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nafex - [NAFEX] My experience with Elephant Garlic

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  • From: nottke1 <nottke1@earthlink.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] My experience with Elephant Garlic
  • Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:25:14 -0400 (GMT-04:00)

Betsy,
Good info from Lon.
I live just an hour west of you and I have grown elephant garlic for about 12
years. I harvest mine in late June - probably because I am a half zone
cooler than you.
I gather every one of the little bulblets as I dig the crop, and then
immediately replant them and cover with mulch. In a damp year, most of them
come up and result in very large single bulbs the next year, some are over 2
inches across. The smaller of these single bulbs I use in cooking - they do
not cure and keep as well as the conventional cloves. The largest single
bulbs I replant and they give the largest standard type cloves the next year.

Last year I planted mostly large single bulbs and only a few of the large
cloves. Will dig the crop in a week or two and learn how it did.
Lon is right, I had a friend who ate the largest and planted the smallest,
and in a few years was complaining about how small his garlic had become.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
>From: Hilborn.E@epamail.epa.gov
>Sent: Jun 15, 2009 12:44 PM
>To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
>Subject: [NAFEX] Elephant garlic question OT
>
>
>I am asking here, because I cannot find information elsewhere.
>
>I just harvested my elephant garlic yesterday. Each bulb had a tiny
>'cloves' at many of the roots. They were separate from the main bulb
>and very small.
>Can I use these to propagate more elephant garlic, or are they best used
>for cooking?
>
>Thanks for any information, this is my third year growing this garlic
>and the first time I had noticed this phenomenon.
>
>Betsy Hilborn
>7a NC
>


Jim Nottke
Pfafftown, NC




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