@SWIRE

Is it softneck garlic with no hard stem in the bulb you bought?

It doesn't matter since you are warm enough that it should do well.

I thought about this thread since I was ordering some seeds and came across actual garlic seeds for sale.  It's $23 for 100 seeds.  No, I didn't buy any, but I may try harvesting my own seeds this summer for fun.

https://www.adaptiveseeds.com/product/garlic-seed/true-garlic-seed/true-garlic-seed-s15-w6-27977a-2/

I'm pretty sure.  It says it is from California and I image they mainly grow softneck there.  We had a little bit of snow today but it should be gone in a day or two.  Temps are 1r degrees as the low for the next couple days and then it jumps to lows that are above freezing.

I planted Music and German cloves, and I still have the Music and Siberian bulbils that are now IIRC 2 years old.  I'll check my earlier posts to see when they were planted.

I also have Yellow Multiplier Onions that I transplanted from another area to a sunny one, and I will probably transplant some Egyptian Walking onions from another area to a sunnier one.

Still have about 18' of snow over the gardens.

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Garlic thread?!

Trying some store bought stuff and some transplants from a perennial garlic bed that was planted some years ago by a previous owner. (Lower pic) see if the hay bale thing works. The garlic and carrots seem prettt happy so far.

The perennial garlic is a smaller, moar spicy bulb. That’s all I know about it.

@NwG

Good stuff.  Yes, I’ve been doing the garlic thread since 2014 if you count the archived one linked at the beginning of this thread.

There is no reason you can’t just leave the garlic in the ground, so that perennial garlic bed sounds interesting.  Do you know if it is a Softneck or Hardneck variety?  Does it have a hard stem in the middle of the bulb?  I would love to try planting some if you are willing to let some go in the fall.  I have some things I could trade.

I’m not sure if it’s a soft or hard neck, the ones we have pulled were a single clove and not a traditional bulb. They tasted great.

That’s why I transplanted some to the beds. Hoping that some nice fluffy soil or hay bale would give us a better idea of how it wants to grow vs our rock hard limestone / clay soil.

I’d be glad to send you some.

@NwG

I will hit you up on those in late summer/early fall.

Update:  04/10/2019

@Eagle_19er
@samiam513
@Kitties-with-Sigs
@Waldo

I planted Music (left) and Siberian (right) bulbils in the spring of 2017 so these are 2 years old now.



Close-up





Music and Siberian bulbils on the left (both 2 years old) and Music planted from garlic cloves on the right (there is a little divider between them under the snow), with some tulips coming up between the stone pavers.  I also have German garlic but they haven’t come up yet since the ground was colder where they are.  The snow had all melted in this part of the garden but we got a sprinkling again yesterday and today.  The 2 year old bulbils probably have another 2 years to go before they form garlic bulbs.

That's awesome that the bulbils are still going strong!

I haven't had a garden since the move.  I'll be joining you with a garlic planting in the fall.  I put in some raised beds a few weeks ago.  Green beans went in last weekend.  I had tomato starts under a grow light but they all got dumped by the little rascals a month ago, so the 2nd try is still small.

I am really itching to do garlic again.  The progress you have made is awesome.  Keep it up!

I'm very glad to see them doing so well.

I think I'll go ahead and try to get some of my garlic flowers to go to seed.  My understanding is you have to remove all the bulbils and the remaining flowers between the bulbils will produce viable seeds.  I've never tried this before so who knows.

I'm trying to keep this thread fresh so I have to come up with new and interesting things to try.

Here is how my patch is looking.  Not sure why only 1/3 of it is doing well.  They were all planted at the same time, in the same dirt, and came from the same bulb.

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That's cool, OP. Garlic is probably one of the most potent natural medicines there is, plus it keeps people away, which is an added bonus. But I shudder to think what garlic grown in Oklahoma soil would taste like. We planted bell peppers one time, which aren't supposed to have any heat to them, and they were hotter than habaneros. The same thing happens with onions around here. Turns sweet ones into tear gas. If it ever turns out vampires are real, I have no doubt that garlic grown in Oklahoma red dirt will be the weapon of choice.

Could be a lot of things.  There are so many pathogens out there, and sometimes they only hit a section.  I had Cucumber Wilt one year which is a bacteria transmitted by the Striped Cucumber Beatle, but only about 1/3 of the plants were hit.

