Auvergne Garlic

[Chants Cottage]

My dad has brought me one whole bulb (!) of garlic back from the Auvergne region of France. I would like to plant it but is it too late? Could I speed things up by putting it in a greenhouse? Or could I even keep it until the winter and plant it then? It's only one bulb, I know, but apparently it's fantastic and I am a bit of a garlic freak so it would be nice to grow it if possible, even if I have to wait. Or should I just scoff it?

[Carltonian Man]

Have never planted garlic this late, but I'd guess planting the cloves now would result in bulbs that would be just one big fat clove instead of it splitting (as far as I know garlic needs 20 consecutive days below 10c for it to grow into separate cloves). If you plant out now the resulting oversized cloves can be harvested and dried as normal before planting again in the autumn/winter for next year. Read somewhere that's how prize winners grow huge garlic for showing. Hope it works out for you

[bill1953]

Got some garlic cloves heading fo their 3rd birthday without being planted. Seem ok

[Chants Cottage]

Is one cloved garlic green garlic or is that an entirely different thing? I bought some in a shop in NW Scotland a few years ago and it was fantastic. Well, I will probably give 'em a whirl... Thank you both!

[Millymollymandy]

I'm not entirely sure, but I think green garlic is fresh garlic just been harvested before it's been dried for storage. It only lasts like this for a short time, is much milder flavoured and is very juicy and wonderful for cooking as whole cloves.

I don't know if it is too late to plant the garlic now but I think some people who plant garlic in the spring rather than autumn put their cloves in the fridge for a bit to simulate a cold spell, which garlic needs. I'm way too lazy to google this for you, but you may want to look it up....

[Henwoman]

Could you perhaps pop it in a freezer for ten days which would be colder? I know nothing - it was just a thought.

[Chants Cottage]

Ooh, interesting... I will look this up (if I can be bothered). I think I might be getting mixed up actually - I bought some garlic recently from Lidl of all places which was one clove per bulb. It was Spanish I think, and also very good, but pretty green... The Scottish stuff was definitely green but had several nice fat cloves now I think about it. Thanks MMM and Henwoman.

[niknik]

yep------ bung it in fridge for a couple of weeks........

then maybe eat half, plant half............. best of both worlds then!