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Post by octave1 on May 5, 2023 11:04:42 GMT -5
Last fall I planted garlic, and since I had also collected many bulbils from the garlic mature flowers (the scapes), I decided to plant those as well to see how long it takes to grow garlic from seed. Those bulbils have now turned into miniature garlic plants, and in 8 weeks or so, it will be harvest time--just like it would be for the regular garlic. My question is: what do I do after I dig them up? At this time they seem too small to be divided into cloves and replanted in the fall. Perhaps they'll grow larger by harvest time, but I still don't know how to proceed from there on. Any suggestion? ![](https://i.ibb.co/DzPWxnG/IMG-6425.jpg) ![](https://i.ibb.co/Np3GFCx/IMG-6427.jpg) These are the bulbils in the ground, they were planted in pots so I would not lose them. These is what the bulbil looks like now: ![](https://i.ibb.co/2WzmK71/IMG-6421.jpg) ![](https://i.ibb.co/VxSLWv0/IMG-6422.jpg) And this is the regular garlic: ![](https://i.ibb.co/VBhHxVs/IMG-6428.jpg)
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 5, 2023 12:55:05 GMT -5
Those bulbils are still pretty small, but I would expect them to grow a good bit in the next ~8 weeks. I have never grown garlic from bulbils, but from my reading, this year you would harvest and store the little rounds just like mature garlic, then replant them at the normal garlic planting time for your area.
As to when they will make full heads of garlic, you can better judge that at harvest time this summer. If they end up making rounds about the size of normal garlic cloves, then next year they will probably make heads. If this year the rounds are significantly smaller than regular garlic cloves then I would guess that next year they will just make bigger rounds, and then the following year (2025) they will make full heads. Again, this is just from my reading. I have never grown garlic from bulbils.
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Post by octave1 on May 5, 2023 14:59:30 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL , one of the reasons I decided to grow those bulbils is that they come from a very good, although unknown to me, garlic variety. I couldn't get that variety in any store (it is grocery store bought indeed), so this is my attempt to propagate more of what I got and grew last year. It's also a fun way to see how garlic develops, and because bulbils take almost no space in the garden, it's really worth trying IMO.
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Post by octave1 on Jun 22, 2023 16:54:22 GMT -5
Today I dug up all of my garlic, including the starts. They were easy to dig up because they were in pots, and all I had to do was pull up the pot from the ground, dump it and sift through. I must say that I was quite impressed by the size some of those bulbils reached, and even more by the length of their roots: ![](https://i.ibb.co/n83pbs8/bulbis-roots.jpg) Some bulbils grew to an okay size, but the biggest ones are the size of a quarter. I also didn't expect them to be spheric like small onions. Considering that they start out as tiny as cooked orzo pasta (and some a bit bigger, but still very small), they have grown very large. ![](https://i.ibb.co/kVL0PmB/bulbils-size.jpg) And this is the whole bulbils harvest: ![](https://i.ibb.co/3rgfC0q/bulbils.jpg) I can see why it will take at least 2+ more seasons before I get some decent garlic heads, but I am determined to continue this experiment because it's really fun and surprising.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 23, 2023 9:17:55 GMT -5
Very cool, octave1. Those roots are huge, and it's really impressive how much they sized up since early May! I think it is possible that some of the biggest ones will head next year. But I think you're right that the smaller ones will need 2 or more seasons.
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Post by september on Jun 23, 2023 9:49:17 GMT -5
Nice experiment! I always like to see how things grow and develop on their own.
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Post by brownrexx on Jun 27, 2023 9:57:09 GMT -5
octave1,I think that they are called garlic "rounds" when they are harvested and look like onions. Early on I had a few of them in my garlic parch but now all of mine form heads.
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Post by octave1 on Jul 2, 2024 13:40:03 GMT -5
7/2/2024 updateLast October I planted a full bed of garlic rounds. Did not count how many but there were many, all the larger rounds. This is what the bed looked like on May 22nd, 2024 ![](https://i.ibb.co/hdmgkHx/garlic-in-may.jpg) It looked like all of the rounds made it through the winter and grew well. Last week, after a long hot spell, I decided it was time to dig up the rounds and see how they actually did. In the first picture the larger bulbs, then the smaller bulbs. Considering that a garlic round is about the size of a marble or less, I think they did amazing. Not very many cloves in each bulb, but the cloves are quite large. ![](https://i.ibb.co/vVDgVqJ/larger-bulbs-from-rounds.jpg) ![](https://i.ibb.co/cy6rTRy/garlic-bulbs-from-rounds2.jpg) I still haven't counted how many heads I harvested, but now the plan is to save the largest cloves and plant them again in October. This has been possibly my most successful garden experiment ever, and I have one more season to go to complete it. Nonetheless, I am just happy I got garlic from seeds! EDITED to add that I counted the heads, they are 55.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jul 2, 2024 16:24:23 GMT -5
Very nice, octave1! You are the only person I know directly who has grown garlic from seeds, so it's really cool to see you were successful. And now you can get another harvest every year. ![8-)](//storage.proboards.com/3247375/images/1NCUkitzIlI5ObFwfSeh.png)
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Post by octave1 on Jul 2, 2024 20:50:00 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL , thank you, but it wasn't hard at all. It does not even take patience, because you plant the garlic--at any stage, and forget about it. Soil preparation is minimal once your beds have been organic and no till for a while. I would say, to those who like to watch things grow, try it. It's actually quite amazing.
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