Down Under Garlic Growing

[Whwoz]

From what I understand @Bower, in cold climates they produce less cloves than in climates a bit warmer. Music here will produce seven or eight at times, two or three large ones that form nearly half the globe and four or five smaller ones the other side. Some of the small ones can be quite thin , about 5 or 6 mm/0.25 inch if full width or like a second row tucked in between the stalk and outer layer of cloves. Usually on the largest globes only

[Growing Coastal]

Some of you may remember that I had an elephant garlic bulbil shoot by chance last season, well it grew and made a round and a small bulbil of its own. It has been planted where I can keep track of it, separate from other Elephant garlic

Elephant garleek.jpg

hopefully the cattle missed it.

That bulbil is how I knew that it was Elephant Garlic that had wilded itself in my garden during my working years and not leeks. Abundantly prolific! Each would have several bulbils some of which would break off and get missed showing up later in the fall rains as green sprouts. I hope it does as well for you with as little care as it needs here.

[Whwoz]

Some of you may remember that I had an elephant garlic bulbil shoot by chance last season, well it grew and made a round and a small bulbil of its own. It has been planted where I can keep track of it, separate from other Elephant garlic

Elephant garleek.jpg

hopefully the cattle missed it.

That bulbil is how I knew that it was Elephant Garlic that had wilded itself in my garden during my working years and not leeks. Abundantly prolific! Each would have several bulbils some of which would break off and get missed showing up later in the fall rains as green sprouts. I hope it does as well for you with as little care as it needs here.

@Growing Coastal, elephant garleek does well enough here, although we rarely get to see bulbils shooting, quote possibily.because we lift all of it every year

[Whwoz]

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Elephant garlic, four varieties were planted this year. This one is Johnston Creek and at approximately 7 cm across is about half the size that they can get to. Biggest I have seen is 15 cm/6 inches across. I think that I need to plant in March to get closer to that size

[Whwoz]

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Violette de Agen

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Mariposa de la Tierra

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Vulcanite

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Dynamite

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Spanish Roja

A few more of the Creoles that have been planted this year

[MissS]

@Whwoz Oh my gosh, your garlic is just beautiful. I don't think that I have ever seen such pretty garlic.

[Whwoz]

Some of the creoles are certainly beautiful @MissS. The ones that I have seem to have more colour in the clove skins the hotter the variety is.

[GoDawgs]

@Whwoz Oh my gosh, your garlic is just beautiful. I don't think that I have ever seen such pretty garlic.

Ditto what Miss S said!

[Christinajomd]

I wish I could live "down under" this year...... I then could order Ail Rose de Violet( from Cadours) garlic!!!!!

[Whwoz]

Monaro Purple Garlic has been our main go to variety over the years and this year will be no exception, although I feel that the globes are 10 to 15% smaller than normal. Not sure why this is, unless it had something to do with the wet June we had or a general lack of sunshine over winter. I planted the cloves a bit further apart this year in the hope of larger globes, maybe this allowed the ground to stay a bit wetter, I do not know.

Monaro Purple (2).jpg

Monaro Purple (3).jpg

Still plenty of it.

[Whwoz]

Traf White Turban has been our other go to Turban over the last few years has been a bit more consistent size wise even if down on a normal year also. This variety had the doubles that are mentioned in another thread here and they never really recovered from being lifted.

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Plenty of this variety also. Tags are 5.5 inches/14cm long LOA

[bower]

So these beautiful creatures are Turbans, Whwoz? I've never grown a Turban, but I was wondering how much earlier they are than a Porcelain for example. Do they scape too?

[Whwoz]

Here we plant the Turbans about 3 weeks before the Porcelains, harvesting about the same, not sure if my porcelains are starting to scape yet. Not sure how that would translate to your situation @bower .

Yes, Turbans scape. The formation of the scapes doesn't affect bulb size either, so one can let them get a bit bigger if you want to eat them.

[Whwoz]

Iris is one Turban that does not like our conditions, been getting progressively smaller over the last couple of years but has nearly a solid purple skin. Thought to give it one last try, definitely not coming back unless I can get different seed stock.

Iris (2).jpg

[Whwoz]

White Crookneck is in it third year here, but does not do as well as some of the others. I don't think it will return again

White Crookneck (1).jpg

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[Whwoz]

Gossimer is one of the new to me Turbans for this year. The initial planting was one of those affected when some cattle walked through the patch, so I planted a few late cloves for comparisons sake. I am confident that I did not get the tags mixed up now. Large globe planted at correct timee. small one planted late.

Gossimer (1).jpg

[Whwoz]

Shandong was the other potential tag mix up after the cattle went through and it showed a similar difference in size between early (normal) planting time and later planting

Shandong (3).jpg

And for completeness, the comparison between the two

Gossimer and Shandong (1).jpg

[Whwoz]

Georgian Stride, not up to the size of the seed garlic, but not too bad for first up.

Georgian Stride.jpg

Georgian Stride (3).jpg

[Whwoz]

Mexican Early Purple

Aonther newie with consistent good size.

Mexican Early Purple (1).jpg

Mexican Early Purple (3).jpg

[Whwoz]

Spanish Early Violet

Spanish Early Violet (1).jpg

Spanish Early Violet (4).jpg

And Xian to finish off

Xian (1).jpg

Xian (2).jpg