Large Elephant Garlic - with nobules

I have just pulled up my 24 Elephant garlic plants - some, I think, I have left a little late as the bulbs have split. Almost all of them have small nobules - like mini onion sets. I have removed these and I have about 30 of them mostly creamy/brown and a bit hard. What are they? Can I use them for anything?
Many thanks

Teressa

 

Hi Teressa,

Snap,:D

Got the same things, not grown Effluent Garlic before. I'm going to replant mine in the autumn, hopefully should make new plants, shouldn't differ from the parents, being clones.

 

They are called bulbils/bulblets (they can also form on the scapes if left on) and can be re-planted to grow into garlic, but it will take a couple of years (round 1st year & bulbs 2nd year). If you leave them out of the ground for too long the skins will harden and make them less likely to sprout.

Elephant garlic is actually a leek rather than a real garlic, and if you leave leeks to go to seed (for seed saving) they can also form on both the flower head and around the root base. Have you ever had some leeks go to seed and had clumps of small leeks come up the following year where they were pulled from the bulbils left behind?

The bulbils from the topsets will grow easier than the hard skinned ones from around the base, and they will also be free of any disease (like white rot) that may be in the soil.

Some info here pearls of the garden