I’m sure some types of Softneck garlic would do very well there!

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Hay bale garlic and carrots pretty happy.

Very nice, guys!

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I saw this yesterday.  I used to give people a piece of a damaged leaf to guess what I was growing.  I never thought to use the roots after harvest.

I just read this thread for the first time about two weeks ago and decided to try growing garlic despite it really being the won't time of year to start.  Figured what the hell let's see what happens.  Worst case scenario is I wanted a few cloves of grocery store garlic.

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That's after about 5 days.  And they about doubled in height after I took the pic yesterday.  I'm going to have to try planning some other varieties in the fall.

It's odd but I really enjoy gardening, very rewarding

Interesting!  Scapes and now this to try!

Good stuff!  I do a lot of growing in pots.  I’m going to try planting some garlic in pots in the fall as I haven’t tried that yet.

I’ll post more pictures as my garlic has grown some more.

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Noms..

Already??  Well, you are in Texas.

Mine are going strong but slow since the weather has still been cold most days.

I will get pictures up.  The 2 year old garlic from bulbils are doing great!

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Some overly wet wether forced me to pull a few things.  Can’t complain though!  The waiting will suck.

My potatoes seemed to have gone bonkers..

@Cypher15

1) Is that a scape on the garlic in the back??

2) I’m way behind on my potatoes!  I am growing some Adirondack Red in 6 gallon pots.  What variety are you growing?

@NwG

Sorry I missed this.  What variety?

Russets

Yea, I harvested the scapes.

Nice!

We have had a cool, wet spring so everything is behind.  No scapes yet.

Seeing how late in June it is.. I harvested

We usually harvest in mid-July, but that's NH vs MD.  I'm not surprised you would harvest now.  I would have waited longer for the lower leaves to turn yellow/brown.

We have had terrible weather for growing.  Rain rain rain.

Those were harvested way too early.  You should have waited another month, maybe longer.

I am just now cutting scapes off of my plants.  I have maybe a dozen more to go.  This usually means that by the end of July they will be ready to pull.

Just getting scapes in central MN. I’ll be out cutting them next week.

I’m betting on late 2nd or sometime in the 3rd week of July for harvest.

Its been wet this year but the plants are HUGE. Hoping for some 2.5-3” bulbs. (Metechi & Georgian Fire).

Thinking about trying some Music again next year after a disease took most of the ones I had and didn’t replant the rest for fear of it spreading.

I would have waited. Nothing wrong with taking them now, but they would be bigger if you waited till the bottom couple leaves were brown.

They look like good healthy plants, so good job either way

First leaf dead on the majority of my garlic, second leaf dying. If we stay dry this week I’ll probably harvest next weekend. If we get pounded with rain AGAIN I’ll be out pulling them a few days early. —we got ~6 inches last week...not good for maturing garlic.

By the weekend with warm/dry conditions I expect the 2nd leaves to be dead and the third leaves to be starting, which is the beginning of the window I use to pull it.

On a different note, I’ve got a line on two different places I can plant for a small commercial garlic venture. Im lining up 20lb of seed stock in a few different varieties that have done well in the past to give a commercial venture a go. Probably won’t be selling much next year as I grow out my stock but it’ll be game on the following year!

That's awesome!  Good luck.

I will update with my bulbils that I planted.  Some of them flowered but were still small so I don't think their bulb will be big.

I have some lower leaves browning.  I'm likely going to harvest this weekend on my Music and maybe another week on my German!

Pulled all my garlic last week, and have it drying in the garage.  I should have pulled it a week, maybe two, sooner.  The weather was wacky the past few weeks.  I will say that the Music kicked ass this year.  Some of the biggest bulbs I have ever had.

I've got first year bulbils that look pretty good so far. I got them in late spring and the wet weather hasn't helped much but I should be able to harvest the majority as small, single clove bulbs for replanting this fall.

I'll be doing first year bulbils for the next few years as I build my seed stock, and periodically down the road as well.

Good.  I like ambitious projects!

Mine were planted more as a “proof of concept” project, but you’ve done bulbils longer.

ETA: To clarify, the following has been MY experience growing out bulbils. YMMV.

Oh it most definitely works, but often takes longer than the oft repeated “2 years to get a full sized bulb”...maybe for culinary use, but not for seed stock or sale as grade A produce.

