Multiplying garlic with Bulbils.

[bower]

That's great, TG! You got 50+ seed per pound for both of them, and it looks to me that you should have no trouble multiplying those stocks from the bulbs.


Always nice to have two varieties instead of one, since the weather is different every year and will favor one but not always the other.

[rxkeith]

kinda late to the thread,

my experience with garlic bulbils is i keep them together in the clump and break them apart just before i plant them.
might not make much difference, thats just what i do.

large bulbils i plant a couple inches deep, and about four inches apart. the bulbils from my german hard neck garlic will produce smaller fully divided bulbs the following year.
crowding bulbils by planting them two inches apart is supposed to help produce larger rounds. i like the bulbs myself.

for smaller bulbils, they can be sown in a row close together without much regard for spacing. they will produce rounds the following summer which should be dug, and spaced farther apart. the small bulbils take about three years to size up. patience is required.
when planting the bulbils in the garden, mark the row, and it would be a good idea to keep the row mulched on both sides to prevent weed growth otherwise it is very difficult to find the little green blades of garlic growing among the weeds. it might be better to grow the tiny bulbils in a tub.
using bulbils to increase your garlic supply is smart, and very economical.
garlic is good.


keith

[Tropicalgrower]

Originally Posted by bower

That's great, TG! You got 50+ seed per pound for both of them, and it looks to me that you should have no trouble multiplying those stocks from the bulbs.


Always nice to have two varieties instead of one, since the weather is different every year and will favor one but not always the other.

I'll have a good start now.The 2 I just ordered and the Unknown from bjbebs.Really looking forward to seeing how these do next year!

Originally Posted by rxkeith

kinda late to the thread,

my experience with garlic bulbils is i keep them together in the clump and break them apart just before i plant them.
might not make much difference, thats just what i do.

large bulbils i plant a couple inches deep, and about four inches apart. the bulbils from my german hard neck garlic will produce smaller fully divided bulbs the following year.
crowding bulbils by planting them two inches apart is supposed to help produce larger rounds. i like the bulbs myself.

for smaller bulbils, they can be sown in a row close together without much regard for spacing. they will produce rounds the following summer which should be dug, and spaced farther apart. the small bulbils take about three years to size up. patience is required.
when planting the bulbils in the garden, mark the row, and it would be a good idea to keep the row mulched on both sides to prevent weed growth otherwise it is very difficult to find the little green blades of garlic growing among the weeds. it might be better to grow the tiny bulbils in a tub.
using bulbils to increase your garlic supply is smart, and very economical.
garlic is good.


keith

Good to see you keith.

This will be first experience with bulbils.My horizons are being expanded here.Even if they don't all do well,some will,and that means I'll likely have enough.

Thanks for the advice.I figured that mulching would be necessary,and had already considered doing them in flats.

Getting excited already!

Trop

[bower]

That is some cool info about bulbil spacing/technique Keith. I had a small bulb left in the ground (crowded) that separated and produced large rounds the next year. I would like to have a precise method for that, to get bigger rounds from small cloved bulbs. Guess I need to experiment.

[Durgan]

I now go the bulbil, round garlic route. I plant bulbils year one. then the round year two. then use the cloves for year three which for all intents and purposes is normal maybe a bit smaller but hard to discern.
1 August 2018 Pulled Garlic
Posted on August 1, 2018 by Durgan
http://durgan.org/2018/July%202018/1...20Garlic/HTML/ 1 August 2018 Pulled Garlic
Garlic was pulled for storage about 100 bulbs. The roots were loosened by using a fork. The plants were then tied in bundles of about ten and hung in the shed and greenhouse to thoroughly dry.This garlic was grown from second year rounds and are about the same quality as when the main crop cloves are used for planting. The scapes are left on,since I do not use them. Also some bulbils are required for next years crop. Also the scape left on appear to make for larger bulbs contrary to popular opinion.

