09/12/2013 08:39, 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.

You will also get a fair number of flower spikes. I usually miss one
somewhere along the line and get a patch of garlic flowers next year.

I have a curious sport too. Most produce flowers and set seed, but the
odd one appears to grow the same basic structure and turn magically into
little bulblets at the top. I don't know if that is because my originals
have outscorssed with something or what.

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.

Still time to plant them in the UK amazingly mild and warm and sunny
again outside. It was still 10C yesterday morning though slightly cooler
at 6C this morning it is now warm outside in the sunshine!


--
Regards,
Martin Brown