Garlic question - bulbils?

[Lavender2]

Some of my Japan garlic developed some small bulbs up on the stem. I had removed the scapes at the curly stage, when they formed. These were 3-4 inches above the bulb.

Are these bulbils also? Would you plant them?

 

[Smart Red]

Yes, and yes.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

yes, softneck types will still form a 'proto bulbils' just around the soil line.

 

[PhilaGardener]

Interesting, how purple those look! Are the cloves also purple when you peel the wrappers off to use them?

 

[Lavender2]

Thanks!

Interesting, how purple those look! Are the cloves also purple when you peel the wrappers off to use them?

On the mature bulbs, the inside skins have some purple streaks but the clove is white. I was surprised at the purple also.

 

[Smart Red]

I think the purple coloring goes with the color of the flower rather than the garlic root. A couple of years and those bulblets should be as big as the mommas.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I think it's actually pretty common for the bulbils of garlic to be more purple or darker in color than the actual cloves. Back when I got my rocambole bulbils at the farmers market, they were almost brown despite the actual bulbs they came from being mostly white (with a pinkish cast on the inner layers)

I always assumed it was a function of how much light the tissue was exposed to (remember that, for a lot of plants, purple coloration is sort of like their sunscreen). That could still be the case here. These bulbils were ensheathed in the leaf tissues as they grew, but those tissues are still above ground and a lot more light permeable than the actual soil is. Certainly I know that for a lot of my garlic base, bulbs that have their bulges above the ground (either naturally, or through me having dug around them to expose them in order to check on their progress) are often VERY purple (many of my smaller rounds used to come out of the ground more or less the same color as a skinned red onion.)

 

[Lavender2]

A reasonable assumption @Pulsegleaner . The bulbils still mostly covered in the stem in the photo are light brown. The more exposed ones are darker purple. Some are actually quite large, close to the size of some of the cloves I planted last year. Maybe they are ready to be mamas!

I will plant them, and do my best not to lose them in weeds.