Biennial Garlic?

I left some garlic in last year - just didn't get around to harvesting them.

Decent sized clump this year, plus they have "Matured" way earlier than the correct-time planted ones, from fresh cloves bought from pucker seed merchants, and as a consequence have ripened ahead of the rust that is now covering the bought ones.

So I wonder if growing garlic as a 2-year-crop might be an option?

Would need wider spacing / fewer cloves planting for a given expected weight of crop, too.

 

Im going to give give the perennial or plant once option a try garlic on the allotment
http://www.onestrawrevolution.net/One_Straw_Revolution/Article_Garlic_Plant_Once.html

 

I planted some last spring.
It grew until about May and then died back.
I left it in the ground and by Nov it was away again.
I've lifted it now as it died back again.
Its the biggest garlic I've grown, none of those fiddly little corms, I usually get.

 

OK, not a Muppet idea after all . Just a bit of a bind to accommodate in my crop rotation

 

I've had that happen (due to a drought and neglecting to water), so they didn't divide but just grew a bit then started again and produced an early crop the following year, but if garlic that divides gets left in the ground it will produce a clump of stunted bulbs. I pull them early (spring onion size) to use in stir fries.

 

Interesting, thanks.

I don't think I have EVER produced a bulb that looked like [i.e. size-of] one of the ones that I had bought as "seed cloves". That might be my heavy soil? and favour two-year production cycle perhaps?

 

Nope, it wasn't drought, as one of the other varieties went on to produce pretty mediocre bulbs, with very small corms.
Both varieties said they were suitable for spring planting.

 

Drought is what caused my Spring planted garlic to stall. If it wasn't drought, then something else would have been responsible for your garlic stalling in May.

 

I thought it could have possibly been a variety that needed planting in Autumn?

Going through the cold of winter before really making a move.
Which in effect was what it did.