I bought a pack of garlic in the grocery store labeled 'pearl garlic'.
It turned out to be one giant clove instead of several small cloves
in the bulb. I made the easiest garlic spread ever. Now I'm
wondering if this garlic is the result of a new variety or a special
growing method. Where do I get more info on this novelty?

Sounds like someone renamed elephant garlic which grows one very large
clove and not many like regular garlic. Available at most seedsmen.

George

Pen wrote:

I bought a pack of garlic in the grocery store labeled 'pearl garlic'.
It turned out to be one giant clove instead of several small cloves
in the bulb. I made the easiest garlic spread ever. Now I'm
wondering if this garlic is the result of a new variety or a special
growing method. Where do I get more info on this novelty?

I don't know if this is the answer to your question, but if I plant a garlic
clove in the early spring and harvest it later that year, it will usually be
one ball of garlic rather than a bunch of cloves. If I plant it in
September and harvest it the next year, I will have cloves. Could it be
that pearl garlic was grown that way on purpose? I really didn't notice any
difference in taste, except that the cloves might have tasted a little
stronger.

Dwayne



"Pen" wrote in message
om...
I bought a pack of garlic in the grocery store labeled 'pearl garlic'.
It turned out to be one giant clove instead of several small cloves
in the bulb. I made the easiest garlic spread ever. Now I'm
wondering if this garlic is the result of a new variety or a special
growing method. Where do I get more info on this novelty?

(Pen) wrote:

I bought a pack of garlic in the grocery store labeled 'pearl garlic'.
It turned out to be one giant clove instead of several small cloves
in the bulb.

It sounds much like what people obsessed over garlic (mea culpa) call a
"round." If you plant one of the little bulbils that form on the stem of
topset garlic, you'll get a single undivided bulb the first season.
Usually those "flower" stalks are cut off to put all the energy into the
main bulb, but bulbils are a good way to make quick increase of a new
variety.
Digressing even further:
There's considerable discussion over whether cutting the scapes, as these
stalks are called, matters. It depends on soil fertility, moisture, the
phase of the moon, and the gardener's [love] life. In my garlic bed does
matter, to the tune of half the size bulbs.
Minor setback in spring up here, but at least it didn't snow.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at www.albany.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1200' elevation. NY WO G

Awesome! Thanks everyone.