Rojo de Castro

Rojo de Castro bulb and cloves with the dried scape at bottom right.

Rojo de Castro cloves in an even upright ring.

Rojo de Castro at 10 weeks. These cloves can be slow to sprout.

Rojo de Castro cloves

Creole Group Hardneck – Weakly Bolting

Originally from Cordoba, Spain, imported from the USA in 1994 by the Australian Garlic Industry Association. Loxton Var. No. 39, CSIRO Intro. No. 135560. The NGPS database number is W6 8417

General Information

Other Names	Cuban Purple
International Names	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.