It's garlic planting time - you can be earlier than “that shortest day” myth! Usually people say: plant on shortest day and harvest on the longest day. That gives a bit of an indication of how garlic “likes it”. But over the past decade I noticed a few problems with garlic that are difficult to control and the most important one is rust disease. 

It’s a fungal disorder that hammers the bulb-forming members of alliums (onion genus group of the family amaryllidaceae). 

The fungus enters the long, soft leaves of shallots, onions and garlic and causes yellowing of the leaves, ill-thrift and sick-looking plants towards the end of the growing season, when temperatures rise in spring. The most significant diagnostic sign are the bright yellow “pustules” that form on the leaves – these pustules are easily rubbed off by your finger.

So I have been trialling a much earlier planting regime: This year I started planting my first row on 2 May, second row on 15 May; third one goes in on 22 May...today! I can monitor their health and how fast they grow towards maturity. In early May we still had warm soil temperatures and plants sprouted quickly. With a bit of luck they will mature a month or 7 weeks earlier than normal, hopefully escaping a significant period of rust infection. 

Which variety should I plant? 

Printanor is the common old garlic variety you buy at “New World”. Often it is imported from China and treated to stop it sprouting, that means no good for planting! Buy some planting cloves that are either organic or simply not treated. 

At farmers markets you can sometimes purchase interesting varieties: 

Californian Red Turban: Can grow into huge bulbs (15 cm diameter bulbs) 

Macedonian: Strong flavour and somewhat oily 

West Coast Miners: Rather good, large cloves too 

Hard-neck garlic: Lets little flowers/bulblets up the stem, edible as soft green salad component, in mid-spring 

Elephant garlic: This is actually a leek, with a swollen stem. Has a very mild flavour 

Shallots can also be planted now! Use well-drained soil, shallow planting (tip, just above the ground) and 15 cm spacing. Cover with ground sheep dags (KINPACK) or fine, rich compost. Keep moist, but not overly moist, because that encourages rotting. Harvest when the foliage dies down (Mid-November or December if my timing works out!).

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