Problems with elephant garlic

[Maxvtorojj]

Hi! Best wishes from Russia!
My name is Sergey, I amd my mother are living Russia? Moscow.
Mom planted in spring 2012 two cloves of elephant garlic. It produced some scapes.
The leaves were so green to the end of august. Some users on Russian planting forums have advised us not to exhume it.
In spring 2013 we exhumed it - there were 6 cloves of garlic.We have planted them - but they didn't come up. At the end of August we have exhumed them. They were absolutely OK!

Why did it happen?
Was there something wrong in garlic?
And should we plant it again?

Thanks a lot for your patience.

And I beg your pardon for my English.

[PAULW]

Sometimes if the conditions are not right the garlic clove you plant does not always go on to produce a bulb of garlic as we know it, it forms a round bulb that has not divided, I usually as you have done replant these the next season and the go on to make a proper bulb of garlic, just one of those little tricks mother nature likes to play on the gardener.

[Maxvtorojj]

Thanks a lot! Could you tell me the right time for planting?
Spring?
Or atumn?

PS - Our garlic formed a real bulb at first year) It consists from 6 cloves)

[PAULW]

I put mine in in the autumn gives it chance to put roots down before going to sleep for the winter.

[Maxvtorojj]

Thanks a lot!

[Paulieb]

Generally, I think garlic needs something like 30 days of cold temperatures for the bulb to split. So by planting in March there may not be enough cold to split the bulb thus ending up with one big bulb.

They can survive okay throughout the winter as long as the ground is not too wet (cold is okay), so there shouldn't be a problem with autumn planting.

[Pineberry]

We are talking russian here, the winter is a lot colder over there then here. It can go to -30c at times, depending on the region -20c is common I suspect, please correct me if I am wrong. How low temperature wise can the garlic withstand in the ground before turning to mash. I had some garlic gloves in a freezer for 24 hours once (stupid thinking) and it turned translucent, not good for planting anymore. And my freezer was -22c.