Garlic & Onions tiny

[geoff]

That sort of thing has happened to my garlic & onions too; this year, ie, now, and in previous years, but they turned out OK. It looks bad, but try not to worry too much; we seem to have gone straight from winter into a dry period, so water them if they look very bad, but otherwise leave them; it's bound to rain sometime between now and the harvesting time, which is about 3 months off in late July or early August
This problem was summed up by one of The Wise Old Men on my allotment:
Watering will keep them alive, but for them to grow you need proper rain

[Florence Fennel]

I worried last year about the size of my garlic, but I was assured by grapes on here (mostly Zazen as I remember) that there is a spurt of growth in June. At the end of May/beginning of June, I was advised to give them a feed and water, which I did and I was rewarded with beautiful fat cloves at the end of June. I have a great deal of respect for the excellent advice on this site. Have faith in your fellow growers and next year it will be you joining in giving out the advice!

[toffee565]

Hi all, my garlic and onions seem to be growing quite well above ground and since this is the first time of growing them i also pulled one out and it just looked like a large leek? when do they split??

[binley100]

Is garlic meant to flower.....

[jacob marley]

Is garlic meant to flower.....

Some do some don't but you can eat them they are called scrapes ....jacob

[binley100]

Hi Jacob does it affect them , like bolting? In otherwords are you meant to take the flower stalks off.

[jacob marley]

Hi Jacob does it affect them , like bolting? In otherwords are you meant to take the flower stalks off.

Yes take the flowers of and it helps the bulbs to fill out mine have not started to flower yet but they will soon mine are still pretty green...jacob

[binley100]

Yes take the flowers of and it helps the bulbs to fill out mine have not started to flower yet but they will soon mine are still pretty green...jacob

Thanks. To be truthful I took the flower stalks off today and then just now had a panic over whether I'd done the right thing. phew

[gadgetman]

Thanks all.

Will wait it out.

[gadgetman]

Well, as an update, my onions already seem twice their size - about half an average onion you'd buy in the shops.

Perhaps the sudden down pours has helped.

[hamsterqueen]

I;ve sown some salad seeds in between my garlic and onions, figured they would be fairly shallow rooted and harvested before the onions were much bigger. Having cut the flower stalks of some of the onions (the white ones I think) I chopped up the stalks in salad, tasty and pungent!

[greengas]

I worried last year about the size of my garlic, but I was assured by grapes on here (mostly Zazen as I remember) that there is a spurt of growth in June. At the end of May/beginning of June, I was advised to give them a feed and water, which I did and I was rewarded with beautiful fat cloves at the end of June. I have a great deal of respect for the excellent advice on this site. Have faith in your fellow growers and next year it will be you joining in giving out the advice!

What sort of feed do you give them?

[chris]

Just had a furtle around my red barons.. inch thick stems - andddddddddddd nothing underneath the soil. no bulb, or anything - just roots..

tum te tum... I'm not very good at this waiting game.

[Two_Sheds]

Well, as an update, my onions already seem twice their size -

yes mine seem to have doubled in size in a week too