Garlic Types

Garlic (Allium sativum) is divided into two main types, hardneck and softneck. There is still some debate over whether these two types are genetically distinct, and we sometimes see them referred to as var. sativum for softnecks and var. ophioscorodon for hardnecks. Regardless of the botanical nomenclature, it is still a useful distinction to make when growing and using garlic.

Hardneck garlic has scapes

Scapes are snapped soon after emerging

As the names imply, hardneck varieties develop a hard stem in the middle. This stem is called a scape, which forms an umbel on the top. Inside the umbel, the garlic produces a cluster of mini bulbs called bulbils. These bulbils are not true seeds as they are just reproductions of the parent plant, not the result of pollination. There are also a few flowers in the umbels, but these are seldom pollinated and it is very difficult to get true seed from garlic. Most garlic is reproduced vegetatively, either from dividing the bulb and planting the cloves or from growing the bulbils. Softneck garlics seldom produce a scape, so their neck remains soft after harvesting, making them well suited to braiding. Hardneck garlics give us the bonus of being able to harvest the edible scape before the bulb is ready to harvest. We snap the scapes off soon after they emerge so the plants can put more of their energy into fattening the bulbs.

Softneck garlic (no scape)

Softnecks are good for braids

Garlic Groups

After deciding whether your garlic is a softneck or a hardneck type, the next way of distinguishing garlic is by which group it belongs to. The many different varieties of garlic have been categorised into ten groups: Artichoke, Asiatic, Creole, Glazed Purple Stripe, Marbled Purple Stripe, Porcelain, Standard Purple Stripe, Rocambole, Silverskin, and Turban. At this stage, we are growing garlic from six of these groups at Moa Valley Farm.

Knowing which group your garlic belongs to is very helpful as it means you can work out what it is likely to taste like, what conditions it prefers, when it is best to be planted and harvested and how well it will keep. Identifying the group is probably even more useful than having the variety name, as the name can sometimes be unreliable. One point to note is that ‘elephant garlic’ (Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum) does not belong to any of these groups because it is a completely different species, more closely related to a leek than to garlic.

Elephant garlic bulbs with corms