Garlic

[joel]

How to Grow and Care for Elephant Garlic

Elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum) is an odd little plant. Although it looks like a giant garlic bulb and has a mild garlic flavor, it is more closely related to leeks than to garlic. Elephant garlic is a biennial, meaning it completes its life cycle in two growing seasons. You typically will get a single bulb in the first year when the plant doesn't flower. All of the plant's resources go into building up that single bulb, which will help it survive into its second year and send up flower stalks. In the second year, the one bulb typically divides into multiple separate cloves.

As with true garlic, the fast-growing elephant garlic is usually planted in the fall and can be harvested about eight months later in the following summer. Fall-planted garlic might have enough time to split into cloves. If you find it's still one large bulb, you can leave it in the ground for another year to finish maturing, or you can opt to harvest the one bulb. Spring-planted elephant garlic can be ready to harvest in 90 days; however, it will most likely still be a single large bulb.
https://www.thespruce.com/elephant-garlic-1402622

 

[joel]

https://www.thespruce.com/harvestin...=When to Harvest Garlic,that don't store well.

 

[joel]

I have found most, if not all these links to come true in my garden.
https://www.finegardening.com/article/garlic-begets-garlic

 

[joel]

there are two groups hard & soft neck, but many varieties.
Porcelain: Hardneck - not braidable
Porcelains are becoming increasingly popular as gardeners and garlic connoisseurs learn of their unique properties. Most Porcelains display satiny white bulb wrappers with only 4 to 6 symmetrical cloves per bulb. Their cloves are often as large as unshelled Brazil nuts and are frequently mistaken for elephant garlic.

Their flavor is outstanding, rivaling that of Rocamboles. Because of their smooth, tight bulb wrappers, they store longer than Rocamboles. Their large cloves, while a boon in the kitchen, furnish fewer plants per pound of seed stock, producing smaller yield ratios than other garlic varieties. Stores approximately 6 months.

One pound of Porcelain seed garlic will yield approximately 40 plants, though this number may vary widely.

https://filareefarm.com/organic-seed-garlic-porcelain/

 

[joel]

Rocamboles: Hardneck- not braidable

These are the most widely known, hence the most widely grown of the hardneck garlics.
They have a deeper, more full-bodied flavor than softnecks. Rocamboles produce large cloves which are easily peeled, making them preferred by chefs & food processors. Their loose skins however, give rise to their major disadvantage, a shorter storage life than most other varieties. By the end of January most Rocamboles show signs of dehydration or begin to sprout. Longer storage is possible if bulbs are well grown and well cured before storage. Clove colors range from tan to brown. Doubles are common in some strains.
No other garlic variety forms tight loops of 1 to 3 coils shortly after the stalks appear.The stalks later lose their coils and stand straight up as they turn woody. All hardneck varieties have flower stalks, but they form wild random coils or broad sweeping curls and arches rather than tight coils.
Rocambole leaves are of broad width and closely spaced, with leaves spreading moderately. Flower stalks average 3 to 4 feet tall when uncurled. Bulbils, or aerial clones, range from 10 to 40 in number, varying in size from small to half the size of a garden pea.
Rocambole cloves are usually rounded and blunt at the tip. They vary in shape when grown in some southern climates. Most strains average 6 to 11 cloves in a single circle around the stem. Stores approximately 4-6 months.
One pound of seed garlic will yield approximately 60 plants, though this number may vary widely.

https://filareefarm.com/rocamboles-hardneck-not-braidable/

 

[joel]

Turban: usually Hardneck - not braidable

We believe these are Artichoke garlics because of the type of bulbils produced, their early maturation and clove shape. They are weak bolting garlics and earlier maturing than any of our other garlics. Turbans may grow softneck in mild winter climates. Like Asiatics, they should be harvested a week or so after their spathe (seed head) emerges.

Turban bulbs usually attain a good size even though the plants are small. The heavily striped bulbs are very attractive and are ideal for early season marketing before other garlics appear. Cloves are normally plump, with light, glossy pink to brown color. Stores approximately 4 months.

One pound of seed garlic will produce approximately 60 plants, though this number may vary.

https://filareefarm.com/organic-seed-garlic-turban/

 

[joel]

Purple Stripe: Hardneck - not braidable

Named because of the bright purple streaks and blotches on both bulb wrappers & clove skins, these are the most attractive looking garlics. They are also very flavorful, usually winning "best baked garlic" taste tests conducted by Rodale, Sunset Magazine, Martha Stewart and others.
Most strains have 8 to 12 cloves per bulb (more than Rocambole) so clove size is slightly smaller. Cloves are noticeably tallish and crescent shaped. They store slightly longer than Rocamboles & peel almost as easily.
Purple Stripe plants are distinctive from Rocamboles because their leaves grow at wider angles to the stem. Flower stalks may make perfect 270 degree curls that leave bulbil capsules floating and bobbing in the air like birds in flight. Plant height & shape vary of individual strains vary significantly. Stores approximately 6 months.
One pound of Standard Purple Stripe seed garlic will yield approximately 60 plants, though this number may vary widely.