27 July 2018 Garlic for 2018 Planting Season
Posted on July 27, 2018 by Durgan
http://durgan.org/2018/July%202018/2...20Season/HTML/ 27 July 2018 Garlic for 2018 Season
Two row of rounds were planted in October 2017. They are now mature and produced about four cloves per round. These cloves will now be planted in October 2018 and will produce normal sized garlic bulbs in July of 2019. Sequence is plant bulbils (seeds), Rounds, Small bulbs, Then normal sized garlic. Bulbils>Rounds>Bulbs>Normal sized Garlic.
The small bulbs were pulled and place in a warm spot in the shade in the greenhouse to dry for planting in October 2018. This sequence means the full garlic crop is used, not necessary to save some for planting , also the new garlic is disease free.

5 July 2018 Garlic Rounds
Posted on July 5, 2018 by Durgan
http://durgan.org/2018/July%202018/5...20Rounds/HTML/ 5 July 2018 Garlic Rounds
A row of garlic rounds were harvested and set to cure for 2018 October planting. New garlic is usually produced from planting cloves from normal garlic. The method of using bulbils and going through the process to get normal bubs in about three years means more of the current crop can be sold and the new crop is disease free since it is from seed (bulbils).
The rounds are harvested a bit before the main harvest, since the tops have essentially died off.
The bulbils produce rounds the first year, when the round are planted they produce a small bulb with around four cloves in the second year. When these cloves are planted they produce normal bulbs maybe a bit smaller but more than acceptable.

[bower]

So here are some pics of my bulbil umbels as of today. We have a really short season so in the past I've tried several ways of growing bulbils from cut scapes, this time I kept them on the plant in the field after the others were harvested, and then lifted the whole plant with scape and hung them in my unheated porch to slowly mature. I had to put some collars around the umbel once they started to open, and yesterday I cut them off to bring inside, since the stems were yellowing and become hollow, and since the temperature at night is getting close to freezing now in the porch. They have formed skins on the bulbils which I found scarce especially with porcelains from cut scapes, and I'm hoping these will really cure properly with a nice skin on now that they are indoors.


It was interesting to see the bulbs on these are not necessarily smaller than what I harvested, since I left them longer in the field. All the bulbs which I trimmed afterwards are nice and hard and perfect quality afaict. So nothing at all was lost.


The first three are Bonavista (unknown variety) Music and Argentina. Porcelains. IDK about Bonavista but I think it is a porcelain based on the bulbils. They are just a bit larger than Music and Argentina, and the bulbs have a creamy wrapper color a little different so it's not entirely similar but porcelain it seems to be, early and large.


The fourth one is Kostyn's Red Russian, and these are much better bulbils than I got from cut scapes last year (first year growing up from bulbils). You can see how much rounder they are and different from the porcelain, a Marbled Purple Stripe.


Next are Persian Star and Chesnok Red, the purple stripes. The bulbils are very pointy compared to others, they have that characteristic at least PS does. Chesnok Red was one that didn't get a collar, and I'm wondering if that is why there are not better defined skins forming. This has been an issue for me with the porcelains in the past, that they made nice bulbils but no skins on them.

Last one Spanish Roja with nice red skins and large bulbils. When the scape split first, there were no skins on them but slowly developed. My cut Spanish Roja scapes didn't get eaten so they also made bulbils, and nearly as large as these - mostly they made fewer but almost as large.
So goes the experiment for this year, hoping to see nice skins and a perfect cure soon...

[rxkeith]

my spring planted garlic did not do well. i didn't think it would. i only got a few useable bulbs. i had about a dozen of my german hard neck come up from last years bulbils that i apparently missed. the bulbs were very large, plus i have some marble sized bulbils that i will be planting to rebuild the garlic stock. i did not expect the bulbs to be that big leaving the scapes on. it was a pleasant surprise.



keith

[bower]

Keith, I'm really glad you didn't lose your seed stock and can rebuild it. It sure sounds like a great variety, that can make it through the bad winter, floods etc that you guys have suffered this year, and still produce large bulbs and big bulbils. Definitely a keeper.

[greenthumbomaha]

I posted in the mmmm swap thread offering bulbils but had no response, so I thought this might be a better venue since it receives quite a bit of activity. I have an envelope of mixed, obviously hardneck bulbils which I am sending in to Tormato shortly. I was wondering how many people would be interested in them so I can package accordingly. PM or give me the thumbs up. There are no takers as of now.

- Lisa