Is there any way to tell what kind of garlic this is?

[theberzh]

I know this may be sort of a complex question and difficult or impossible to answer.
Is there any way to tell what species garlic this is?
I received a bulb from an old friend years ago and failed to write down what she told me they were, and I have lost communication with her over the years.
I have since been growing and expanding this garlic and I now plant about 1000+ cloves every winter.
It has turned out to be an amazing species with excellent flavor and is very strong.
It's a hard neck species and the neck curls up as the scape goes to flower.
The tiny scape seeds are very tender and soft when they first form and they dry out and fall off slowly as the season rolls on.
I'm in Connecticut if that helps.
It usually gives anywhere between 4 and 5 cloves per bulb and the cloves are huge.
The ones posted in the photos are really medium size.
Some plants in spots with 'only okay' soil only split to 2 to 3 cloves per bulb.
Here are a few photos.
Can anyone help me out please?

 

[Branching Out]

Such beautiful cloves! I just spent the past two hours cracking bulbs in preparation for planting garlic, and like you I grow cultivars that came without a pedigree. One is a remarkably vigorous large garlic that has been grown by a friend for decades; he thinks it may be a Purple Stripe or Marbled Purple Stripe. The other two were acquired as bulbils from Seeds of Diversity; they each came with a name (Chet's Italian and French Red), but no indication as to which group of garlic they hale from. And like you I would like to know what kind of garlic they are.

One good indicator of the type of garlic is the form that the bulbils take when they ripen in summer. For example Porcelain cultivars have huge cloves, and hundreds of tiny rice shaped bulbils. Rocambole garlic can have large cloves too, and they produce really big bulbils that look like large chickpeas or small hazelnuts. Other groups such as Creole and the purple ones have bulbils that fall somewhere in between, and are less distinct than the Porcelains and Rocamboles.

Clove formation around the stem can help in identifying the type of garlic as well. There is a good example of that in some of the photos here, https://www.rasacreekfarm.com/garlic-store/Seed-Bulbs-c16489045

The different groups tend to have very different storage ability too-- so if they hold for three months, six months, or nine months that can be a clue as to what they are.

I think you can likely narrow it down through careful observation and note taking. In the end though genetic testing may be the only accurate way to know. From my reading there are many garlic over the years that were misidentified, and that have now been grouped accurately as a result of testing.

https://www.groeat.com/post/garlic-the-scientific-truth-about-garlic-varieties

Good luck!

 

[theberzh]

Such beautiful cloves! I just spent the past two hours cracking bulbs in preparation for planting garlic, and like you I grow cultivars that came without a pedigree. One is a remarkably vigorous large garlic that has been grown by a friend for decades; he thinks it may be a Purple Stripe or Marbled Purple Stripe. The other two were acquired as bulbils from Seeds of Diversity; they each came with a name (Chet's Italian and French Red), but no indication as to which group of garlic they hale from. And like you I would like to know what kind of garlic they are.

One good indicator of the type of garlic is the form that the bulbils take when they ripen in summer. For example Porcelain cultivars have huge cloves, and hundreds of tiny rice shaped bulbils. Rocambole garlic can have large cloves too, and they produce really big bulbils that look like large chickpeas or small hazelnuts. Other groups such as Creole and the purple ones have bulbils that fall somewhere in between, and are less distinct than the Porcelains and Rocamboles.

Clove formation around the stem can help in identifying the type of garlic as well. There is a good example of that in some of the photos here, https://www.rasacreekfarm.com/garlic-store/Seed-Bulbs-c16489045

The different groups tend to have very different storage ability too-- so if they hold for three months, six months, or nine months that can be a clue as to what they are.

I think you can likely narrow it down through careful observation and note taking. In the end though genetic testing may be the only accurate way to know. From my reading there are many garlic over the years that were misidentified, and that have now been grouped accurately as a result of testing.

https://www.groeat.com/post/garlic-the-scientific-truth-about-garlic-varieties

Good luck!

Whoa that's a lot of information. Thanks so much. I have to get reading on this and figure these out. These grow so large. People have told me that one of my cloves grow larger than entire bulbs in the grocery store.

 

[Branching Out]

Whoa that's a lot of information. Thanks so much. I have to get reading on this and figure these out. These grow so large. People have told me that one of my cloves grow larger than entire bulbs in the grocery store.

Hmmm...is there any chance that it is elephant garlic (which is not a 'true'garlic but rather a member of the leek family)? The cloves of elephant garlic can be absolutely massive.