Comments on: Planting Elephant Garlic

By: cam

cam — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:38:11 +0000

Don`t pull the plant because it flowers! just cut the flower stem off and leave…

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:28:08 +0000

How big a container would I need to grow elephant garlic?

By: My Tiny Plot » Blog Archive » Elephant Garlic

My Tiny Plot » Blog Archive » Elephant Garlic — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:57:51 +0000

[...] had to pull my Elephant Garlic because it was trying to flower. I’ve showed it here next to some Carrots I pulled at the [...]

By: paul

paul — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:05:06 +0000

my normal garlic came up to 4 feet last year and i only planted it in march and picked it at end of june…very big bulbs too….i did use quite a lot of compost though to be fair…im trying elephant this year for the first time….i only planted last thursday

By: Ian

Ian — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:19:20 +0000

I have just dug up our Elephant Garlic and, like last year, left a couple of cloves in the ground which should take for next years crop. Although we eat the cloves, which are very tasty indeed, we grow them mainly for the magnificent flower head that it puts out. This year I have kept the seeds and will start some off early next year. As for growing them indoors . . . they grow to about 4 feet tall! It might be a good idea to leave the pots outdoors to get the benefit of the cold weather and then bring them indoors when it starts to flower.

By: mtp

mtp — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:19:03 +0000

You won’t see any signs of life yet – probably early next year. All of the action will be underground until then. I’ve never grown Elephant garlic before so I’m not sure about the curry. They are milder than normal garlic so maybe roasted whole, or popped into some Camembert and oven baked with fresh bread. Oooh I’m making myself hungry.

By: Lizzy n Pat

Lizzy n Pat — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:31:28 +0000

We have planted elephant garlic for the first time at the very end of September…At the same time we planted ordinary garlic….The garlic as taken root and started to grow…but the elephant garlic is doing nothing……When should we see signs of life ????? And will it be any good for making curry’s????

By: Sandra

Sandra — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:31:47 +0000

Hi, one of the chaps down at the allotment told me that garlic needs a good period of cold to do well. I tried planting my garlic in Oct 09 one season, and got a great crop. I’m planting mine amongst my strawberry plants this year. It’s supposed to be a companion plant. I have to say, any other veg that I’ve planted near garlic has always been slug and snail free, so fingers crossed that the strawberries get protected.

By: mtp

mtp — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:03:23 +0000

Hi Kay – I would try planting them a bit earlier next time. The reason it’s best to plant in the Autumn is so that they get a good root system going before the onset of the cold weather. They then go dormant but come back with vigour in the Spring. It sounds like your Garlic didn’t have enough time to get going before it got too cold.

I have heard that if your Garlic doesn’t bulb up then you can save it and plant it again in Autumn to get a bumper crop the year after. I haven’t tried it but it’s an interesting concept.

Sounds like you ate all yours though :)

By: Kay

Kay — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:04:31 +0000

I planted garlic in Jan and it didn’t really do much. When I harvested it it wasn’t much bigger than a conker and hadn’t formed cloves but the taste was lovely, really delicate. I thought garlic needed cold weather to divide and it was in through all the snow that bought the country to a standstill in Feb. Can you please tell me where I went wrong?

Kay x