Kitchen Garden Forum

Quite a lot of my elephant garlic and ordinary garlic seems to be going to seed..
Should I dig up those plants ahead of the normal crop and let them start drying? The weather has been very dry this year and I suspect the bulbs will be pitifully small
Anybody else suffering the same problem?

Not suffering the same problem but I once harvested way too early. The bulbs were very small but a whole lot stronger in taste/smell than the larger ones!

Dear Primrose,
elephant garlic produces a flower head as part of it's normal growth cycle; you have two choices with the elephant garlic; leave them alone and enjoy the pretty flowers (bees of all kinds adore them) or trim them off just under the flower head for bigger cloves.

The hard neck garlics can also have their flower heads removed and discarded as above; however if you have any friends who are lovers of oriental cuisine then the flower heads can be cut off with about 6-8 inches of stem and used in cooking for soups and stir fries. They must still be in a curl as they are a little tough if they have straightened out.

Whatever your decision is do not harvest them now; leave them until at least 4-5 leaves have turned brown and you can flatten the stem between your fingers from round to oval.
Regards Sally Wright.

Thanks for the advice Sally. I didn,t realise the bulbs would continue to increase In size once the flower head had been produced. Unfortunately I dug up the relevant seeding plants this morning but will certainly leave the rest until they're in the state you suggest.