From what I have heard you can replant the bulb this next year. I did grow garlic one year when I was living near Childress. I used elephant garlic from the store and planted each clove and they made a new set of cloves the next year. Elephant garlic is not a true garlic but can be use as garlic in cooking. As far as I know they do not treat garlic with growth inhibitors like they do with potatoes.

It should be getting close to harvest time. I would wait until about half the plant is brown before I would harvest, but I have only grown garlic twice. Garlic should last 3 or 4 months after you dig them if they are dried properly.

Are you saying I can replant the bulb if it only made one instead of a set of cloves? I've only dug up about 6 and only one of them had a set of cloves. I still have lots to dig up but am waiting a bit longer.

I read from Sam Cotner's The Vegetable Book a Texans Guide to Gardening, that sometimes the elephant garlic would make a single bulb called a round and you could plant that and it would produce a big clove the next year. I would assume it would work for regular garlic also. He did state that garlic would not bulb up if they were not exposed to 30 days of temperatures between 32 and 50.

It kind of explains why my garlic did so poorly in Beaumont. I will say many things acted strange this year due to the lack of winter this year.

Yes, rounds can be replanted in the Fall, and are usually the source of the very best size and form heads of garlic when you harvest next spring. Don't wait until the tops are completely brown before harvesting, as the heads continue to expand, breaking apart the outer cover, and starting the process over again - the problem is the heat of summer and the kinds of active animal and bug life will get into the garlic if left in the ground. Better to dig it so it can be properly replanted in October.

Linda, there are some discussions about growing garlic in the deep south. Garlic is a cold weather crop and there are special considerations in growing garlic.

Garlic needs certain chilling to sprout and to form bulbs. If not treated, garlic will grow just like green onions. They grow to strong green tops. Then they form small rounds at the end of growing season. They probably won't form bulbs.

To change it, you need to select the varieties suitable for the deep south. And you need to chill the seed garlic in frig for certain days or months. The further south, the longer the chilling requirement is.

Good luck.

The elephant garlic I still grow now in Virginia, I've been continually growing it for over 25 years, was originally from a yard I owned when in Texas, 30 miles south of Fort Worth in Cleburne. The old woman that owned the house before me planted it around her roses, I suppose to help keep bugs away. I saw the beautiful monster heads, that kept a full year until the next harvest (and beyond), and I've been able to keep it growing through many moves and situations since then. It always did well in Texas.