Can I grow garlic in small pots?

Wiltshire, United Kingdom

Last year I found my onions, leeks and spring onions were covered in a white fungus growth at the bulb poitn and spreading upwards - I'm assuming it's a
disease based in the soil and therefore I won't be able to grow any of the onion family in my raised beds...gutted. However we eat a lot from this family and I want to grow some to supplement our shopping - can I grow garlic in pots? If so, what size pots would be suitable? 9cm or would this be too small?

Also, another question, how deep do shallots roots go? Just wondering if I can lay a new big sized compost bag down and cut the larger surface area out to create a mini type raised bed... any thoughts on how you reckon this would fare for the shallots?

16 Mar, 2009

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garlic
onions & shallots
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Answers

Sid

That's a pity about your onions and leeks - they should be quite easy to grow, but these last couple of summers have been too wet for them - I had to get mine out in a hurry last summer before they began to rot. I suspect, becuase you are using raised beds, that you have used large quantities of organic matter, which I suspect tends to hold onto its water content - great for most plants, but onions and their family are really designed to cope with dryer conditions. This would explain your mould problem.

Regards the garlic, they too like nice well-drained warm conditions. I really don't know wehther they'd go any good in pots....I suspect 3" pots would be far too small tho. They are bulbs that grown UNDER the ground, unlike onions. Also, you need really to plant them in the autumn as they need a period of deep cold for them to form bulbs the following summer.

Again, I think a bag of compost might prove too damp for shallots....never tried it tho, so anything's possible!

16 Mar, 2009

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