garlic - first time I've planted

adamadamant

I bought a couple of single heads in the autumn to try planting garlic for the first time.  I put the individual cloves in pots, about 5 to a 3 litre pot, to keep in the greenhouse and already there are six inch sprouts.  Should I plant them out now, or keep them in the pots till the spring?  I am worried that I should have planted them up individually and whether I will damage the roots by separating them and planting them out later on. 
Thanks if you have some suggestions. 

Obelixx

They normally get planted in rows in the ground in a sunny spot with well-drained, neutral to alkaline soil.  If you have heavy soil they can be started in modules and kept in a coldframe till spring but the do need a period of cold to encourage them to form fat bulbs with new cloves to form.

I would advise you either to split them carefully and either plant out in the soil or esle in individual pots depending on your soil.   Have a read of this info from the RHS.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/garlic/grow-your-own 

philippasmith2

Depends where you are located but the usual method is to plant out in September and harvest in June/July of the following year.
You can start them in individual pots and then plant out if that suits you better but they won't thank you to try and divide a pot full once they've started sprouting. 

adamadamant

ok thanks.  My soil is quite heavy so I'm going to separate them out into smaller pots while I can and grow on for a while. I appreciate the comments 

LunarSea

When turning my compost heap recently I found one growing in there. My OH had obviously thrown the remains of an unused bulb into the compost bin. I just potted it up and left it outside. The shoot is about 8" now and it was out through the recent deep frosts. The last time I did this we got a nice bulb the following summer.