Glazed Group - a sub-variety of Purple Stripe
Glazed Purple Stripe includes five beautiful strains that appear Purple Stripe in all respects except that bulb and clove colors are a royal purple tinged with subtle shiny gold and/or silver hues. Cloves are not as tall and elongated as standard Purple Stripes and there are fewer cloves per bulb. They mature slightly sooner than standard Purple Stripes. One pound of glazed purple stripe cloves will produce approximately 60 plants, though this number may vary widely.

Marbled Group - a sub-variety of Purple Stripe
These are an interesting and enigmatic group. While the plants are more similar to Purple Stripes, the bulbs can easily be mistaken for Rocamboles. When broken apart, the bulbs display characteristics of both Rocamboles and Purple Stripes. However, isozyme testing put them within the Purple Stripe variety.
Bulb wrappers tend to be mottled rather than striped. Most strains have only 4 to 7 cloves per bulb which can be easily counted without removing bulb wrappers. Storage is slightly longer than either Rocambloes or standard Purple Stripes. One pound of Marbled Purple Stripe seed garlic will produce somewhere in the vicinity of 55 plants, though this number may vary widely.

 

[elkhound]

Elkhound I'm curious how the Martins garlic will do here, compared to your area.

i think you will be surprised at clove size.

martin talked about planting bulbils too...the little things on top that are hard like marbles if you let bloom and mature..well his garlic will grow and even divide in single year.wont be large but decent size. its easy and cheapest way to get a bunch of cloves for the next years season if expanding .

 

[Bacpacker]

Thanks for the info Joel. Lots of good stuff.

Elk, I plan to replant most of what we like best from this year to get a sustainable crop for down the road

 

[elkhound]

Thanks for the info Joel. Lots of good stuff.

Elk, I plan to replant most of what we like best from this year to get a sustainable crop for down the road

the thing about bulbils is you can start clean if you have a contamination/disease issue.

also to my understanding from martin most garlic planted from bulblis wont divide first year.you have to over winter and the second year it grows and divides.martin garlic grows and divides first year giving 3 to 4 cloves. i planted bulblis once but it was years ago now. i see martin garlic all over where i allowed it go feral.

 

[Patchouli]

Y’all shared a lot of very useful information on garlic, thank you!
It’s an essential ingredient for anti-plague formula if you’re into making your own.
I wish I knew Martin, he seems like a garden master.
One of the county extension offices in Maine had helpful info on growing garlic too but what you guys shared was even better.

 

[joel]

the thing about bulbils is you can start clean if you have a contamination/disease issue.

also to my understanding from martin most garlic planted from bulblis wont divide first year. you have to over winter and the second year it grows and divides. martin garlic grows and divides first year giving 3 to 4 cloves. i planted bulblis once but it was years ago now. i see martin garlic all over where i allowed it go feral.

My BIL has the same problem with elephant garlic bulblis that come off the garlic bulbs, they look like hazel nuts, he sale the single bulb elephant garlic (before it becomes cloves ) green in the spring & summer. The locals call it green garlic, they use the whole plant when cooking.

 

[Neb]

A lot of good info so far. I will add what I believe...

The larger cloves produce larger bulbs. Eat the smaller and plant the larger cloves.

Winter freeze helps producing more cloves.

When I cut the scapes early I seem to get bigger bulbs.

I have braided hard neck. Not easy.

Garlic unharvested gets crowded yielding smaller bulbs.

I let a patch on their own and the weeds competed and smaller bulbs was the result.

The Princess hangs the braids in the basement and removes them as she needs them.

Garlic is a pian in the bu++ to peel. We have small peelers but large scale peelers cost thousands.

Here it what have going in my raised beds.

These are wild garlic found in my yard grown from cloves. They are smallish but the cloves were small since that had to fight for a living were I found them. In the same box but not shown are garlic bulbils and something I failed to record.

Wild garlic bulbils and not shown wild garlic seeds from the flowers.

Duganski

Polish soft neck at the top. Svea at the bottom.

I plant in late September (SW PA)


Ben

 

[Neb]

The Princess after a garlic harvest from The Ridge

Ben

 

[Pearl]

My BIL has the same problem with elephant garlic bulblis that come off the garlic bulbs, they look like hazel nuts, he sale the single bulb elephant garlic (before it becomes cloves ) green in the spring & summer. The locals call it green garlic, they use the whole plant when cooking.

I'm glad my bulbs don't look like hazelnuts!

 

[Bacpacker]

I've never left mine to over winter when I grew before. I always lifted and dried them, then bust up the bigger bulbs and replant in late fall. Plan to do the same now.

 

[joel]

If you look in the metal pot you will see the underground bulblis that viking & I was talking about.
They are brown & small that why I called them hazel nuts.

 

[Patchouli]

I guess that's not Martin. He's got a small yard and still able to grow all that garlic.