Good day. Timing is everything with elephant garlic. The scapes are the flowers and should have been cut off if you were trying to grow the largest bulbs. The small acorns are called corms. When planted in the Fall they will grow into ROUNDS in the following year. The rounds will turn into bulbs in the following year. Here is where timing is important. If you leave the bulbs in the ground after they form they will split and form ROUNDS which is what you have quite a few of. You have more ROUNDS because you left them in the ground too long so they split into individuals. The scapes growing from the plant is the first sign that it is nearing harvest time. Cut them off and fertilize for the last time. When the bottom 3 leaves start to yellow or brown it is time to harvest. Look forward to seeing how the next year harvest goes. Mine harvest went super! Bulbs the size of softballs.
Those round ones will make individual cloves when you plant them in the fall,the first year they are the corms,the second year they are what you have big round but hasn't made individual cloves yet.plant them in the fall and when you harvest them they will be full garlic cloves.hope that helps
That helped so much!! Thanks!! That is exactly what we needed to know. We are going to plant everything we harvested this coming fall and label it so we can keep track of it! Thanks again!! -Lea
Good morning! We also grow elephant garlic. The small brown pods, from the previous year, made beautiful heads of garlic. We've never gotten seeds from ours. Y'all had a nice harvest!
Good morning!! Thanks!! I had no idea what we were going to dig up, lol!! It was really exciting. We are just going to save everything and plant it again next year. Are you talking about the tiny corms or the larger single bulb looking things? Thanks!! -Lea
Thanks!! That's kinda what we figured. We're going to let the seed heads hang for a while in this heat and then lay them in a box to hopefully collect any seed that is there. Hopefully something will sprout when we plant them. That would be a really fun outcome to the experiment!! Thanks again!! -Lea
I’m in Northern Michigan in zone 5b, so you should check with someone in your area or zone to see what’s best there, but here we plant the biggest cloves from each bulb in October then harvest in late summer. You watch the growth of the leaves, and when that stalk with the flower pod comes up you cut it off. You can use it in any recipe you’d use green onion, shallots or leeks. Stirfry, soups or stews are great with them, but I’ve also used them raw in salad dressing. But you remove it because the energy they take comes from the growth of the bulb. You should consider the corms to be the seeds. Plant them when you’d plant the cloves and the first year they produce the single round bulb. You can eat those, but they grow into big bulbs of 4-7 cloves the second year. We DON’T just leave them planted. We harvest all the plants, cure them, then when it’s the right time in your area to plant select the biggest cloves from the biggest bulbs, most of the single round first year corms, plus the tiny new corms. Note, you know the garlic is ready to haven’t when the bottom 4 leaves begin getting brown and drying. You’re better off to stop watering garlic for 2-4 weeks prior to harvesting so the paper has a chance to dry. When you harvest use a shovel or fork we’ll back from the plant to avoid stabbing the cloves. Leave the leaves and roots on and lay them in the sun for a day or two unless you have critters that might go after them. Then hang them in a dry place out of direct sun for at least 10 days to 2 weeks. We bundle them in groups of 3-4 and tie with twine up the stems a ways and hang them in a shed. After 10-14 days you can take them down and cut off the leaves and root. We leave about 1/4 inch of the root and 6” of the stem. We use a plastic vegetable kitchen brush and softly knock off any dirt before storing in a wicker basket we keep in a dark cabinet.
Thank you so much!! Very informative and useful information!! We knew a lot of this about regular garlic, but have never grown the Elephant garlic before!! You have answered all our questions about the corms, the rounds, and the cloves!! We harvested some of the seeds from the blooms and are going to try planting them this year. Everything we have read says they won't be viable seed, but we're stubborn and curious and want to give it a try, lol!! Thanks again for the information!! -Lea
I must have forgotten a garlic in a pot from last year!! It has popped up again this year!! It's a small pot...so doubt it will get any bigger!! But I am curious as to how big it might get!! Cheers!!
Hi! Not sure...we came in and started looking up info. after this dig. We think that the big things might be the corms from last year with one year's growth on them. Apparently the corms take two to three years to mature into a full head of garlic. We are going to save them and plant them next October to test this theory, lol!! Pretty fun!! -Lea
