Replanting cloves next year

[xellos99]

I bought garlic sets this year and found them surprisingly expensive.

So I want to save cloves for next season.

Do I need to do anything special before I plant them or just use dried bulbs from normal storage as they are ?

Also will they be as big as this years harvest or is it best to buy sets from a shop again ?

[zipcode]

If your garlic is good size (clove size), use yours.

[Father'sDaughter]

With garlic cloves, bigger is better for seed stock, so choose heads with the largest cloves and set them aside for replanting. And no need to do anything other than dry and cure them as you normally would.

[Worth1]

Bigger is better.

[brownrexx]

I save mine every year. Just save the biggest cloves.

Experts say that re-planting your own cloves eventually makes them more adapted to your particular soil and climate.

[bower]

The size of the clove you plant is a major determinant of the size of the bulb you will grow. So set aside your largest and healthiest bulbs for seed.
Re: healthiest, I mean don't plant any cloves that appear to have disease or insect damage. Seed should be the best you've got.

[xellos99]

Originally Posted by bower

The size of the clove you plant is a major determinant of the size of the bulb you will grow. So set aside your largest and healthiest bulbs for seed.
Re: healthiest, I mean don't plant any cloves that appear to have disease or insect damage. Seed should be the best you've got.

Well all my garlic has rust disease so I am going to have to research if the spores stay alive after plants are dead.

I am paranoid now about transferring the disease to next years crop because it is like a spore that spreads I think.

I am hoping it cannot lay dormant

[bower]

Originally Posted by xellos99

Well all my garlic has rust disease so I am going to have to research if the spores stay alive after plants are dead.

I am paranoid now about transferring the disease to next years crop because it is like a spore that spreads I think.

I am hoping it cannot lay dormant

Everything I read about rust says not to worry, it doesn't affect the cloves you want to replant. My guess it overwinters on decaying foliage, and never affects belowground parts (except for not growing as big because of the loss of leaves). So not to worry.

[habitat_gardener]

I've planted garlic from the farmers' market instead of buying sets.
Unfortunately, this year there was a gopher tunnel right under the garlic bed, even though I put hardware cloth in that bed. Looks like they were able to pull the roots down through the 1/2" openings!

[svalli]

One garlic growing enthusiast here in Finland claims that the biggest cloves should not be planted, because those will not grow the biggest bulbs. He says that it is best to plant the average size cloves from the biggest bulbs.
The biggest cloves in the garlic head may be such that there are actually two cloves fused together and such cloves will grow into two separate bulbs, which will then be smaller when growing together.

I usually select large and uniform bulbs as my seed stock. I avoid planting from bulbs which have only couple of huge cloves, unless it is a rare variety, which I have to plant all what I have in order to multiply them. It feels sad to use all the best looking bulbs for planting and eat all the ugly ones, but that is the way to guarantee good harvest next season too.

Sari

[xellos99]

I will re-plant some of my own seed and try some new types also.

It is interesting to have more than one flavour I think.

[bower]

xellos99, I think it is nice to grow multiple varieties so you can compare and see which ones do best in your location. Also as the years roll by and the seasons are different, some varieties may succeed better in a given year. So you can hedge your bets that way.

[GrowingCoastal]

The biggest cloves in the garlic head may be such that there are actually two cloves fused together and such cloves will grow into two separate bulbs, which will then be smaller when growing together.

I think I had a couple of these in my pots this year. I was wondering about that. Thans for mentioning it, Svalli.

[xellos99]

I overheard my neighbours today say that they could smell garlic.

I have about 110 of them hanging up in a wooden shed next to their garden.

The shed has an air gap around the roof for ventilation and there is a stink that lingers for long distances.

Oh dear, I have only harvested half of them so the smell will get worse hahaha.

[bower]

I have to say I love that smell of garlic just harvested. One year my son and DIL were coming to visit just at the right time, I hung the garlic in the front porch so they would be greeted by that lovely aroma! The best garlic smell ever I've smelled is Spanish Roja at harvest time. Good heavens! Some folks were walking down the lane as I dug the SR's at the farm one fine summer day, and they stopped to ask what is that wonderful smell! And that is walking along maybe 80 ft away from me in an open field. Fantastically smelly.... you must try some for the neighbors ..