Different locations, soil types, soil ammendments, climate, etc can give you a different appearance... some purple stripes can have less or more color because of this.

Fertility & watering can affect bulb size, as well as how long they've been in the ground--usually fall planted in October and harvested sometime in July.

I think the bulbils take about 2 seasons/years to get an appreciable size head. The first year they may make a round, and the next year a bulb.

Hope this helps.

Mark

Different locations, soil types, soil ammendments, climate, etc can give you a different appearance... some purple stripes can have less or more color because of this.

Fertility & watering can affect bulb size, as well as how long they've been in the ground--usually fall planted in October and harvested sometime in July.

I think the bulbils take about 2 seasons/years to get an appreciable size head. The first year they may make a round, and the next year a bulb.

Hope this helps.

Mark

Garlic needs a rich soil. I dig a trench about 10" deep, half fill with composted cow manure and mix, then plant garlic. And side-dress with 10-10-10 in spring. Hard to give them too much fertilizer as long as soil is well-drained (mine started out as bank run gravel).

I had the same problem with bulbs from the Garlic Store. I think in my case it was a mix of poor soil and not enough sun. The bulbs did fine. They're healthy. But they were smaller than I expected. This time, my second crop, I'm planting some in an adjacent bed, similar conditions but I'm putting in more compost, and some in a raised bed that gets full sun.