IME, about 5% of bulbils will produce a multi clove bulb after one growing season. I *think* its somewhat dependent on the bulbil size to begin with, but I can’t prove that. In other words, its pretty rare, but the most desired type. I segregate all of these for further tests. The ones that are multi after one are generally the strongest and will do the best in the future.

The rest produce a single clove bulb of varying size. Some aren’t much bigger than the original bulbil and some are quite a bit bigger and fewer still show signs of wanting to divide but not quite getting there in the time they had. The larger the better in the first year. Also those “want to divide” bulbs are desirable.  I generally discard the bulbil sized bulbs and focus on the larger stock, as its stronger and takes less effort to grow out.

After that cull and a second season to grow, those that produce a decent sized (~1.25” and up) multi clove bulb in their second season can usually be added to and counted on as seed stock for the upcoming (3rd) year. I cull out diameters below 1” at this point most of the time, unless I want to run an experiment or its a particularly unusual variety that I want to grow out.

Bulbil to bulb can and does happen, but it usually takes more than 2 years to get there.

Pulled a few plants today to see how they look. Two of each type, Georgian Fire and Metechi.

This post is pics of the Georgian Fire. Flower stalks were cut on these a few weeks back, when they presented at least a 90 degree bend but well before the seed head started to swell.

The left bulb is "culinary grade" at about 1.2". The bulb completely fills out the wrapper and there is no sign of disease. This bulb came from my "test" bed of smaller cloves planted, which were segregated from the larger stock. It has two completely dead leaves ( leaf #1 not shown, it fell off during harvest) and leaves 3-7 are 1/3 to 1/2 yellowed.

The right bulb is seed stock at 2.25". This bulb also completely fills out the wrapper and there is no sign of disease. It is quite a bit more "plump" than the smaller bulb. This bulb came from my primary growing bed from a large clove. I'll only plant the largest cloves from this bulb. If it were over 2.5", I'd plant every clove from this bulb regardless of size. Leaf #2 is almost completely dead and leaf #3 is just under 1/2. Leaves 3-8 (yes it has an extra leaf compared to the other plant) vary from 10% to about 40% dead.

It's slightly early, by 7-10 days, to harvest this variety based on what the plants are telling me but the forecast is for storms tonight (Thursday) through the entire weekend. I'm not comfortable leaving them wet for several days in a row at this point. There's just too much risk of fungus and/or basal rot this close to harvest.

It's a balancing act this year. I'm taking the good with the bad and trying to make the most of it.

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Here are pics of the Metechi. Flower stalks were cut on these a few weeks ago as well.

The left bulb is also "culinary grade" at a bit over 1.5". Bulb completely fills the wrapper and this plant looks healthy. It was in my main bed so the genetics of this plant are probably inferior and won't be replanted (note the curved stalk as well). It has two completely dead leaves (one fell off). and 3-8 are 10-30% dead.

The right bulb is seed stock at about 2.3". This bulb also fills out the wrappers and the plant appears healthy. This bulb also came from my main bed. As with the other bulb, I'll only plant the larger cloves. Leaves 1 & 2 are completely dead and present with 3-8 being similarly dead at 10-30%.

I also observe that the Metechi plants are generally about 6" taller than the Georgian Fire, which is consistent with past years growing these varieties.

These are marginally LESS ready to harvest than the Georgian Fire but I'll be taking them early to avoid the potential for issues with the expected rain this weekend. If I were to guess, these could use about 10-14 more days in the ground under ideal conditions.

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Got it.  I am going to pull my bulbil bulbs/cloves within the next week as I have all next week off.  I can’t remember when I planted them originally but the information is in this thread, just have to look it up.  More info to come on my end, but you have already posted some excellent and critically important information.

OST

I got bulbils in late this year (early June). I wasn't originally going to plant any but decided to use a small raised bed that I planted clover in as green manure. I've never let bulbils go late into a season so I'll see how they do into the fall and let the plants tell me when they've had enough.

The experimentation is as fun as eating! If I get any I want to grow out from this late planting I'll consider it a bonus.

My harvest is in for the year and the Metechi was outstanding! The Georgian Fire was so-so but slightly better than average I guess. Sorry, I completely spaced getting photos during harvest. It was HOT and I just wanted to get it done.

