Hi there, I planted some garlic (in a pot) about 8 weeks ago, it did nothing until recently, now I have 3 nice green shoots, 2 are about 4 inches high, 1 is 1 inch high.

1) How do I know when it is ready for "harvesting"?
2) Once harvested do I have to do a preparation before it is ready to eat.

Thanks

*this in the opinion of Aceboy, it is not designed to incite a riot or any other of the normal slagging that takes place on the interweb

"On the lanes no one can hear you scream"

They are ready when the shoots start to go yellow/brown and wilt.

Once harvesting you have 2 choices, eat straight away or allow them to dry. If you choose to eat straight away (known as wet garlic) then its simply to the kitchen, wash and use, theres nothing else to do. For dried garlic you simply wash and allow to dry out in the sun, its ready when the skin is dry i.e. the garlic you buy from the supermarket. There is a noticable taste difference between wet and dry garlic, we cook some wet and allow some to dry, I prefer wet since it has a stronger sweeter taste.

What you will most likely find is that it wont have the cloves, you need a frost on the plants to get them to split like that, it'll probably be like a large sping onion.

<edit>We get our garlic from this place, its local to us.

http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/

Nows a good time to plant garlic overwinter ready for the spring.

Ah, that's answers the question on my garlic as well then - it has done the wilty thing so I'll just eat it, and wait until midwinter to plant some more!

I'm Stig and so's yer mum!

You can start planting it now if you want, doesnt do it any harm really, lets it get established whilst its still warmish.

My old man is into gardening and he will have a pop at growing most things i ask of him but where would you buy garlic to plant ?

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Just buy a bulb from the supermaket. leave it in kitche will it sproute a green shoot....then plant it

*this in the opinion of Aceboy, it is not designed to incite a riot or any other of the normal slagging that takes place on the interweb

"On the lanes no one can hear you scream"

Thanks. This lot I think I only planted a couple of months back. I dug one up because the leaves went all yellow and I was worried about it getting damp and rotting. It seems okay, not as big as shop bought garlic but still definitely bigger and to be eaten soon!

I'm Stig and so's yer mum!

You can get them from the link I posted. Or if you can wait a couple of weeks I'll pick some up for you and post them to you.

Supermarket garlic tends to be force grown under glass so its not blight resistance. It may grow if you are lucky to a full plant but I'd buy garlic meant for planting.

As I mentioned above the frost is what causes a garlic to split so you end up with a bigger bulb.

Looks like I am praying for frost then

*this in the opinion of Aceboy, it is not designed to incite a riot or any other of the normal slagging that takes place on the interweb

"On the lanes no one can hear you scream"

Proabably be a while till they are ready to be honest, the stalks on ours were about 12 inches when ready and then took a couple of weeks to wilt. Never grown the supermarket garlic so I dont know if that would grow any differently.

http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/rkm...at_Code=M22109

new 2009 winter catalogue is available now which has Garlic in. Well...not actually in it, but you know...available to buy.

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