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This year wasn't a particularly good year in my garden. Due to my ill health through spring and summer, the only things that got planted were the potatoes, onions and elephant garlic, all of which were planted either late last year o…
Last edited on November 29, 2025. View history
Elephant Garlic
Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum
A variety of leek
How to sow elephant garlic: Direct seed cloves outdoors in spring or autumn
Sun requirement for elephant garlic: Plant in Full Sun
Elephant Garlic is a perennial plant in the Allium genus. It is actually a variety of leek, not garlic. Elephant Garlic has broad, flat leaves like a leek, but forms a bulb of very large, garlic-like cloves that can be up to 10cm in diameter. The cloves have a milder flavor than garlic and are often used raw in salads or roasted. Elephant Garlic can be planted in the spring or autumn. The immature plant tops, or scapes, should be cut off to direct the plant's energy towards the bulb. Scapes can be pickled, stir-fried, made into pesto, or frozen. Unlike garlic, Elephant Garlic can be grown as a perennial and left in the ground, where it will spread into a clump with many flowering heads and cloves. It can also be grown as an annual and harvested each year for it's bulbs. Elephant Garlic is also an ornamental (for it's blooms) and a companion plant (like other Alliums, it repels pests).
- 4
- plantings
- 1
- harvest
- 1
- seed packet
Elephant garlic facts
Lifespan
Annual
living and reproducing in a single year or less
34 weeks
median lifespan
First harvest expected
34
weeks after planting
Height × spread
90cm × 10cmRow Spacing
15cmGrown for
bulb harvested 1 time
Optimal temperature
18–24 °C
Absolute temperature
6–27 °C
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal rainfall
750–1000 mm/year
Absolute rainfall
350–2800 mm/year
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal soil pH
6–6.5
Absolute soil pH
4.5–7.5
FAO EcoCrop
Crop cycle
120–150 days
FAO EcoCrop
Max altitude
1000 m
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal light
clear skies
FAO EcoCrop
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For elephant garlic, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 6°C and a shortest growing cycle of 120 days at its best temperature, about 1800 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your elephant garlic will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing elephant garlic
- Sow seeds in trays 10 weeks before planting out
- Dig compost into the bed 1 week before planting out
- Water regularly at planting out every week
- Feed with a nitrogen fertiliser 4 weeks after planting out every month
- Earth up the stems 8 weeks after planting out every 2 weeks
- Lift the leeks at first harvest
How members grow elephant garlic
Sunniness
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Planted from
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Harvested for
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Plant elephant garlic with
Photos
Elephant garlic plantings
Elephant garlic harvests
Elephant garlic seeds
Video
Where elephant garlic grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about elephant garlic
potatoes
Who's planted elephant garlic
- Batchelor Raised Bed Right · Auckland, NZ
- shiny back yard shaded garden · Wellington, NZ
- Mad_Martha Back Garden · Torbay, Devon, UK
- julegan Vegetable Garden · 3733 SE 28th Ave...
Elephant garlic harvests
-
shiny harvested 1.
almost 8 years ago
shiny harvested 1.
View all elephant garlic harvests
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View all elephant garlic seeds
- Purchase seeds via Ebay
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 120 to 150 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Allium ampeloprasum L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Liliopsida Liliidae Asparagales Alliaceae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -5 °C, rest: -5 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual, biennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about elephant garlic
Resources outside Growstuff.
