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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-366
Elephant Garlic
Allium ampeloprasum var ampeloprasum
Elephant garlic is actually a leek, not a true garlic, which is why its jumbo cloves carry such a mild flavor. Cloves go into the ground in mid-autumn, root over winter, then swell as spring daylight lengthens, giving a harvest of bulb plus edible winter leaves, flowers and bulbils - a genuine green crop through a season when little else is cutting. It is dormant through the hottest part of summer, so it needs no summer water, and its jumbo bulbs sell at a novelty premium at farmers markets that ordinary garlic doesn't command.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–10
- Soil
- Sand · Silt · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Rhizosphere- Soil pH
- 6–7.5
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 3–4 ft
- Mature spread
- 12–24 in
- Plant spacing
- 12–36 in
- Root type
- Bulb
- Spread pattern
- None
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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