Of Garlic and Lessons Learned...

[Zeedman]

You've reminded me that I do have some bulbils from last year that I'd forgotten about (Crème De La Rasa and S&H Silver). I'm getting them planted today, along with Iowa Heirloom bulbils from Sand Hill (that I'd also forgotten), and they can grow inside for now. I didn't know about stem cloves. DH was taking care of the garlic under my guidance (a broken foot kept me from getting close to the garlic) and I didn't have the opportunity to notice if anything looked odd (S&H Silver is a softneck).

Anyway, I've given it a lot of thought. I'm going to allow this years crop to form bulbils and that will be my foundation stock going forward. There should be plenty of bulbils to share too! I won't grow garlic in that ground again. That ought to take care of it.

Scape formation in a silverskin sub-type is unusual; those more often produce stem cloves. Hopefully the S & H Silver didn't get mixed up with something else.

Allowing the hard neck scape & bulbils to mature will most likely reduce the bulb size. You might want to allow bulbils on only 1-2 plants per variety, and to cut the scapes on the rest for larger bulbs. The size & number of bulbils will vary depending upon the type of garlic. Crème De La Rasa is a marbled purple stripe sub-type, and will get larger bulbils (probably pea sized) but fewer in number, probably 10 or so. Rocambole sub-type bulbils are similar, pea-sized or a little larger. Porcelain sub-types get small rice-sized bulbils in large numbers - sometimes too many to count - so you would only need one plant for bulbils.

Although seed saving philosophy is to save seed from multiple plants to preserve genetic diversity, all garlic varieties are clones, so there is no genetic advantage to saving bulbils from more than one plant.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Allowing the hard neck scape & bulbils to mature will most likely reduce the bulb size. You might want to allow bulbils on only 1-2 plants per variety, and to cut the scapes on the rest for larger bulbs. The size & number of bulbils will vary depending upon the type of garlic. Crème De La Rasa is a marbled purple stripe sub-type, and will get larger bulbils (probably pea sized) but fewer in number, probably 10 or so. Rocambole sub-type bulbils are similar, pea-sized or a little larger. Porcelain sub-types get small rice-sized bulbils in large numbers - sometimes too many to count - so you would only need one plant for bulbils.

Must have been a porcelain type I found that year at the farmer's market, it's bulbil head looked like a red clover flower.

 

[meadow]

Scape formation in a silverskin sub-type is unusual; those more often produce stem cloves. Hopefully the S & H Silver didn't get mixed up with something else.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly when I found one 'hard neck' amongst the Nootka Rose from the new supplier. I checked with the local extension office and Master Gardener network and was told that a small percentage of soft necks will form scapes, and it is more likely under stress. We did have a very unusual and prolonged hot spell in our region (the new supplier also experienced the same hot spell).

Yes, that makes sense to limit the number allowed to form scapes. Thanks!

Interestingly, at least to me, is that I grew 2 batches of S&H Silver from a new-to-me in 2020 supplier. One was considered seed quality, and one was culinary quality, differing only in size. The scapes formed on the larger, seed quality batch. These also happened to be at the edge of the planting, which makes me wonder if they received less water than they needed (DH was hand watering), or were not mulched as effectively as the rest of the bed (I probably mulched 4-ish inches to the side, and should have gone at least 6 inches).

 

[meadow]

Oh maaaannnn...

I think I planted the bulbils upside down. I put the bulbous end down, but saw a picture that shows the sprouting end coming out of the (apparent) bulbous part and roots from the pointy end.

Anyone know which end goes down? I suppose I could do surgery on one, for science. Or plant them all sideways. Sideways would be better than upside down.

 

[meadow]

...and the verdict is...:

The bulbous end goes up!

