Thursday 16 April 2015

Garden Experiment - Single Clove Garlic

With my less than ideal storage conditions much of my garlic is starting to sprout, a timber shed just isn't the right place for it. I wish I preserved some of it last summer when it was at it's finest but I'll just have to make plans for that when I harvest it this year and not save so much to use "off the bulb". 
Having this sprouting garlic has given me an idea though and I've decided to have a little experiment with growing some single cloved garlic, I've read people sometimes call it lazy garlic as there is less to peel! 
One of my raised beds for my experiments
 The theory being that garlic needs a month of cold weather to separate into lots or cloves inside the bulb. By planting now when the worst of the cold weather is over it should grow nicely but as one large clove, kind of like elephant garlic (but not obviously) but with the stronger flavour of normal garlic.
 I divided four bulbs of garlic up and separated it up into large cloves and small ones. 
 The large cloves I then planted at normal spacings for garlic (about 6-8 inches) and fill the bed up with them. The small ones I planted really close together with the intention of pulling these green and using them almost like chives. 
I'm not sure how well this will work, if at all, so please don;t copy me, but I thought it might be an interesting use of some garlic that was well past it's best! I'll report on these later in the year.
Anyone else grown garlic with the intention of growing just a single clove? It'll be interesting to compare it to my other garlic that was put in during the autumn and the elephant garlic as well. 

5 comments:

  1. when my bulbs have got like that I just use them in cooking, I have a selection of garlic growing including elephant garlic, I should think if you pull them as garlic in the green thy will e lovely and tasty

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    1. I still use them in cooking byt I've got plenty from last year left so I thought it might be worth a try. Garlic in the green is lovely but normally I don't want to waste it like that!

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  2. When I grow garlic, I always use it like that. Invariably I forget to harvest it and end up with mini bulbs - very strong tasting.

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  3. I have never done it before, but there are a handful of loose bulbs with some green shoots so out they go, when I have finished my cuppa of course.

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  4. My French neighbour told me off once for being late with the garlic (supposed to be in by Christmas) but said to put it in the fridge for a couple of weeks to fool the bulbs. Never tried it but got the garlic in by first week of Jan as I daren't risk his wrath again!

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