Focus on... Plant spring garlic

If you didn’t plant any garlic in winter, the good news is you can start some now. Lucy Chamberlain explains what to do to ensure you grow the finest bulbs possible

- Lucy Chamberlain

THE organised gardener may have started off their garlic in November, but the rest of us can plant now. There are two main types of garlic: softneck (Allium sativum) and hardneck (A. sativum var. ophioscorodon). So, what kind of care do they need?

Use your heads

Whole bulbs (heads) should be split into individual cloves just before planting (they dry out excessively, otherwise). Don’t bruise them as this can cause rots. Only plant the largest plump cloves as these give the biggest yields (pot smaller ones up as garlic chives), positioning them 3in (8cm) deep and roughly 6in (16cm) apart in grids (wider on lighter soils). Site in full sun, and add plenty of organic matter to the plot, plus a little bonemeal. Garlic doesn’t have an steady moisture and appreciates phosphorus (but not excess nitrogen). Acid soils give poor yields, so lime to raise the pH to neutral. Water every week in dry spells (except two weeks prior to harvest) and keep beds well weeded. Harvest once the foliage is half dead – any later, and the mature cloves keep growing, hindering storage life.

Forward to spring

Most hardnecks are planted in the autumn – they’re hardier, with fewer, bigger cloves. These types will produce flower spikes terminating in bulbils, which impacts upon storage, so remove and eat these for the biggest heads. Softneck garlic is less cold-tolerant so it suits spring plantings (it doesn’t flower, so it stores very well).

A recent garlic introduction is A. tuncelianum or Turkish garlic. Unlike A. sativum, this produces viable seed, so we may see seed packets of garlic as this develops.