Australian Garlic
Celebrating and understanding our garlic groups and cultivars
Rojo de Castro
Hardneck - Weakly Bolting
This cultivar falls into the Artichoke Group, Type 2 and shares its evolution with others in this sub-group from Formosan to Taiwanese and Taiwanese Purple. Long time grower Roger Schmitke selected bulbs from this heritage that produced larger bulbs and cloves then other cultivars grown in the 80s and 90s. These went to Queensland’s Gatton Research Station and over a 6 year period they were grown and selected and replanted, selecting only the biggest and best bulbs and cloves. In 1997 Southern Glen named and released.  See the Production of Garlic here
This day-length neutral cultivar is a very important cultivar for growers in warmer more northern regions.
General Information
International name/s: Rojo de Castro NGPS database number W6 8417 http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1043633
Flavour: Hot, rich nutty flavour. Good both raw and cooked.
Storage: Long up to 12 months.
Growing location: Grows well from Northern NSW to Tasmania. It will also grow in WA and does particularly well in SA.
Growing requirements: It doesn't like to be too wet, or too humid. Dry heat really suits it.
Planting and harvest: Mid to late.
Bulb
Shape: Round, globe shaped or slightly more flat. Flat base. 5-6cm.
Skin colour and texture: Solid, strong, fine white skins.
Clove
Number and layout: 6-12 usually in single layer but reasonably often there are a few internal cloves.
Size and shape: Tall and slender with a sharply angled inner surface, 2.5 cm tall x 1.5 cm wide.
Skin colour and texture: Purple red to teak cloves, some with a creamy base and cream stripes from the base.
Plant
Size and shape: Tall, slender, upright.
Leaves: Narrow leaves, blue green colour.
Young plants: Slender and upright.
Matures: More slowly and mid to late.
Scape: Relatively strong but generally drooping rather than looping. Remove scape to increase bulb size.
Umbel and beak: Small umbels about 1.5 cm in diameter, medium sometimes flattened beak.
Bulbils and flowers: Pink, rounded bulbils, 6 x 3 mm, 20-50?, no flowers.
Artichoke Group
Silverskin Group
Subtropical Group
Asiatic Group
Creole Group
Middle Eastern Group
Turban Group
- Flinders Island Purple
- Glamour
- Italian Purple
- Monaro Purple
- Ontos Purple
- Shandong
- Tasmanian Purple
- White Crookneck
- Xian