[amiman]

We just took delivery of our Elephant Garlic cloves, arrived late due to this virus.

Can we plant it out now?

[Yorkie]

Having just done a little research on the web, the guidance suggests that it needs a long growing season and can be planted in autumn or early spring.  You may be best waiting until about October, for a crop next summer.

However, I've never tried to grow this, so others may have more experience.

[polo71]

We just took delivery of our Elephant Garlic cloves, arrived late due to this virus.

Can we plant it out now?

No keep it and plant it last week October onwards and don't worry if it doesn't show till mid January it can be slow to show its self. Here is some I planted October last year, What would worry me is that you must have last years bulbs and its another 5 -6 months before planting so storing them may be a issue.

[Mr Dog]

Personally I'd plant them as the best way of storage - if nothing else they'll probably give you some scapes. Dig them up when they've done to inspect. You'll probably find that they've not 'split' and each has become one very big clove. Replant those to grow for next year.

[Gillykat]

I'd say get them in the ground too. They prefer a frost over winter which helps them split into a few cloves as opposed to one big monobulb so I'm sure either way you'll get some sort of crop. 

Just don't do what I did last year and let the poor things get pot-bound in a teeny pot all summer long    Never having grown garlic before I decided to get some cloves from Sarah Raven in September 2018 and when they arrived I potted them up and kept them over most of the winter in the greenhouse.  I then potted them into the next size up pot to tide them over until I could get them in the ground (prob about February) and moved them outside to experience frost (having just found out they were frost hardy!).  Well, long story short, I had crippling depression last year and my poor allotment was completely neglected and when I did feel better (September!!!) and started to tackle the weeds I found my three pots of garlic     I felt so guilty!!!  Almost consigned them to the compost heap but when I tipped one out of the pot it had still split into 6 cloves - as had the other two. So I kept 12 cloves to grow this year's crop and we ate the third one!     The cloves were only half the size of the ones I'd originally bought (probably due to being in a pot instead of the ground) but they're growing really well now    As an experiment a couple of months ago I bought two cloves from Wilko which were normal sized (ie twice the size of mine!) just to compare the harvest this summer. 

[Nobbie]

Another for just plant them, I’ve done similar with normal garlic and if the soil is too warm, it seems to just sit there dormant before growing as normal next year. Effectively you’re just storing them in the ground where it won’t shrivel up.

[Yorkie]

You could try half and half 

[amiman]

Thanks all for your answers
I planted them yesterday as most think that is a good idea.
Fingers crossed they will be a good crop next year