Seasonal Garden - Russian Garlic (Elephant, Giant)

 Seasonal Garden - Russian Garlic

This month I have planted out bulblets that I harvested from last year's Russian garlic.  Never heard of Russian garlic? Neither had I until a couple of years ago and found it in a well known plant catalogue. I love trying out new plants and veggies, so thought I would give this a go. Oh boy what a winner, certainly in my eyes anyway. So I will share with you what I have learned and why I think I will always have this plant in my garden.

Plant Name - Russian Garlic (Elephant, Giant) - Allium Ampeloprasum

This plant is a tough as nails and because it can grow from bulblets which form on the roots of the parent plant, can become a bit of a problem if you don't always want volunteer new plants growing in that area. For me, I love volunteer (free) plants. I also love plants that I can grow true from seeds or in this case, bulblets.

This plant is not a true garlic, but more closely related to leek, which is where it's versatility comes in, best of both worlds. It's wild cousin grows in dry harsh places in Europe, Africa and Russia.  If you are growing this plant in areas where you have more reliable rain than I do (in a good year I might get 500 mm), it is possible for you to end up with a feral patch of this plant somewhere in your garden.

This plant looks like a huge garlic, hence one of its other names - giant garlic. It has large flat leaves, with a prominent central rib, if this plant is left to grow for a full season it will develop a large bulb or a three to five giant garlic like cloves as big as a tennis ball.

In late spring, early summer a large flower spike grows up and can reach impressive heights of over 2m (for me though about 1.5m), with a large pompom like flower head, with a mass of little flowerets.

Bulb, seeds or bulblets?

I initially purchase bulbs (similar to garlic cloves) ready to plant out, but since then I have grown my plants from bulblets.  Though I have had volunteers appear in the veggie patch where I have not planted any plants, so these must have germinated from seeds from the flower heads. What you use will depend on what you can get your hands on initially and then your preference. I like the bulblets because they are easy to store until I am ready to plant, plus the fact I eat the actual bulb/cloves and I don't seem to have a great success with germinating my own Allium seeds (any kind) .

Soil
This plant is very tough. It's wild cousin does grow in dry, harsh conditions and St George (Qld) can certainly provide those conditions.  My soil is a sandy loam with a pH of around 6.5. I do add organic matter to my soils once a year, either as a green mulch or compost. I also feed with a pelletised complete fertiliser twice a year and composted manure.

Watering

I have installed irrigation in my veggie beds and water 2 to 3 times a week, depending on the water restrictions. I mulch well to help conserve the moisture in the soil and this seems to work with no problems to date.  Here in St George, the winter is our dry season, so if you receive plenty of winter rain, you may not need to irrigate regularly, only as needed.

Position

I provide shade for this plant about 30 percent. Whist the winter sunshine we get is St George is not a fierce as during the summer, I do still like to provide some light midday shade. This plant can be grown as an understory plant, but does need some sunshine at some point during the day.

Pests and Problems

To date I have not had any pest problems.

Harvesting

I plant out early autumn and grow through the winter months, harvesting in mid-summer. I could harvest earlier, but have found that the bees love the flowers, so it seems a small sacrifice to make, to keep the bees happy. I let the flower stalk start to dry out, then I know I am good to go and will have good sized bulbs.

As I mentioned above, you can harvest your Russian Garlic a lot earlier before the base of the stalk started to swell into a bulb, this way they are a lots more leek like. An option is to plant densely, then thin out over the growing season, using some of your plants like leek and saving some to use as garlic. 

Storage

I treat the bulbs like garlic, allowing the leaves and bulbs to dry before storing in a cool dark place. I have not yet learned to plait garlic or in this case Russian garlic, but love the idea of plaited  bunches hanging in my pantry.  Maybe this year will be the year.

Final Points

This is a great plant, easy to grow, keeps giving and very versatile. 

In a follow-on blog post I will look at how to use this plant in your cooking and share my favourite recipe for preserving them.