Garlic

Garlic (Allium sativum) is a bulbous perennial food plant of the family Alliaceae. The word comes to us from Old English g?rl?ac, meaning "spear leek".

Cultivation and plant structure

Because of its wide cultivation, the origins of garlic are not fully certain; it is probably derived from the species Allium longicuspis, which grows wild in southwestern Asia. It is related to onions and lilies, and cultivated in the same manner as the shallot. The domesticated garlic plant does not produce seeds, but is grown from bulbs. These bulbs, whose segments are usually called "cloves" by cooks, are the part of the plant most commonly eaten, though some cooks also use the early spring shoots. These shoots are often pickled in Russia and states of the Caucasus and eaten as an appetizer. A common error of beginning cooks is to misinterpret the word "clove" as meaning the entire garlic bulb, rather than one of its segments, thereby wildly exaggerating the amount of garlic in a recipe.

Related Topics:
Allium longicuspis - Asia - Onion - Lilies - Shallot - Bulb

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The garlic plant has long, narrow, flat, obscurely keeled leaves. The bulb has a flaky outer layer of skin like that of an onion. Inside are 10-20 cloves, or smaller bulbs. From these, new bulbs can be procured by planting out in late winter or early spring.

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Selfsufficientish.com provides the following growing instructions:

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• Plant the individual cloves from a garlic plant in drills of 5 cm (2 in) and 15 cm (6 in) apart. Ideal soil pH is in the 6.2 to 6.8 range.
• Garlic grows best in hot wet conditions, but try it all year round. It is pretty hardy and will live through frosts.
• Ensure that the growing area is weed free.
• Garlic likes water; in a hot climate it may need to be watered daily. If the shoots look dry then it is a sign that the plant needs a 'drink'.

Garlic is ready to harvest about four months after it has been sown. At this point the foliage will lose its colour and die back. Dig up the bulbs with a fork to avoid damaging them.

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The percentage composition of the bulbs is given by E. Solly (Trans. Hon. Soc. Loud., new ser., iii. p. 60) as water 84.09%, organic matter 13.38%, and inorganic matter 1.53% - that of the leaves being water 87.14%, organic matter 11.27% and inorganic matter 1.59%.

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