Garlic "volunteers"

Potty Plotty Lotty · « **on:** April 07, 2019, 07:14 »

I apparently failed to dig up all of my garlic last year and have lots of new growth. Can I fry and eat the shoots?

JayG · « **Reply #1 on:** April 07, 2019, 09:21 »

I'm still trying to work out how I managed to leave a couple of garlic plants unharvested last year (spuds, easy, garlic, potential Specsavers!)

You certainly can eat the leaves, which will have a garlic flavour but not as strong as the cloves.

I'm going to leave mine to grow just to see what happens - each clove is clearly producing its own shoot, but whether I get a cluster of usable bulbs or a random mess remains to be seen (not holding my breath!)

New shoot · « **Reply #2 on:** April 07, 2019, 09:39 »

I've never let such volunteers alone long enough to see if you get a crop worth storing, but you can harvest the whole clump to eat as green garlic as soon as you think it is worth picking. The bulb is good cut in half and roasted with a bit of olive oil and seasoning to eat with roast chicken or squeezed out into pasta sauces or pizza toppings.

Garlic is all edible, from clove to leaf to flower

mumofstig · « **Reply #3 on:** April 07, 2019, 10:46 »

If you can be bothered you can still lift the bulbs split them up and replant them, they'll look a little forlorn like transplanted spring onions do, but most usually take and carry on growing.

JayG · « **Reply #4 on:** July 27, 2019, 09:15 »

Quote from: JayG on April 07, 2019, 09:21

I'm still trying to work out how I managed to leave a couple of garlic plants unharvested last year (spuds, easy, garlic, potential Specsavers!)

You certainly can eat the leaves, which will have a garlic flavour but not as strong as the cloves.

I'm going to leave mine to grow just to see what happens - each clove is clearly producing its own shoot, but whether I get a cluster of usable bulbs or a random mess remains to be seen (not holding my breath!)

Yesterday I found the answer: 9 bulbs in a single cluster - each one smaller than those grown from individual cloves, but each seems to have divided into usable sized cloves, so overall a lot more garlic for the space occupied by one plant.

Intriguing - haven't decided whether I might deliberately plant a few whole bulbs next spring!

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Garlic "volunteers"

Potty Plotty Lotty

Garlic "volunteers"

JayG

Re: Garlic "volunteers"

New shoot

Re: Garlic "volunteers"

mumofstig

Re: Garlic "volunteers"

JayG

Re: Garlic "volunteers"

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