Yes, Sandy, Elephant garlic is not even a garlic. I just hate that label. I would be helpful IF we knew how those bulbs/cloves were planted.

I planted each whole plant without pulling it apart in mid- to late spring. It had no leaves--or they were trimmed at the time. It disappeared during the summer, but I left it over the winter, thinking it would multiply. I started seeing shoots in winter. But what I pulled this spring were just a few cloves from each cluster, not nearly as many as were in each original cluster.

I added "/leek" when I learned from Ken they're actually leeks.

Tiqiyyah, IF you planted whole bulbs, that's where it all began to go wrong. Though I have never grown "Elephant Garlic" and only plant heirloom, gourmet garlic (many of those varieties will have bulbs the size of that elephant garlic), you should divide that bulb into cloves, and plant the individual cloves. You want each clove to grow a full-size bulb. By planting bulbs, you defeat that very purpose. In Mississippi, I start my garlic in the early/mid fall, usually between the middle of October to early November. In Maryland, I would start the garlic in early to mid October. Since elephant garlic is not a garlic at all, I would guess that you would start it the same, but that's only a guess. Perhaps others grow this onion-like plant and can give you better guidance.

Aha! Well I'm glad I didn't buy real fancy garlic... I should have looked at planting instructions! Well, what should I do with the cloves I have now? Let them dry and re-plant them in fall?

Again, if we are talking about elephant garlic I am not so sure they will be viable in the fall. Real heirloom, gourmet garlic will easily keep for 4 months (hardneck) and my Creole garlic will keep for a year or longer!

If it were me, I would just use (eat) the stuff you can salvage and start all over with fresh bulbs in the fall. If you DON'T LIKE GARLIC, go with elephant garlic. If you love to eat/cook with garlic, get some heirloom garlic. My wife and I use garlic almost every day and have become so addicted to gourmet garlic, we would never even consider using anything else. We certainly would never use grocery store garlic again. But that's just us.

Yeah, I honestly planted them just for their flowers, but I'm sure my sister will find a use for them in the kitchen. And I'll keep you in mind for real garlic, Ken. We don't cook with it that much, although we might if we tasted some gourmet types.

Onions usually get me, too. I don't understand the whole short-day, long-day, intermediate-day thing. I use intermediate-day since we're on the mid-Atlantic coast, but the last couple of times we ended up just eating them as green onions or they didn't get very big by the time the tops fell over. I'll probably try them again at some point but not this year.

drdawg said: ...We certainly would never use grocery store garlic again. But that's just us.

Unless, of course, you sell too much and don't keep enough for yourself!!

Taqiyyah, as far as the short-day, long-day thing for onions... in the north we grow "long-day" onions, in the south they grow "short-day" onions; I think the "intermediate" varieties are pretty much suited for both. Johnny's seed catalog (and website Johnnyseeds.com ) is a great source of information for specifics depending on your latitude. The descriptions for the varieties they sell include a range of appropriate latitudes for growing. Last year I purposely bought a bunch of extra onion sets to plant late in the season, forgetting that they would likely never "bulb up" by that time since the days were getting too short.... they made good green onions, though!

Here's an example from Johnny's:

Red Bull (F1) onion seed:
Uniform bulb size with nice red color throughout the interior rings. Stores as well as Redwing. Adaptation: 43°-65° latitude. Avg. 100,000 seeds/lb. Packet: 250 seeds.

(bolding added by me)

A Google search shows Maryland is 37-39 degrees north -- therefore, this is NOT a variety that would be suitable for you to grow.

That's a ongoing problem, Sandy. Even though I say I won't sell so much (I don't have very much anyway) that I have to purchase bulbs in late summer to re-plant, I always have to. I know I will tell myself the same thing in June and then will have so many folks disappointed that I can't fill their orders, that I will sell them what should have been mine for eating/planting. Regardless, we haven't bought a garlic bulb in a grocery store in years. I just order my garlic from the same farm that I bought my original bulbs from.

I think what makes my garlic so popular is not only the quality of the heirloom, gourmet, organically grown garlic that I grow but also because my garlic is available in May/June. I am not sure why, but of the handful of "commercial" garlic growers I have found, few make their garlic available in late spring/early summer. It is always shipped out in September/October. The majority of my customers want the garlic for eating/cooking and not for planting. I would imagine that the commercial growers' customer base uses those bulbs for fall planting.

I appreciate that info, Sandy, and now I have I good spot to do some research before buying onion sets again.

Where are you guys selling your produce? I have people who ask for my produce, and I always have way too much for just me and my extended family. I end up just canning and freezing most everything and it just builds and builds lol. Even still I don't think I have enough for my own farmers market booth every single week.

I will post my garlic on ATP "Classifieds" towards the end of April, when I have a feel for how much I will harvest. I have repeat customers year-after-year, so I will contact those folks as well. Since garlic is the only vegetable I really grow a lot of (that's what I call my "cash-crop" but I'm just a hobbyist-grower ), I don't have enough to sell at our Farmer's Market. The first year I listed the garlic on eBay and on my website, but because I now sell out so quickly, I don't even bother to do that any longer.

This is some of the garlic "curing" in my greenhouse last May. Notice the hardneck scapes in the third picture.

Those are amazing Ken! I don't grow anywhere close to that many garlic. This year strangely half my crop didn't even come up. I've thought to myself that if enough hobbyest gardeners got together in a town. We could run a booth fine at a farmers market, but that'd take more time than what I care to do (rather use my time towards my garden lol). But if there was an easy way to get some side money from my extra produce I'm all ears

Curtis, I sell a few vegetable plants and herbs that are growing in 1 gal. pots, ready to be planted in large pots or in the garden. I advertise those plants on Craig's List so that local folks can purchase them. I don't sell a lot that way but make enough to pay for next year's seeds. Craig's List is free so it is sort of a win-win situation.

I didn't even think of craig's list, and I check it almost every day for garden supplies haha, why wouldn't I think of also putting my stuff up there.

Beats me.

The only thing I DON'T like about Craig's List is that sometimes I get, let's call them "weird", contacts, offering services I really don't want. Even though my Craig's List posts specifically say "Don't contact seller for services", I still sometimes get a flurry of "offers". I let Craig's List know about this breach in protocol, but I have never received a reply back from whoever administers the site.

First Official Day of Spring. Come join us in our new thread for spring---

The thread "What's going on in our Spring Vegetable Gardens?" in Vegetables and Fruit forum

Those are amazing Ken! I don't grow anywhere close to that many garlic. This year strangely half my crop didn't even come up. I've thought to myself that if enough hobbyest gardeners got together in a town. We could run a booth fine at a farmers market, but that'd take more time than what I care to do (rather use my time towards my garden lol). But if there was an easy way to get some side money from my extra produce I'm all ears

I planted a bunch more stuff today and mulched, now I'm tired. But wanted people to know that my asparagus did sprout woohoo!

My asparagus hasn't shown at all. If yours is coming up in Maryville, mine should be coming up too. Heck!