Topic: Red garlic vs. White garlic…..

[Deb P]

Harvested my garlic today as the foliage was dry and dying back rapidly. All grown from Franchi stock, in modules early this year and planted out in March in the same bed.
The white garlic is perfect….good sized bulbs and no problems, but all of the red garlic have mouldy outer skins, ? white rot? but the inner bulbs themselves are fine. I’ve had white rot in another bed but not this one before and the rot was far worse, all the bulbs were mushy so I’m not sure if it’s the same thing? I’ve stripped the outer casings off the red bulbs and put them on a rack separately and will try using them up those fresh….but I’m wondering why only that variety has been affected?

[JanG]

That is rather odd. With white rot I find that the roots become very thin and discoloured unlike the healthy fresh white roots of normal garlic. I’m wondering what the roots of your red garlic were like.
White rot certainly comes on patches of ground so it’s just possible that it could affect the part of the bed where the red garlic was growing, but such a neat division seems a bit unlikely.

[Deb P]

I’ve just had a look at both types and there doesn’t seem to be much difference in the amount of root, although the red garlic roots are slightly finer…

[Deb P]

These are the red ones….

[JanG]

That doesn’t look like white rot to me.

You seem to have a reasonable amount of skin left on the red ones after peeling off the mouldy skin. With a bit of luck they might store fairly well?

[IanDH]

You could always chop and freeze the red ones.

I have worked with an Asian pensioner's group near here, we have talked about the allotment a number of times and this way of storing is a fairly common thing for them, both with garlic and onions.

[Deb P]

That doesn’t look like white rot to me.

You seem to have a reasonable amount of skin left on the red ones after peeling off the mouldy skin. With a bit of luck they might store fairly well?

Well that’s all good news, I rubbed off the majority of the ‘mouldy’ skin on the red garlic before racking it, the photo was taken the next day. I’m going to pick it over and take the rest off and hope it dries ok so I can keep it! I’ll also try freezing some, that’s a good idea I’ve not tried freezing garlic before!

[Paulh]

Having cleaned one up, have you then cut into it to check it is sound inside?

[Deb P]

The red garlic seems fine once I stripped it completely, the cloves smell very strong! I’ve bought a few home to use first..