Is anyone else growing elephant garlic? I need some advice. I've noticed on videos that the elephant garlic when being harvest has flowered. Is it meant to flower? My elephant garlic leaves are started to turn brown but there is no flower. I have never grown garlic before so I just need some advice. And I know you guys are good
I grow it. I usually pick off the flower, but it technically is in the leek family I do believe, not really garlic, so, I am not 100% sure if picking off the flower is any big deal or not.. If it is turning brown it is time to pull it.
No flower grow for me. Just took one out the ground now and it is still the same size when I first planted it.
You mean the clove is the same size ? When did you plant it? It usually takes a full seasons growth for the individual cloves that you plant to mature into full heads of garlic. I have not tried the elephant garlic but should be about the same.
Mart is correct. It does need a "long" growing season. I plant mine in Sept. and harvest in July. I didn't think about how long you had in the ground already, but how long? Did you plant a clove or the whole bulb? I have had a single large bulb, no sections, "mature". But what I found was that was the "nut" I found attached to the roots and they are many times left in the ground and grow into a single large bulb the next year and if pulled and replanted or left to grow, the next year (year #2) they grow into the bulb that you separate. garlic "nuts" ( photo / image / picture from carolyn's Garden ) I found this while pulling the e. garlic one year. I had no idea what it was and evidently noone else knew either, so I replanted it and it grew into a single large bulb. I replanted that and the next year I got this.... 1 clove of the bulb ( photo / image / picture from carolyn's Garden ) elephant garlic ( photo / image / picture from carolyn's Garden )
I have elephant garlic growing wild amongst my flower beds and the edges of my veggie garden. The bees like the flowers so I leave them and just harvest the bulbs fresh whenever we need one. In my climate they are an easy grower and naturally propagate with little help from me. I usually just harvest a head and stick on clove back in the same hole. They do some self sowing from the nuts too if I don't weed the sprouts.
I planted mine in November. Yes the clove is still the same size as when I planted it. But It don't seem to start to be evolving into a big elephant garlic. Maybe I am just being impatient. :/
I normally plant in Sept. or Oct. You need to just count from when you put it in and plan on harvesting around that time.
Just a thought but its possible that the bulb you bought to plant was treated so they wouldn`t sprout. They do tomatoes and potatoes similarly so they last longer on the shelves at the market. I have not heard of garlic being done that way but you never know.
Ok,, I thought you may have bought at the market. That's what I do, just get them at the grocery store.
