Only thing I find odd is that it took a year for them to grow. The "onion like bulb" is called a round. Not uncommon. And the little things around the bulb are corms. They are very common. I planted some corms last Fall but they rotted. If you give them a gentle whack they are easy to peel and use in cooking.

Rodney

Like Rodney says, what you got is pretty normal.

Only I would plant the offsets back now and give them a chance to sprout out and establish themselves between now and killing frost. They should still be hardy enough to winter over for you. I did that with some offseason offsets I got of sand leek and had most of them sprout and then return this spring, and had one of them even bolt and set a headful of bulbils this year.

I had the same problem with elephant garlic not sprouting the first spring, myself, when fallplanted, but those were grocery store cloves and may have been treated against sprouting. I did get some spring planted ones to come up this year. Those I intend to move this week.

I expect to find a single relatively large round and the offsets below each of mine much like you found with yours.

Thanks. I'll try to plant them, and hope for the best.

I am bringing this conversation back up because, unlike I intended above, I did not get those from last summer replanted. BUT those I planted the fall before showed up this spring after a year in the ground. They simply did not sprout at all last year, but this year are sprouting and look to be ready to do some real good.

I planted some last spring... Some sprouted and some just sat in the ground for a year with roots. They all came up this spring but part of the ones that sat in the ground, rotted away.. It's like the started over with the small unrotted centers..

I was sorta worried about hardiness, since I am zone 4 and quite a few descriptions only mention zone 5, but I also know that the zone 4/5 boundary can be a bit porous depending on how well it has been tested for particular plants. Hardiness zones have also moderated a bit due to the effects of global warming. Looks like my elephants are going to put on a full season show this year. I had given up on them; so this is a pleasant surprise.

It took two years for my Elephant garlic to clove.

Bumping this thread... Well, after two and some years, all my elephant garlic sprouted and they sprouted at the same time. They look very strong too... The funny thing was that in the past, it was mostly the super market elephants that sprouted and the ones that I bought as "seed" just sat and grew roots... I'm glad I stuck with it... Hopefully I get multiple heads this year, instead of one head and a few rounds like I did last season..

I planted one head of elephant garlic about two weeks ago. I'm going to plant another head. Both are purchased from store. So I do not know what to expect. Are they going to wait for a year?

It seems only home grown elephant garlic is reliable to sprout within the same year. Even the only seed elephant garlic can have delay?

This is my first time growing elephant garlic.

Yea, hopefully you get a quick start with yours... Mine took some time and I had to stick with it. They seem to be acting "normal" now... At first I didnt know what was going on or what to do... I dug out an unsprouted clove and found roots, then replanted it... They just do what they want to do, sort of like a cat... lol

I have a few home grown bulbs, mostly just rounds that I reset last fall. I am hoping for them to sprout this spring. If not I will probably end up deciding that elephant garlic is just too much messing around. I have had elephants not show up the first year, just too often. Hopefully my own home grown bulbs will return yearly.

One thing I noticed last year is that when they go dormant, the tops just plain wither up and disappear. I delayed digging too long and had trouble finding the bulbs back. They also seem to have dug themselves deeper than I had planted them by quite a bit.

I did not have any trouble curing and storing the bulbs I did get. Holding very well for a long time in storage is one of their strengths.

The key to consistency MAY BE to grow home grown cloves...

I was surprised on how long mine stored too...

For me this is the last chance for the elephants. I do not intend to buy any more planting stock. Either what I have does something or I move on. Like you I am hoping that what I have settles in and becomes year to year dependable. The storage potential definitely intrigues me.

I understand that I am borderline for elephant hardiness anyway. I definitely am fine for multiplier onions, tree onions and garlic, and I have a very decent patch of the smaller milder sand leeks going, too, but I don't have the space to continue to waste on failed varieties any longer.

I think we should at least give elephant garlic a full season to see how it grows. For store bought, the first season should not count.

I planted elephant garlic with Martin's heirloom in the same bed. I can leave them in the soil for one whole season. I only planted two bulbs.

RedSun, I agree... Mine behaved really odd the first year I tried to grow them... I also read that somebody else had a a wierd first growing season with elephants in a cooler region and gave up on them but had them growing good the next spring, thinking they rotted away. That just gave me the incentive to stick with mine..

OldDutch, I know what you mean about spending time on failed varieties. I feel the same way about some of the shallots that I grew last season... I dont want to waste my time on them when I probably can grow more productive varieties... I hear that some of the cool weather hard neck garlics wont grow where I'm at also so I wouldn't plan on growing them either.

Am I missing something in the posts?

I have an very old garlic that was found at an old home stead in N.C. Mountains, just south of Tenn. The man who found it, grew it for 28 years in the Mountains under a tree with no compost or help of any kind. It grew as rounds & I posted here on Garden web that it was single non cloving/ cloveless garlic.

Two year after I got 5 rounds from this man I had very large Elephant garlic.

He started to cultivate the rounds in fertile soil & he too has large garlic, but it takes 2 year to clove. He had it for 42 years, now.

I wish we where on THE OLD GARDEN WEB, so I would not have to post that I am in S.C. in zone 7b/8a. this knew site is a mess!

I had an experience much like OldDutch describes... and came to the same
conclusion. When I tried growing elephant garlic, the winter kill was
high (around 50%), and many of the survivors only made rounds. For 3
years, I only harvested enough to replace what had been planted - and
never enough to actually eat any. It was a lost cause, and I have better
use for the space (like more kinds of garlic). So I sent my best stock
to someone further South, and ate the remainder.

Since I never tried planting the nut-like corms, I don't know if they might have survived enough to tilt the scales in my favor. However, since I have found hardneck garlic varieties that grow nearly as large as elephant garlic - with far less trouble - I feel no urge to try again.

Good to know. I've never planted elephant garlic, so just something to try this season. Not a lot of room, just about 18 plants this year.

Thanks, may I ask what varieties & where you ordered them?

I have had good luck with hard & soft neck garlic In S.C.

Came to this thread because we have just cooked and eaten a EG that had been dug a year ago. Remarkable storing life. When we cut into it we found no cloves, what I now know to be a round. I have another year old round, I wonder what the chances of it growing on are if I plant it this autumn?

Peter, Elephant Garlic is not Garlic, it is a Leek & a bi-annual, you got first year bulb, it would have been cloves in another year. I have a pound of Elephant garlic cloves that I am planting for it's two year growth.