Sprouting garlic!

Interesting. Let us know what they taste like.

I’m growing it,too. After it has flowered and died back I think you can harvest the bulb. They are very nice. Quite an attractive flower, similar to a small onion.

Also, whilst we are on the subject, I always plant sprouted potatoes rather than chuck them out. They grow like topsy and I love harvesting them and discovering the number of potatoes they produce. They are interspersed with other plants.

You can plant out cloves from a shop bought garlic bulb straight into outside soil, they are fine through frost. I planted two bulbs out in January, they were happy even under snow. Now about 4 inches high. Leave until the leaves die back after midsummer and you will have lots of new garlic bulbs to see you well into winter.

Norfolknanna my garlic bulbs always shoot or go mushy before I use them How do you store them? Do you leave them in the ground until you use them?

I do the same as Norfolknanna - I buy a bulb or two of garlic in the autumn and plant the separate cloves. Each one grows into a new bulb of garlic by late summer. They don't produce flowers, just leaves like onion plants, and when the leaves start to die back you pull up the bulbs and dry them out.

I have in the past planted garlic, but it did seem to spread beyond where I wanted it!

Just recently, I have separated the cloves, taken off the akin, and put them in a small jar, covered them with oil, and keep them in the fridge. Fine for cooking.

Shoots are called scrape can make pesto and garlic butter with them.

I was thinking the variety of garlic we get over here is probably different so I looked it up. Amazed at how many different varieties there are. The one I have has a lovely little white flower but some are mauve and pink.

It is supposed to keep away the insects and vermin if you plant garlic between the strawberries. So if the result turns out inedible (which seems unlikely) you can always put them to work there.

Other uses for chopped garlic or onion leaves: Sprinkle on a salad, stir into cottage cheese and season well for a tangy spread, garnish soups, omelettes, fry with onions as a base for stewsetc, or add at the end of cooking to give crunch and colour.

I added a few chopped shoots to last night’s stir-fry.
Tasted very slightly garlicky. Would also work well as a nice green garnish IMO.

Hi, to answer amberone I just let my newly harvested garlic bulbs hang up outside for a few weeks until dry skinned then keep in a cool dark cupboard. We get through them before any try to sprout again.
Before Christmas this year our local farm shop was selling garlic that had already started to sprout and pull apart for 20p a big bulb. Separated the cloves and planted and they grew away immediately.
You can buy named varieties in garden centres but they always seem very overpriced to me.

Some of the shoots are now 35 cm!
Astonishing growth in a very short time. I will put a lot more into my next stir fry or fried rice.

Nothing wrong with growing shop bought, but sometimes it’s been treated to inhibit sprouting, I buy from seed shops or Isle of Wight garlic farm as it’s grown specifically, I can then grow year on year on the allotment.