Garlic Gardening September 2014

On test Garlic

Best Buys These four varieties stood out for quality and yield, and all stored well into spring

‘Iberian Wight’ ‘Lautrec Wight’ ‘Bianco Veneto’ ‘Solent Wight’ Biggest bulbs Chunkiest cloves Whitest cloves Best quality ‘Iberian Wight’, a softneck type The only hardneck variety in our This variety from northern Italy This has been a consistent Best (see ‘Types of garlic’, p28), gave top four, ‘Lautrec Wight’ is a did as well as the home-bred Buy variety in previous trials, the heaviest yield in this trial, Best Buy from our previous trial. varieties. It’s a softneck type and this year is no exception. so it’s a great choice if you want It produced chunky pink cloves so doesn’t produce a woody Although the bulbs were smaller a high return on your growing nestled round the woody base stalk. Both the bulbs and the than other Best Buys and the space. The skin quality and of the flower stalk, but only six cloves were pure white. The total yield was lower, the white storage potential were decent, per bulb on average. The bulbs bulbs cleaned up very well bulbs were great quality with but not quite as good as the were white with good skin and were still sound when good skin protection. They other Best Buys. The large, quality and stored well into we assessed them in February. stored well into February and white-skinned bulbs broke into spring. The bulbs we bought Most were more than 50mm would be a good choice for 11 fat, beige or white cloves split into 12 cloves on average, across and contained an longer storage. The 13 cloves, Garlic once harvested and dried. so we had plenty to plant. average of 16 cloves. on average, were pinky beige. Yield per plot: 1.23kg Yield per plot: 0.84kg Yield per plot: 0.7kg We tested 19 varieties to find the best-quality Individual bulb weight: 61g Individual bulb weight: 43g Yield per plot: 1.03kg Individual bulb weight: 34g bulbs that also store well through the winter Where to buy: Where to buy: Marshalls, Mr Individual bulb weight: 47g Where to buy: Marshalls, Thompson & Morgan Fothergill’s, Thompson & Morgan Where to buy: Seeds of Italy Mr Fothergill’s, Suttons The better varieties will store right through plants of each of the 19 What we tested for until the following spring, so you can have varieties – that’s 760 plants Yield The weight of bulbs from 20 plants home-grown garlic pretty much all year. altogether. We waited until Bulbs Size and quality of the bulbs Garlic is unusual in that it doesn’t produce the tops died back, then lifted and cloves seed, so the only way to grow it is to buy and dried off the bulbs in a greenhouse. Autumn or spring planting? Storage How well they stored until spring bulbs, split them into individual cloves and After they were measured and assessed each one will grow to produce another bulb. by our expert, we stored a sample of typical Traditionally, garlic was trials and, while the results suppliers in the autumn. growing season and should There are numerous varieties available, many bulbs from each variety in a cool but planted either in the autumn varied from year to year It makes sense to buy ripen earlier. hether you like Mediterranean bred on the Isle of Wight from material frost-free shed until February 2013. or early spring. What depending on the winter, then, even if you end Aim to plant between or Asian cuisine, or even a collected around the world. But which By then we could tell which were likely matters is that the plants we reckon autumn is the up planting later. November and Christmas, as Wtraditional British roast, garlic should you grow? We collected 19 named to store well into the spring. Look for experience a period of best time because: The plants are very soon as ground is available is now a must-have ingredient. It thrives in varieties and trialled them to find out. a four or five-star rating for storage if cold to stimulate them It’s one job you can tick hardy and will shrug and not too wet. If you our climate and couldn’t be much easier to you want bulbs that will keep. to produce cloves. We’ve off before the spring. off frost and snow. prefer, you can grow. You can plant it in the autumn or winter What we did We didn’t do a taste test on this occasion, compared autumn and There’s more choice of The plants wait until late and more or less forget about it until the bulbs We planted two blocks of garlic in November but take our word for it – they all taste spring planting in previous varieties from mail-order have a longer February.

swell and ripen the following summer. 2012. In each block we grew two rows of 10 strongly of garlic! CUTTLE SARAH PHOTOGRAPHS:

26 | September 2014 which.co.uk/gardening which.co.uk/gardening September 2014 | 27 How to grow garlic Always buy ‘seed’ Harvest any scapes garlic to grow, rather (flower shoots) that appear than use bulbs from a and use as you would supermarket, to minimise garlic cloves. the risk of disease. You can lift and use Softneck Hardneck Choose a sunny spot fresh, or ‘wet’, garlic as with well-drained soil, soon as the bulbs are wherever possible. large enough. Types of garlic Break the bulb into If the soil’s very dry There are two main types of garlic: individual cloves and push when the bulbs start to Softneck varieties swell. When harvested, into the soil swell, water well. do not usually produce the bulbs are generally Scapes – use a When the tops start to a flower shoot. They looser and the cloves trowel die back, lift and dry off generally produce are arranged around to avoid the bulbs thoroughly tighter bulbs, keep the woody remains damaging before storing for winter. for longer and contain of the stalk. Hardneck them – Garlic is susceptible to more cloves than varieties are said to so the all the diseases of onions hardneck types. have a stronger flavour. tip is just and leeks, particularly rust. Hardneck varieties Elephant garlic, covered. Unless the leaves are very often produce a flower which we didn’t include Space badly affected the bulbs shoot, or ‘scape’, during in our trial, is not strictly cloves 15cm should be OK. early summer. The a garlic but is more apart in rows Include garlic in a crop flower head is sterile closely related to leeks. 30cm apart, so rotation with related crops and doesn’t produce It produces huge bulbs, it will be easy to to prevent diseases seed. Cut these scapes with a few, very large, hoe off weeds. building up in the soil. off to help the bulb mild-tasting cloves.

garlic on test

variety WHICH? Test Performance cloves per bulb bulb weight (g overall rating bulb size (mm per plottotal (k weight skin quality bulb quality neck type of cloves storage C olour

g ) ) ) a b b b c d d e f ‘Iberian Wight’ beige/white soft 61 60 11 1.23 ‘Lautrec Wight’ pink hard 43 54 6 0.84 ‘Bianco Veneto’ white soft 47 54 16 1.03 ‘Solent Wight’ pink/beige soft 34 48 13 0.7 ‘Avignon Wight’ white soft 48 53 10 1.04 ‘Provence Wight’ light brown soft 53 54 13 1.16 ‘Albegensian Wight’ brown/beige soft 43 54 13 0.96 ‘Edenrose’ pale pink hard 49 55 10 1.01 ‘Picardy Wight’ light brown soft 38 50 16 0.7 ‘Vayo’ pale purple hard 43 48 11 0.88 ‘Tuscany Wight’ cream soft 29 47 15 0.6 ‘Carcassonne Wight’ pink hard 42 53 11 0.87 ‘Messidrome’ white soft 39 50 11 0.78 ‘Cristo’ pale pink soft 29 43 16 0.57 ‘Sprint’ pink/beige hard 42 50 4 0.82 ‘Chesnok Wight’ deep pink hard 34 47 8 0.69 ‘Sultop’ pink hard 39 54 13 0.84 ‘Early Purple Wight’ beige/white soft 40 50 8 0.84 ‘Rocambole Wight’ deep pink hard 32 44 12 0.53

Using the table Best Buys are in red. a See ‘Types of garlic’. b Average weight/size/number of sample of typical bulbs. c Average of two plots of 20 plants. d Bulbs were cleaned and assessed after harvesting e Bulbs were stored until February and assessed for rotting, sprouting etc. f Based on: bulb quality 35%, yield 35%, storage 20%, skin quality 10%.

28 | September 2014 which.co.uk/gardening