Seed garlic in short supply - order now if you want it this year

[zendog]

I just ordered some garlic from Filaree Farms and noticed they were out of stock on a lot of varieties already. Looks like other vendors are already completely out. I guess it is a continuation of the seed frenzy this spring.

So just a heads up that if you are looking to order seed garlic this year you might not want to wait much longer.

[GoDawgs]

I just got an e-mail that Southern Exposure is starting to ship their garlic, northern areas first. They said they still have a few varieties left but not much.

[zendog]

From their website, it looks like Southern Exposure are now out, but maybe if people call they have a little left.

I wonder if all these orders driving everything out of stock is going to be the new normal for demand or if people will try gardening for a year and most of them will hang it up. In the community garden where I grow most of my veggies, I see about 50% attrition of the new gardeners every year once they hit late July or August and see how much work it is to battle the weeds only to have the septoria, blight and other maladies take out most of their plants.

[GoDawgs]

I wonder if all these orders driving everything out of stock is going to be the new normal for demand or if people will try gardening for a year and most of them will hang it up.

I hadn't thought about that but I think you're spot on. My guess would be for a big attrition rate.

[JRinPA]

I think most assuredly this is a fad of the times. Once sports are back in full swing, protests will be done. Once school is back to normal, the people that jumped at gardening will go back to what they enjoyed before.

[brownrexx]

I agree with [mention]JRinPA[/mention] although hopefully a few newbies will like gardening and stick with it.

I save my largest garlic cloves from this year's harvest and plant those in the Fall. I never buy any.

[rxkeith]

i got lazy this year, and did not descape my garlic. as a result, i have hundreds of bulbils, large ones from the german hard neck
if thats what it really is that i got from someone i knew in the thumb region of the state, and smaller bulbils from garlic
i bought locally, might be a mix of music, red and white russian. i will not be short on garlic next year.
if there is an interest, i can make them available along with catawissa onion topsets, that martin (paquebot) shared with me
several years ago.
the large garlic bulbils will often give you a fully divided bulb of garlic the following year.



keith

[brownrexx]

I didn't know that not removing the scapes caused bulbils to form. I have always removed mine thinking that it would lead to larger bulbs.

[ponyexpress]

I didn't know that not removing the scapes caused bulbils to form. I have always removed mine thinking that it would lead to larger bulbs.

I have definitely seen a size difference when I failed to remove the scape. The bulb is smaller by about 25%. Martin says that this is not true for all varieties. I believe rocambole type is unaffected by not removing the scape.

[wykvlvr]

I have been wanting to add garlic to my garden for a while but always forgot to order in the fall.. thanks for the reminder. Since I am a newbie and variety names mean nothing to me right now I went with the small starter pack from Filaree Farms. Hopefully they will label the varieties so I know which I want more of next year.
Wry grin of course this year my garden got put to bed by mother nature early so I have a place I can plant that garlic after I get the beds cleaned up.

[Paquebot]

Growing garlic for commercial sale is a lot different than growing for seeds. A certain amount must be saved for the following year and there is no freezing any leftovers for the next year. With some such as rocambole, almost 25% of the harvest must be saved just to maintain the same quantity. Bulbils are the only alternative and it may be 3 years before a full-sized bulb of obtained. But at the same time garlic is something that should be a one-time purchase.

I also quickly sold out of all extra Martin's on several forums. I still have lots of bulbils. Martin's is a rocambole which will produce a divided bulb in one season. Anyone desperate for garlic, contact me. Give you a good deal on 50 bulbils! paquebot@yahoo.com
Martin

[JRinPA]

Selling?

[bower]

Our porcelains are the most costly to keep going - with mostly only four cloves, you must replant 1/4 of the crop to grow the same amount. So basically the best 1/4 of your crop is held back for seed. IDK how others do, but I don't often have more than 1/4 large bulbs so literally all of them must be reserved, except for a few that have damages and aren't suitable to plant. I know in Canada the price of a large bulb of seed garlic is up to $4, so that would cost you $1 for every clove planted from a 4-clove bulb, so a dollar cost for every bulb grown before you even invested time, space, fertilizer etc. and before you count how many are tithed to Mr. Wireworm, Ms. Pink Root, or others.
Growing up from bulbils is well worth the smaller space and effort required. Not only you increase your stock without digging deeper into the crop, but you also have a backup stock in case anything goes wrong with your original seed.

[Paquebot]

Selling?

Not allowed to mention anything for sale on TJ!

Martin

[JRinPA]

Four cloves per bulb...that is stingy. I can see bulbils being more attractive then, especially for multiplying the crop in a few seasons. Are the bulbils allotted the same area in the garden?

[bower]

[mention]JRinPA[/mention] bulbils don't take much space at all. The rounds and then the small bulbs take a bit more space each year until ready to grow full sized.
Four cloves per bulb is stingy, but the cloves are really big. I absolutely love a big honkin clove of garlic especially if I want to do it on the rasp. Much less rasping of the fingertips that way.
The other thing, even in immature years, small bulbs with only four cloves still have a decent sized clove.
Take a standard Purple Stripe, for example, with 9-13 cloves in a bulb. Those cloves are tiny and hard to handle if the bulb is small.
Took me 5 or 6 ? years to grow up Persian Star and Chesnok Red from bulbils. I was going to give them up after two bad years in a row, but for some reason that last year they produced fewer than normal cloves. Since the cloves were therefore larger, I got full size bulbs this year.
Rocambole have large bulbils so they should grow up well as long as your climate is suited.
I am giving up Spanish Roja after two cold summers shrank my bulbs to little runts.

[Paquebot]

@JRinPA bulbils don't take much space at all. The rounds and then the small bulbs take a bit more space each year until ready to grow full sized.

That does not apply to all types of garlic. At We Grow Garlic, I once requested that 3 of every hardneck be left intact. The results were 3 distinct types of bulbils which later had 3 different growths. One type was small and each took 3 years to be a divided bulb. First would be pea-size, second a large marble, and third divided. Medium size produced a large round the first year and divided the second. Large type produced a divided bulb in one season. Each type would have different growing instruction. For example, if growing Music bulbils 2" is ample spacing. If a purple stripe then 4" is required. If rocambole, spacing is 6".

Martin

[svalli]

Anyone desperate for garlic, contact me. Give you a good deal on 50 bulbils! paquebot@yahoo.com

I really should not be desperate for any new variety, but I would love to grow Martin's here in Finland.

I do also have collected bulbils for multiple varieties. If anyone is interested trading to bulbils or maybe tomato or some other seeds, I can send those packed in matchbox size boxes padded with some foam, so I can fit those to letter size package (thickness has to be 3 cm or under for letter packages sent from Finland). I can list what I have, if someone is interested.

Sari

[Paquebot]

Sari, didn't see any mention in my post about US gardeners only. When I offered tomato seeds on several sites, it was always gratis to foreign gardeners. (Just sent some to Austria last week.) Contact me and I will assure that you become the first Finn to grow Martin's Heirloom garlic.

Martin