True Garlic Seed

[clspie]

When sowing true garlic seed, how deep should they be planted?

Thank You

[brownrexx]

Most people plant garlic cloves, not seeds, but the rule of thumb for planting most seeds is to plant them twice the depth of the thickness of the seed.

In other words if the seed is 1/8" thick, plant it 1/4" deep. Many people plant seeds too deep and although they do germinate, the seedling runs out of stored energy before it reaches the the surface and the sunlight.

[joseph]

Originally Posted by clspie

When sowing true garlic seed, how deep should they be planted?

I aim for about 1/4" That seems to be deep enough to prevent the seedlings from flopping around after germination.

[clspie]

Thank You for the reply, got a few more weeks before
they come out of the refrigerator.

[joseph]

Good luck. I got about 10% germination on seeds that I planted directly without refrigeration. I'm waiting a few more weeks before planting my main set of garlic seeds (with a cold-stratification protocol).

[jtjmartin]

Newbie question: I've never grown garlic from seed. Where do you get garlic seed from?

I just spent 15 minutes on Google. A number of seed sites will list "garlic seed" but they actually sell "seed garlic" bulbs. I've got bulbs - wouldn't mind giving seed a shot.

I have onion seedlings from seed growing now - gives me "a fix" for the lean months of December and January!

Jeff

Jeff

[Durgan]

http://durgan.org/2016/October%20201...20Garlic/HTML/ 16 October 2016 Planting Garlic
Garlic was planted today. Two rows of bulbils (60), two rows of one year rounds (40), one row of typical cloves for comparison (20), and five rows of one year old rounds (100) which is the main crop. The bed was prepared earlier, covered with wood chip mulch. The soil is a good texture with compost and moisture. The cloves were pushed into the soil to make firm contact. The bed was heavily wood chipped and the plants have no difficulty pushing through in the Spring. The bed requires no care except maybe some water if the season is dry. Nothing attack my garlic and it is always excellent quality.



http://durgan.org/2016/August%202016...20Garlic/HTML/ 20 August 2016 Garlic
Three garlic plants were left in the ground to have the seeds, bulbils, fully dried and mature. The main bulb loses the outer sheath and the indivual cloves get much larger than when harvested with the heath intact about the first week of July. I have also found that the bulbs without the sheath keep as long as the sheathed bulbs. I now intend to harvest when the bulbs start to lose their sheath due to having such large cloves.

[Kazedwards]

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

Newbie question: I've never grown garlic from seed. Where do you get garlic seed from?

I just spent 15 minutes on Google. A number of seed sites will list "garlic seed" but they actually sell "seed garlic" bulbs. I've got bulbs - wouldn't mind giving seed a shot.

I have onion seedlings from seed growing now - gives me "a fix" for the lean months of December and January!

Jeff

Jeff

True seed from garlic is hard to get because it is very hard to produce. Garlic has a hard time making true seed because it has been cloned for so many years through bulbs and bulbils. Also only hardnecks can produce it and it is only some hardnecks at that. So really the only way to get true garlic seed is to trick or force your plants into producing it which can be very tricky.


-Zach

[jtjmartin]

Thanks for the explanation Kazedwards. Learn something new every day here on Tville!

[greenthumbomaha]

I inadvertently may be growing from true seed next season. I didn't cut the scapes off, and in the fall I noticed chive-like shoots growing in patches in the raised garlic bed. If it survives this brutal winter, perhaps I will have extra "one clove" garlic. Do I harvest and save as with regular garlic or leave in place for the summer?

- Lisa

[meganp]

Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha

I inadvertently may be growing from true seed next season. I didn't cut the scapes off, and in the fall I noticed chive-like shoots growing in patches in the raised garlic bed. If it survives this brutal winter, perhaps I will have extra "one clove" garlic. Do I harvest and save as with regular garlic or leave in place for the summer?

- Lisa

hello Lisa, it is more likely that the shoots have grown from the bulbils in your garlic scapes than from true seed. What variety of garlic did you leave the scapes on?

[greenthumbomaha]

Hi megabp, I had eight varieties of hardneck garlic so I can't identify the particular variety. I don't remember any of them "not" producing scapes. Is it an either or proposition, that is, does some garlic go straight to seed with no bulbils? Is it possible that I missed harvesting a few mature cloves with bulbils and the bulbils went on to produce seeds?

- Lisa

changed the order of my google search words and your blog popped up.. Joseph too ... nice!

[Durgan]

There is no such thing as true garlic seed. The scape seed pods produce sterile clones of the garlic clove planted. I use the seeds, called bulbils, to produce next years' crop after about two seasons. All the seeds germinate.

Almost all garlic is similar, the only variable is the size of the bulb and sometimes the color produced ,which is highly dependent upon the weather, and when it is harvested. I only grow hard neck garlic and use my own always for seed and have been doing so for over ten years.I grow perfect garlic every year around 100 bulbs and get about four bulbs dried to the pound of large cloves. I always plant is October and take no effort to treat the seed bulbs to cold weather conditioning.

Garlic is the easiest plant to grow if done properly in my Zone 5. It takes little room and can even be placed amongst flower beds. I consider garlic a cold weather crop.

I have well documented pictures to support my babble.

[Kazedwards]

Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha

Hi megabp, I had eight varieties of hardneck garlic so I can't identify the particular variety. I don't remember any of them "not" producing scapes. Is it an either or proposition, that is, does some garlic go straight to seed with no bulbils? Is it possible that I missed harvesting a few mature cloves with bulbils and the bulbils went on to produce seeds?

- Lisa

changed the order of my google search words and your blog popped up.. Joseph too ... nice!

It's very doubtful that they are from true seed. In order to get true seed you need to remove the bulbils as soon as the scape opens. It you don't then the plant will focus its energy to the bulbils instead of the flowers, if there are any flowers, which then wither away. The bulbils tend to crowd out the flowers too. The true seed also doesn't germinate well. Typically less than 5% a lot of which tend to not last long due to the genetic damage caused by asexual reproduction over many years. The good news is that each generation produces more seed with better germination. There have been some reports of germination as high as 95% after several generations of true seed.

I wish there was a variety that didn't produce bulbils. It would make getting true seed a heck of a lot easier than plucking bulbils out. Joseph had a whole field of garlic grass one year because of picking out bulbils and letting them drop to the ground.

You should try to get true seed. Purple stripes are the easiest to get it from. Chesnok Red has been very good for me. My biggest challenge is getting the true seed to grow once it is produced.


-Zach

[greenthumbomaha]

Ahh, yet another garden challenge to conquer. I thought it was exciting just to produce homegrown garlic. I don't know if I'll have the patience and heat resistance to pick off those bulbils in the intense July heat, sun, and bugs but its a nice thought in mid winter with single digit wind chills.

This is useful as well as cool to know; thank you for posting the info.

- Lisa