White garlic
White garlic: Sowing, planting and harvest calendar
White garlic belongs to Allium sativum, a species in the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. The name covers cultivated garlic with predominantly white or ivory outer bulb wrappers. It describes a colour group containing different varieties, rather than one specific cultivar. A white bulb is therefore not automatically garlic from Lomagne, and its appearance alone cannot establish a particular geographical origin or protected designation.
The part you recognise in the kitchen is a compound bulb divided into cloves. Each clove has its own thin covering, while dry layers wrap around the whole head. Inside, the flesh is pale and firm. Bulb size, clove number and their arrangement vary between varieties. Some heads contain relatively large cloves; others have more numerous cloves arranged in several layers, with smaller ones towards the centre.
Above ground, garlic has narrow, elongated leaves that stand fairly upright. Their green colour can have a blue tint. The leaf bases overlap to form a false stem above the bulb. This linear foliage looks different from an onion’s hollow leaves. Garlic is biologically a bulbous perennial, although the crop is generally grown for a single season to produce its heads. Its development follows the variety and local conditions.
The distinction between hardneck and softneck garlic provides information beyond the colour of the wrappers. A firm flowering stem, the layout of the cloves and keeping qualities depend on the garlic type and cultivar. White varieties do not necessarily share the same maturity, cold tolerance or storage potential. Colour is useful for describing a bulb, but cannot replace those more specific characteristics when comparing plants.
Raw garlic has a pungent, aromatic, sulphurous flavour whose strength varies. Cooking gives it a gentler character, and the firm flesh can become soft and creamy. You will find it in sauces, soups, vegetable dishes, marinades and slow-cooked meals. Whole cloves and finely chopped garlic contribute different textures and flavours, making the same bulb useful in several styles of everyday cooking.
In a vegetable garden, its appeal combines a familiar kitchen ingredient with relatively slim foliage. The dried heads also reveal the diversity of cultivated garlic through their shape and clove structure. When you compare white garlic, a named variety adds valuable information: it tells you more about the plant and its characteristics than the whiteness of its outer skin alone.
White garlic
- Type : Vegetables
- Subtype : Bulb vegetables
- Botanical Family : Liliaceae
Characteristics
- Lifecycle : Annual
- Exposure : Full Sun
- Frost Hardiness : Frost Resistant
- Cultivation Difficulty : Easy
- Mature height : 60 cm
Sowing & Planting
- Greenhouse Growing : Not Required
- Sowing Depth : 3 cm
- Plant Spacing : 10 cm
- Row Spacing : 25 cm
Maintenance
- Maintenance : Low
- Water Requirements : Moderate
Other characteristics
- Soil Type : Humus-rich
- Soil pH Preference : Neutral
- Pest Sensitivity : Moderate
- Disease Sensitivity : Moderate
- Weed Sensitivity : Moderate
- Pollination : Insect-pollinated
- Propagation : Division