DUe to faffing on my part I was late planting out my garlic, didn't go in until February, and I planted it at home rather than on one of the plots.... though given how bad the weather has been maybe not such an issue... They've all formed single-clove bulbs that are really big.... rest of the garlic seems ok and seeing as my big fear was that I'd be bringing white rot home I think I've got away with it, not a trace of rot.... These will get replanted in the correct fashion and hopefully I'll have a bumper crop next year.... also it looks like I've managed to clear the rot on the bit of my site where I grew onions and so therefore have a strategy to pursue before next year....
I also have rather too many single large "cloves".
So it's OK to replant and then they do split into the usual monsters?
No rot is excellent news Chrisc :)
Single large bulbs will go on the produce great normal (split) bulbs next season. I've got a few too this year which I'm saving for planting I'm hoping they will produce really large bulbs next year ;D
It would be interesting to see if they really do better than regular split giant garlic cloves?
As they are bigger than what I planted, and I was aware that they probably wouldn't split I'm quite happy.... having them at home was purely an exercise in trying to clean the plot and checking it with stuff that I'm not quite so "invested" in if you see what I mean... the Catawissa can take their chances simply cos I an keep them going from top sets (adn they're thugs so seem to survive the rot anyway), but the elephant garlic I didn't want to have to replace....
Like all other garlic (except specifically spring-sown varieties) it needs a period of cold once it has rooted to get it to split.... given that it only got properly cold once this winter around here (and then only for a couple of days) I'm not surprised that others might have missed out on splitting...
My feeling is that elephant garlic needs a long time undisturbed in the ground, from previous Autumn, to get it to split.
If you replant using a large round, you will get extra large cloves the following year. Marshalls used to offer extra large cloves using this method.
As others have said it needs cold so I plant in October and lift around June only this time round, for a change, mine is still hanging in the shed as I decided to give it a miss this year.
I might have a go at planting some in October having left it hanging there for a year.