Some Elephant Garlic questions
VegasGardener
10 years ago
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VegasGardener
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoVegasGardener
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Some garlic questions
Comments (14)Thanks everyone! I signed up for notifications at WeGrowGarlic.com, and I'll check out the others. And I didn't know they'd ship at the correct time, that's great! After a little more research, I discovered that what I thought were called bulbils were not bulbils at all. I meant that I also planted the little teeny cloves that were in the bulbs I bought (when everything I'd read said just to plant the big cloves). The majority of what I got were rounds though, rather than heads, so I'm thinking that probably means something more like the growing conditions were less than ideal (which they definitely were--poor soil, planted later than I should have, and I think the mulch cover DH used was too heavy). Thanks for the input, everyone! I'm learning a whole lot really fast this first year, and my head is kind of spinning :-)...See MoreWANTED: Elephant Garlic & Softneck Garlic
Comments (1)Hi Megan, I have Elephant Garlic and another hard neck variety that came with the house. Variety unknown but it is a mild variety that keeps well. Additionally I have Egyptian walking onion if you are interested. Acheck@excite.com...See MoreElephant Garlic scape....what do I do?
Comments (10)In 25 years of growing elephant garlic, I have never seen the flowers produce seeds, so I say ignore that comment - just won't happen. Although I cut and eat most of the scapes from my elephant garlic, I always leave a number of them because I like seeing the tall flowers around my garden. You definitely need to dig it up once leaves are yellowing (I usually let about half the plant yellow), and definitely dig from under the garlic to recover all the corms (hard cloves growing around the outside of each bulb) that you can for replanting. That is a really good way to significantly increase your stock of garlic, though it takes a couple of years before they make nice heads. I always store the garlic in a cool place (essentially in the house with AC) once it is dry and cured a bit, and I wait until the fall, mid-October here in Z7, to replant. The great thing about elephant garlic is that it lasts through the winter very well....See MoreHardneck and Elephant Garlic, Do you 'tuck them' in soil?
Comments (5)Nope, leave the long green leaves. In about a month or so, you'll see a stalk emerge from the center of the hardneck garlics - about the thickness of a pencil. It's actually a seed stalk and if left to its own, it will grow above the plant and initially curl up to three times and stay that way for a few weeks. It will then uncurl and probably stand 3 or so feet above the plant and turn hard and woody before opening the top capsule to reveal a bunch of little seed-like things called bulblets. These could be planted the next season but it'll take two years before they get big enough to give nice sized heads. The rationale to cut off the seed stalks - scapes - is to have the garlic put all of its energy into producing the biggest bulb possible. In some garlic varieties, this matters much more than others but they're such good eating that I usually just leave one on per variety to compare maturity and play around with planting the bulblets....See MoreOldDutch (Zone 4 MN)
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoVegasGardener
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agodrmbear Cherry
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoVegasGardener
10 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
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