Garlic question

[bario1]

Hi All,

I grew garlic successfully for the first time last year (Provence Wight), so I thought I'd give it another go this year - I planted some of last year's crop, and a different variety, Carcasonne Wight. The Carcasonne appears to be growing fine, but it looks different to the Provence - it has multiple small shoots instead of one big one... does that sound right? Is it because it's a hardneck variety and Provence is a softneck variety?

[vixylix]

Possibly a daft question... but did you plant them as individual cloves rather than the bulb?

[bario1]

Yes, individual cloves!

[Greenleaves]

I would suggest it is because Carcasonne is a hardneck variety

[bario1]

Thanks Greenleaves - I've never grown hardneck varieties before - will it form one bulb, or will each shoot develop into a bulb?

[Scarlet]

Hmm, It's never happened to me but that isn'tright. I remeber Chiil Grower had the same problem. Each clove on the bulb starts sprouting and the bulbs aren't that big.

Here's one thread, I'll find the other. Unfortunately the photos have all gone it's not as much help as it could be!
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...litting-2.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ain_85391.html

[Scarlet]

Ok...on this thread where Chilli grower harvested the multi sprouting garlic he says that the crop wasn't too bad. So worth letting it carry on I think?

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ted_79852.html

[Jungle Jane]

Witches brooming? These cloves look like the same things happened with each clove having a stem but they look worth carrying on with. If they have no outer skins to protect for storage like those,they could be sliced & dried in a food dehydrator or used first. I'm growing that variety,I'll have to check mine although if they're like this they'd still be treated the same as the others.
MOUND: Wet Bed

[Scarlet]

Cloves that don't look good for keeping get minced and stored in white wine vinegar here. Perfect for lazy garlic lovers

[bario1]

Thanks for the replies, sounds like bad news to me. I'll probably just pull them up and put some Onion sets there instead. Interesting that the article JJ linked to mentions over fertilisation - I did put a LOT of 6X under the mounds at planting time....

[Forage420]

Are you sure you split the bulbs properly? Sometimes it looks like you have one clove when in actual fact it's several. I've done this before.

I've got picardy, solent and province overwintering starting to show now and all of them are single shoots.