Elephant Garlic (& Bunching Onions)

[Donna]

I have just harvested my Elephant Garlic that was initially planted in May (still have some left in the garden planted in July) and am pretty happy with the results.

As the photos show, there was a large variety of sizes of bulbs which will now be hung in the laundry (outside) for about two weeks to dry for storage - not sure how long they will last in our house though, we love our garlic!

Most of the harvest had little 'bulblets' which Wikipedia have indicated can be planted and will produce a 'round' the first year and if left in the ground for another year the round will produce the traditional 'garlic' shape with individual cloves.

The bulblets must grow, as I definitely did *NOT* plant anything this small, it must have self seeded.

I also harvested some seeds from a couple of the ones that went to flower, Wikipedia indicates that they are not usually grown from seed - which indicates to me that they can be but it would take longer until a harvest.

There were two gardens that I planted the garlic in, the best and largest bulbs are from the garden that doesn't get as much sun in early Spring (which was Summer this year!) - mind you the other bed was also very dry from the matting of the sugar cane which may have also been a contributing factor to the poor harvest.

So next year, I will try planting the bulblets in a shaded area of my garden and will try leaving them in the soil for two years and see what I get. Some will also be planted in a bed that gets the least early season spring/ summer sun and see what I get the first year.

I will also try growing the garlic seeds in a pot and see what I get next year.

There were some bunching onions in the laundry tub which I needed the space, so have harvested these (still have more in the gardens). Don't think it was the right time for dividing as they leaves are all green, but will try drying them and take to the December Garden Visit to share if anyone wants to give them a go.

It is my thought to plant both the bunching onions and some elephant garlic bulblets into my herb garden and leave them to 'clump' so that there will always be some to harvest *hopefully* - there is a place that gets almost full shade for the elephant garlic...

[Addy]

Having harvested my little crop, I found your observations really interesting, Donna, particularly about where they should be planted. I'll save some of my "rounds" for planting. Thanks for a very interesting blog!

[Scarlett Patrick]

lovely. you should be twilight vampire proof then :)

[Elaine de Saxe]

Good results Donna! The observations on the Elephant Garlic accord with mine and not having given any thought to consulting the Wiki it's good to know that what I've worked out is the simplest solution. I've had Elephant Garlic coming up in the beds which some years back I had it growing proving (since they did not seed) that the 'little yellow jobs' are hardy critters. I suspect that the bigger lyjs might shoot earlier and perhaps the smaller ones take a year or so to get their act together. This is just a guess and it doesn't matter really. What it means too is that I should cease using the 'rounds' since they are going to give me proper cloves next year - thank you for that advice, Donna, I hadn't worked that one out.

How long will they last? About 9 months and then before the next lot are ready the ones you are using are going yellow but they still taste 'divine'! Try 'em roasted in their original wrapping - mmmmmm! Try and stop pigging out on them!

If you can get a kilo of Elephant Garlic together and perhaps some other varieties you might get enough crop to last your household until the next crop comes in. Less than that and it's not even enough for us being 2 who don't cook as much as we used to since we've taken up a bit more raw.

I'd *love* some Bunching Onion sets - we'll be there with bells on for the Christmas garden get-together. At the moment I'm using Spring Onions which haven't been persuaded to flower yet and I have used French Onions bought from the supermarket and they were OK but needed lifting in the hot weather.