Growing Ginger and BIG Garlic

[johnerebus]

The ginger and big garlic I buy seem to have been sprayed with a growth inhibitor. Does anyone know where I can buy unsprayed or better still organic ginger and garlic to grow please? Thanks

[Kath]

Don't know about organic but the big garlic and ginger I get seems to sprout easily enough

[Groucho]

The ginger and big garlic I buy seem to have been sprayed with a growth inhibitor. Does anyone know where I can buy unsprayed or better still organic ginger and garlic to grow please? Thanks

Where did you get that idea from?

[mrsgee]

The garlic in Erdener for the past few weeks has been enormous....... one clove about the size of 6 normal ones...lol..... good job we like lots of the stuff in our food..... keeps the vampires at bay.

[Ragged Robin]

I was given a handful of cloves of garlic by a Cypriot friend a year ago, and they grew OK but small. Just use twice as many in any recipe. I am now in the process of growing a new crop from last year's. These are referred to as "Cyprus Garlic" and, I believe, are organic The large bulbs may be imported and possibly that size because of hormones!

Have you tried the Wednesday Market for organic ? They often have local produce , but not always you need to check. '

[mrsgee]

If you google Big Garlic, you will see that it is quite normal to grow big cloves, and they are tastier than the smaller ones. They have not, necessarily, been injected with hormones, or any other dodgy substance in order to attain their size and flavour. They may well be imported, who knows, as with much of the veg here my guess is importing happens. I do, however, believe that artichokes are locally grown..... the fields and the supermarkets are full of them at the moment.... not my favourite food at all though.

[Deniz1]

Elephant garlic is a naturally grown species its sweeter than the small cloves.

[johnerebus]

I got the idea Groucho from watching the garlic and ginger I attempted to propagate wither and die. Would you like to suggest how to prevent this please?

[Medjoul1]

Hi Johnerebus,
I grew ginger successfully last year although it was late in the season when I planted so I'm hoping to do better this time but I'll wait until the weather warms up a bit first. I suggest looking for a piece of ginger with a "bright tip" as this shows that it should be viable, in warm well watered ground it will show through in no time.
I planted some garlic that was in plugs and several inches tall that I got from "Evergreen" (on the main road in Lapta) and I've lost several plants since December when I planted them. I was unsure whether to put the loss down to damping off or another fungal disease as they seemed to go at ground level or snails/slugs that my garden is infested with. I planted some larger cloves a few weeks ago and they are growing very strongly infact they will soon overtake the others (they had chitted in the fridge!)
Hope some of this helps.
Medjoul

[Jonnie]

I have been told you have to aclimatise Garlic. If you have large imported cloves you may grow small ones the first year, re-plant and they will grow large. I have just planted horseradish, fingers crossed!

[Ragged Robin]

Well size nothwithstanding I shall contine to grow and eat my own small Cyprus garlic. Apart from anything else they are cheaper - so expensive in the Supermarkets! And I know that I am not eating something contaminated with chemicals.

If it helps, the first time I tried it was with Supermarket bought cloves in open garden and they just never appeared. The second time with the Cyprus garlic I grew them in a raised trough where they were not so easily accessed by dogs and cats or dug out by overenthusiastic gardeners. It also gives me control over feed and watering and I dug quite a bit of sheep manure in first!

[johnerebus]

Some good advice here so thanks for your replies.