Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi

I just received my Elephant garlic.

But now I need to plant them and as I never grow garlic before how deep do you plant them? the label say 1-2 inch deep but is this from the base or the tip?

Flowers bulbs are so easy it is just twice their depth!

But garlic? and by the way how deep for shallots too?

Thank you so much

amo

Amo, I would make sure the tip is a couple of inches below the surface.

Frost damage.

I'd follow Pater's advice, amo. In fact, the instructions from the Garlic Farm say "plant each clove, root end downwards, in a small hole with 1" of loose soil to cover." Very shallow! They tell you to follow the same directions with elephant garlic, but spacing 12" apart. So there you are!

Good luck

mike

Garlic needs the frost to divide and as it goes right through the winter why worry about planting deeper than is recommended?

I've got a related question for you all. In October, a few days on either side of the 20th, I sowed various varieties of garlic from bulbs which had matured this year, a row of Thermidrome, one of Early Wight, Albigensian, Solent, Elephant Garlic and also, last of all, a nameless Chinese variety given by my allotment neighbour.

The Early Wight and the Chinese stuff have germinated splendidly and I have just seen Thermidrome shoots peeping above the soil. The others have not yet shown.

A Should I be worried about the others? I'd be devastated to lose the Elephant garlic.
B Is it normal for later-maturing varieties to germinate more slowly than earlier ones even if planted more-or-less on the same day?

I'd be interested in your opinions.

mike

I suggest that you cover the newly planted garlic with a bit of chicken wire or similar. Birds, out of greed or curiosity, like pulling the newly emerged green shoots!

Is it normal for later-maturing varieties to germinate more slowly than earlier ones even if planted more-or-less on the same day?
I think you can reasonably expect some variation between different strains.

So long as most of them are showing above the surface by the end of the year, you should be ok for 2007. If any of them aren't, you still have a chance to sow some more of that type, with a reasonable chance of getting some sort of crop in 2007.

I planted quite a few of the varieties you mention (also in October). Here are what mine were doing when we had some frost at the start of November:

They're probably about 3 inches above the ground now.

Should I be worried about the others? I'd be devastated to lose the Elephant garlic.

It's been a couple of years since I grew Elephant garlic, but seem to remember that it didn't race away initially. However it grows at a steady pace throughout the Spring and is more immune to things like rust, which can show up in the normal garlic crop.

After being impressed with the size & appearance of Elephant Garlic, I found I didn't care for the taste & general usefullness of it, compared to standard garlic (and I had limited room, so had to choose... ).

Colin

Elephant Garlic isn't really garlic at all, it's a type of leek (right?) so I wouldn't necessarily expect it to behave as the real garlic does. I seem to recall when I grew the stuff it was well behind the garlic.

Last year we grew Albigensian, Solent, Early Wight and Elephant garlic. They all appear at different rates, with Elephant garlic showing later than the other varieties. Unless you see cloves on the soil surface due to birds (just push them back in) as Monika mentioned, I wouldn't worry at all.

We've got Elephant and Albigensian again this year, along with others, but only planted them a couple of weeks ago, so no sign of anything yet. BTW, Elephant garlic is lovely roasted. If you like that kind of thing.

Thank you Colin, Chantal and Chez, for your encouraging remarks. Yes, elephant garlic is of the leek family and so I'm sure you are right, Chantal. I wish I'd taken the right sort of notes last year.

Having never eaten it before this year, Sue and I found it to be wonderfully flavoured and really to our tastes. As Sue is allergic to all other alliums, garlic is a godsend for us.

The Garlic Farm have actually replied to a separate email, saying that [a] the later-maturing varieties are likely to germinate later and [b] in any case my own bulbs will not be as physiologically mature as the ones they grow are at the same time of year, so will take longer in the ground to show their faces.

I love this forum.

mike