Garlic Bulbils

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?RGXCB 10 May 2015 Garlic bulbils
The garlic bulbils, saved seed, is growing well. They will produce one large clove at harvest time in July. It appear all that were planted germinated.
http://www.durgan.org/2015/June%2020...0bulbils/HTML/ 29 June 2015 Garlic bulbils
The garlic bulbils planted in October 2014 were harvested and put to dry for seed in October 2015. About 50 bulbils were obtained. Next year the bulbils will produce about three cloves per bulbil. The following year the planted cloves will produce normal sized bulbs.

[clkeiper]

Nice durgan, I have never thought of saving seed and starting it.

[Durgan]

I experimented a few years ago with about ten plants. Now I am going to continue in a serious manner.

I have found that it is important to insure the bulbil seeds are fully mature. I do this by wrapping a piece of gauze around the bulbil head and let the seeds fall out on their own. This takes about month after the normal harvest of the bulbs. There are many seeds in one head. I usually do four heads for variety.

One can have fresh seed each year by planting a row of bulbils every year. They take up very little room.

I might add the small first year bulbils can be utilized as normal garlic. They taste exactly the same as the cloves from a bulb. This is also applicable to the first years seeds but they may be a bit too small to be convenient.

[Nematode]

Interesting, is there an advantage to doing this over planting cloves from a full sized bulb?
How many bulbils per scape?

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by Nematode

Interesting, is there an advantage to doing this over planting cloves from a full sized bulb?
How many bulbils per scape?

There is one cluster of bulbils per scape and about 200 seeds. Do a Google and read the advantages of propagating in this manner. There are many advantages touted.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?MRFRA 28 July 2014 Collecting Garlic Seed
Four garlic plants were left in the ground after harvesting the main crop to form seeds. The seeds ripen and fall so the seed head was wrapped in gauze to prevent dispersal until harvested. After harvest the seeds will be further dried and planted in October in my Zone 5.There are two plants of Porcelain, no name, which is my own grown year after year, and two plants of Music grown this year.

[meganp]

hello Durgan, the bulbils that you have grown out into undivided bulbs are called rounds. referring them to seed is incorrect - there are efforts to obtain true garlic seed which involve removing all the bulbils to allow the flowers to develop. it might be something that you may wish to try yourself - it requires a high level of patience and meticulous attention to detail that you possess http://garlicseed.blogspot.co.nz/p/g...true-seed.html

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by meganp

hello Durgan, the bulbils that you have grown out into undivided bulbs are called rounds. referring them to seed is incorrect - there are efforts to obtain true garlic seed which involve removing all the bulbils to allow the flowers to develop. it might be something that you may wish to try yourself - it requires a high level of patience and meticulous attention to detail that you possess http://garlicseed.blogspot.co.nz/p/g...true-seed.html

Most interesting article. It would be nice to have typical garlic with cloves the size of elephant garlic. I have attended a few garlic festivals and found my garlic production was equivalent to the best on show.

I am happy with using the garlic bulbils for replanting year after year without dipping into the best cloves for seed stock. I started a few yeara ago but had one disasterous year where not one of my bulbils germinated, which I contributed to how they were developed and processed. Now I am slightly more careful.

What I find amusing is garlic is amongst the easiest plants to grow, yet in Canada almost all our garlic now is imported from China and since there is some reluctance to this it is now also coming from Mexico. To grow little room is required and it grows in almost any soil. But I digress, since there are few home gardens in Canada.

[meganp]

Originally Posted by Durgan

I am happy with using the garlic bulbils for replanting year after year without dipping into the best cloves for seed stock.

when I first started growing garlic 5 years ago I was given a couple of hardneck bulbs with their umbels and replanted the latter for exactly the same reason all the more left to eat