Thursday 25 June 2009

Results of the Garlic test

Purple Peruvian Garlic - only formed two cloves!

Purple Peruvian on left and Thermidrome on right

Q: Can you grow garlic from the supermarket?

A: No, unless perhaps you are lucky enough to get a variety that is right for our climate etc.

I harvested my first batch garlic today after planting it almost eight months ago. The Thermidrome variety which I got from the organic catalogue all seem to have grown perfectly but the Purple Peruvian variety I got from the supermarket was a failure, the bulbs had formed but were very small, in fact only 2 cloves formed. Fortunately the large majority of the garlic I planted was Thermidrome.

I have chopped all the broad beans down to the ground so the roots are intact under the soil holding on the the nitrogen - I hope!?!
I'm totally unprepared as to what to put in next - doh! I think I could put leeks in the garlic bed or should I start rotating? There are still onions in there. I'm thinking that I could do a few runner beans where I had the calabrese and what about sprouting broccoli where I had the broad beans? I'm not sure but the unplanted ground makes me fidgety!!

1 comment:

Jo said...

I'm going to plant my leeks in potato bed once they have been harvested.
This is my first year on my allotment so I'm going to start crop rotation next year.