I came up with 38 plantable bulbs of Metechi (over 2" with most over 2.25") out of 47 plants. Only 29 of 45 for the Georgian Fire. Of those, I got 18 over 2.5" for Metechi but only 9 over 2.5" for Georgian Fire. ---I consider over 2.5" to be "jumbo" and will replant the entire head (by cloves). 2"- 2.5" will have the largest bulbs planted, and possibly a segregated planting for the smaller cloves from those bulbs, space permitting.

Every plant looked healthy, not a single sign of disease. I have a few plants still in the ground that are growing out bulbils for next year. Those are staked and tied to keep them upright as the flower heads mature a couple more weeks.

As a sidenote, Minnesota has it's own Garlic festival on August 10th. I'll be there early looking at seed stock and talking with local farmers. I plan on picking up a few pounds each of several varieties that are locally grown in preparation for making the jump to a small scale commercial grower the following year. This fall I'll probably have somewhere on the order of 800-1000 cloves in the ground.

Just finished planting my garlic and onions.

Built 2 new raised beds a 4’x10’x12” and a 3’x16’x12”.

Filled the 16’ one with onion transplants, few different kinds and a pound of gray shallots. About 300 plants in all.

Filled the 10’ bed and half of another 16’ bed with garlic. Trying some of the verities from Filaree Garlic Farm. Mild French, Early Portuguese and Transylvanian.  Maybe 250-300 cloves planted.

Now comes the waiting part...

I was just thinking about this thread yesterday when I was pulling out my tomato plants killed off by frost.  Time to get garlic in the ground.

Apparently I missed some potatoes this year as a potato patch has sprouted.  I'm assuming they will over winter like garlic and onions.

Good work!

@C-4

I reported this summer that I was going to the MN Garlic festival in August and I did. There, I acquired 24LB of garlic seed stock to add to the ~5-6LB I had on hand to replant.

Planting started a bit late this year because I like to add copious leaf litter to my garden for mulch/organic matter and the leaves didn't come down until late October. This had me scrambling to get the garden ready but once I had enough leaves, I had the garden tilled and leveled right away, a couple days before Halloween.

Then the planting began. Being that I don't have a lot of equipment and only a (relatively) small space, most of the work was done by hand on hands and knees. This is something I'll be improving for next year when I expand at the farm, though the actual planting will still be done by hand. (see below for the manual dibbler tool I built to poke holes for this year).

As I was going through the ~30LB I had on hand, it quickly became apparent that I had more space than I had garlic! In a couple varieties I even planted the "small" cloves to see how big I can get them but still, the garlic I had on hand would only take up about 2/3 of my garden space.

I ended up buying 4LB in a couple varieties from Keene Organics and 7LB in a couple varieties from Filaree Farms. Both got them shipped out for me ASAP because I told them that we were close to freezing and I wanted it for planting. I also got a 4 more pounds from a contact in Montana I got through a local farmer I met at the Garlic Festival. (my local contact was out of seed stock).

The various shipments came in a few days apart which gave me the opportunity to stagger getting them in the ground. The final order (from the farmer in Montana) came in on Thursday the 7th and I broke it up and got it in the ground that day because we were already flirting with a ground freeze. Sure enough, the ground froze that night and will be that way until April. Not a moment too soon! --While it's ideal to get garlic in a few weeks before the freeze, I haven't had an issue planting as late as December in a "warm" year.

Total garlic planted this fall was 1,859 cloves, about 120 of which are "small" so I don't expect too much in the way of seed stock from them, but I will sell the scapes and bulbs locally for culinary use to recoup a bit of my cost this year.

The varieties I have are:
Armenian-70
Romanian Red-209
Siberian-75
Music-103
Georgian Crystal-90
Georgian Fire-89
Metechi-89
German Extra Hardy (White)-94
Asian Tempest-24
Purple Glazer-222
Chesnok Red-170
Persian Star-140
German Red-126
Majestic-136
Bogatyr-222

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Holy cow, that’s a ton of garlic!

Yeah, I’m pretty humbled here.

I’m very late getting it into the ground.  I only managed the Music and Siberian bulbils that have now grown to about the size of medium-sized planting cloves.  It’s been very interesting watching these over the last 2+ years.  I have to go back into this thread to find out exact age.  I was doing it more for fun and curiosity.

I also bought two other varieties last minute I’m putting in the ground on Thursday.  I have this week off but I’m taking a course Mon/Tues/Wed (tomorrow last day).

That’s a lot of variety!

I will post pics of mine as well!

@Eagle_19er