It was much easier to see the correct orientation on the S&H Silver which were still in the umbils. Most of the Iowa Heritage were fairly desiccated but there were still plenty that were viable (the 2021 packets contained about 200 bulbils instead of the usual 15). S&H Silver and Crème de la Rasa were plump and fresh looking. When I peeled back the wrapper on a few, I could see the sprouting tip on the bulbous end.

eta: also the wrappers were attached at the pointy end (is that already the basal plate at this stage of development?), but not on the bulbous end.

 

[flowerbug]

Oh maaaannnn...

I think I planted the bulbils upside down. I put the bulbous end down, but saw a picture that shows the sprouting end coming out of the (apparent) bulbous part and roots from the pointy end.

Anyone know which end goes down? I suppose I could do surgery on one, for science. Or plant them all sideways. Sideways would be better than upside down.

it varies... i'd say don't worry about it, the difference isn't that much.

 

[meadow]

I just finished processing the Chesnok Red from the new supplier, bulbs that did not meet the criteria for planting.

2 more cloves had that 'bug eaten' look when peeled, but a perfectly intact wrapper. I think Zeedman is probably correct that this is some disease rather than an insect. Really learned this lesson -- plant incoming garlic in a planter and not at all in the garden.

 

[Zeedman]

If there are only a few damaged cloves, you probably have no worries. While peeling for dehydration, I always find a few damaged c;loves, and nothing unusual appears to carry over to the next year. Some of that may just be decay during storage, which is not unusual - in small amounts.

I have experienced large-scale deterioration & rotting once (I believe it was in 2013) when disease wiped out my entire collection. I was not alone, nearly every garlic grower in the upper Midwest - whether gardener or commercial - lost their garlic that year. The disease (aster yellows) was transmitted by migratory leaf hoppers riding a freak early-March warm front from the U.S. South... so fortunately, nothing you are likely to encounter in the PNW.

There are risks of pathogens or pests which can contaminate garlic stock. Garlic Bloat Nematode is one of the most pernicious, since once it gets into your soil, it is very difficult to eradicate. It is presently spreading in the eastern U.S. and Canada. Established commercial sources should be safe, but I would be very cautious with online or private sources. Garlic exchanges between individuals are best conducted via bulbils, unless the source is trusted.

 

[Branching Out]

Looks like trouble brewing on the garlic front. I harvested on July 9th, cleaned up the bulbs a bit, and then hung them out of the sun in our breezy carport until August 14th when they were trimmed and placed indoors. After a week or so I noted mold on a few cultivars, and then the other day a bunch more varieties began showing signs of mold. The stems seem to be molding from the basal plate upwards, and in some cases the wrappers have dots of mold too. When I crack open the bulb the cloves look just fine, but they would certainly mold in time. I don't want to put a fan on them lest it blow the spores around, so I am quarantining some cultivars that look good, as well as culling through the ones with signs of rot. I am not sure what went wrong here-- but we had incredibly wet weather from mid-May through mid-June, and then higher humidity than what is typical in the weeks after the harvest. I am quite concerned that I might lose most of my crop that I have so carefully curated for the past four years, but I am kind of chuckling over this as well because my plan is to grow less garlic in the coming year. I think I'm going to have to be more careful about what I wish for.

 

[flowerbug]

one of two bulbs i pulled apart a week ago must have had water getting into the bulb from the stem being injured or something as the tunics around all of the cloves was like a mushroom (it was digesting the tunics but not the cloves themselves, the cloves were pristine creamy white color as they should be). it didn't stink at all other than smelling like a mushroom, very faint, like a brie cheese. i just clipped the ends of the garlic as usual, rinsed it off and then we used it for the tomato sauce and meatballs that Mom was making. i don't think any of the other garlic bulbs have that soft neck. when i picked up the bulb i did notice it was soft and figured it might have been completely rotten, but was amazed to have the fungus rotting only the tunics and the base plate stuff but left the rest of it alone. it was crumbly and slightly wet. strangest garlic i'd ever "peeled" but it really wasn't peeling as much as crumbles or chunking.