Why such a poor crop of garlic and onions every time?

[rosiepumpkin]

Last year I grew Garlic Farm, garden centre and farmer's market garlic and all were small and didn't split, except for the Garlic Farm so I'm sticking with them again this year.

[Kirk]

I might try garlic again this year but not as a serious crop, really just to see if it will surprise me by actually growing into something useful. Thought this years crop looked good to start with, stems were the biggest I have seen for some time, but they seemed to stop, bulbs were sort of pathetic.

Only time I had a decent garlic crop was the first years and that was a supermarket one I thought I would try for the hell of it.

Decided to give up on onions after yet another joke of a year, for the cost of a set the result just is not worth it, and the money would buy several times the weight of onions from any of the supermarkets.

The bed is good, manured, I have a large tub of Growmore and there are no weeds and the bed is in the sunniest place and I have an ample supply of water from water butts.

[Aberdeenplotter]

This year of all years just isn't the one in which to decide not to grow anything again. The weather has quite simply been abysmal. I never have a problem growing onions. As a basic, I operate a scheme of rotation which ensures that the soil is in good heart. The tatties get mucked in year one. The brassicas get limed in year two. The onions follow on and once again get mucked. Root crops follow the onions. It takes a while to get the ground into optimum condition but then we are at the mercy of the elements. Nuff said