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Best time to plant garlic

LG_LG_ Posts: 4,107
in Fruit & veg
There's a whole range of options in the books, according to where you live etc. But I have been told categorically by different people "no later than September", "not before December", "on the shortest day" etc. So I'd like to find out when you plant yours. And if you plant in different months, what has been the most reliable? I'm not including harvest times, but if you fancy sharing them - in relation to planting times - I'd appreciate that too :)
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
- Cicero

Best time to plant garlic 12 votes

August
0%
September
16%
a1154Jason-3 2 votes
October
50%
Bee witchedtreehugger80raisingirlSkandiUncle Mortwild edges 6 votes
November
16%
Italophiletessagardenbarmy 2 votes
December
0%
January
8%
Nollie 1 vote
February
8%
Singing Gardener 1 vote
«13

Posts

  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 9,353
    October
    Terry Walton says he plants his on halloween. The vampire connection is a good reminder. He's a local boyo so his advice normally works for me. Having said that he also says that ground conditions are more important than timing. If the ground is soaking wet then it's no good for garlic.

    Last year I planted mine under tunnel cloches at the end of October and I've had a good crop despite the hard winter, late spring and dry summer.
    Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people
  • treehugger80treehugger80 Posts: 1,923
    October
    i plant mine between Halloween and bonfire night
  • LG_LG_ Posts: 4,107
    The "no later than September" person said it was because the ground needs to be still warm for them to get their roots in, then they need that period of cold afterwards. Which made sense, but I've heard so many people say "December" or "the shortest day" that I wasn't sure if the warm soil bit was true.
    'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
    - Cicero
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,673
    October
    I do October as the ground is still warm enough for them to develop roots but they do not have time to get shoots up. My winter is wet and full of freeze thaw cycles. (+5/-15C) Garlic is fine with cold but I find it rots if it is up when the cycles hit.
    I harvested this year 1st July. Which was early but we had a very very warm may.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 9,353
    October
    @Skandi do you have climate specific garlic varieties there? UK bred ones are supposed to be more tollerant to our finicky climate. Solent Wight has always done well for me and early purple Wight has been the winner this year making some really nice size bulbs.
    Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,673
    October
    Not really, Denmark is too small a market to have many seeds, I buy all my seeds from the UK or Sweden. If I go to my local seed shop it sells Mr Fothergills! The garlic I have was bought 3 years ago as Danish organic garlic for eating. I figured if the commercial producers were growing it in this country it would do fine for me to, and it has.
    I just did a search for garlic, they only have it in stock in the spring and it is just sold as "garlic" (onion sets are just "red" "yellow" or "white" with no name as well) I did find some German named varieties but they are also only available for spring sowing.
  • LG_LG_ Posts: 4,107
    Well October is winning hands down, but I'd like some more votes.
    'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
    - Cicero
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 6,645
    October
    October when I clear out the summer brassicas that have been harvested or gone to seed by then. 
    “Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first” 
  • Bee witchedBee witched Posts: 1,173
    October

    I only grow hardneck garlic which does well here (southern Scotland), and which I buy from a company based in Nairn.
    Our winter is often wet and it can get very cold as I live in a valley which is a frost pocket, but the garlic seems to manage well with these conditions. 
    It's always grown in a raised bed which must help with drainage.
    This year we harvested mid-June.

    Bee x
    Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders  

    A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
  • ItalophileItalophile Posts: 1,731
    November
    I used to plant in late November. I was told "the shortest day" but the ground was usually frozen.
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