3 April 2017 Garlic

[Durgan]

3 April 2017 Garlic
Posted on April 3, 2017 by Durgan
http://durgan.org/2017/April%202017/3%20April%202017%20Garlic/HTML/ 3 April 2017 Garlic

Garlic, hard neck white, type no name, planted in October 2016 is up and growing well. Different this year is an attempt to use one year growth Rounds as the main crop. This procedure leaves more of the main crop for consumption.

Method is to plant a row bulbils (sterile seeds) in the Fall. These will mature into one single bulb called a Round. The Round is then planted and the following year will produce about 4 cloves exactly like the original parent. Typically normal garlic is used for propagation meaning a large part of the garlic is used for propagation. This is a waste. My previous experiments indicate that the bulbil, round route to harvest is easy and practicl with no reduction in quality.

http://durgan.org/2016/October%202016/16%20October%202016%20Planting%20Garlic/HTML/ 16 October 2016 Planting Garlic
Garlic was planted today. Two rows of bulbils (60), two rows of one year rounds (40), one row of typical cloves for comparison (20), and five rows of one year old rounds (100) which is the main crop. The bed was prepared earlier, covered with wood chip mulch. The soil is a good texture with compost and moisture. The cloves were pushed into the soil to make firm contact. The bed was heavily wood chipped and the plants have no difficulty pushing through in the Spring. The bed requires no care except maybe some water if the season is dry. Nothing attack my garlic and it is always excellent quality.

 

[headfullofbees]

Have you tried planted the bulbils in the autumn, say at the end of October, to see if vernalisation gives you bigger bulbs, with more cloves, from your rounds?
It would certainly simplify storage, at least, if your yield was no worse, and may bring an earlier harvest.
In the UK the saying goes, "Plant on the shortest day, harvest on the longest," but I have found that planting in late October and harvesting when the leaves die back at the beginning of July works best here.

 

[Durgan]

I always plant in the Fall about October 20. Never in the Spring.

I have also changed my harvest time from first week of July the to the end of August or even later. The bulbs are beginning to split exposing the cloves slightly. The dried bulbs keep just as well as harvesting in July and the cloves are considerably larger.

Only hard neck is grown. I do not utilize the scapes and leave them to mature. The bulbs may be slightly larger by doing so, but it has no other effect that I can ascertain, also I require some for the bulbils produced for seed.

One can let the rounds go two years to get larger sized cloves for planting, but there appears to be no advantage in doing so.

The names thrown around for garlic are so much double speak IMO. I go to the odd garlic festival and compare my garlic to what is shown and mine is always close to the best, if not the best.

My garlic is always as perfect as can be grown.
Here is a bulb that was allowed to split. It keeps as long about six months as earlier harvested and the cloves are larger.

When allowing the bulbils to complete growth, I wrap the seed pod at the end of the scape with cloth mesh to prevent the seeds from falling as they mature.

The only down side is in a very wet Fall, bulbs sometimes get moisture damaged. This seldom happens in my area.

 

[headfullofbees]

You are fortunate; here, pissing it down is the default.

 

[Durgan]

10 April 2017 Garlic Bulbils
Posted on April 10, 2017 by Durgan
http://durgan.org/2017/April%202017/10%20April%202017%20Garlic%20Bulbils/HTML/ 10 April 2017 Garlic Bulbils
The garlic bulbils planting in October 2016 are growing through the wood chip mulch. All the garlic planted survived the winter and is all growing. The plants are small and quite delicate. They grow through the wood chip mulch with no difficulty.