Clove orientation affects blade direction

[ponyexpress]

I came across the Tomatoville forums recently and in the Alliums sub-forum, there was a post from someone explaining that the orientation of the garlic clove at planting time determines the direction of the leaves direction. I believe it's the back side of the clove closest to the center.

Like many others, I never paid attention to the orientation other than making sure the basel plate side is down. Does anyone recall the post I'm referring to? Thanks!

[Whwoz]

Yes, the thread is still active, last post was only a couple of hours ago. I planted some in the same orientation not that long ago and they have come up with the leaves in the same orientation as stated in that thread

[crankyoldfart]

Here ya go: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=50154

[brownrexx]

Interesting. I never knew that.

[bower]

I never knew that either - but trust Tom to figure out this amazing thing! Since reading about it I checked the orientation of leaves on the garlic I planted last fall, and sure enough they are random. So this is a genuine effect.

[ponyexpress]

So what is the best orientation? It sounds like Tom does his perpendicular to the row for max sunlight. I was thinking slightly off parallel (10deg instead of 90deg) mainly so that I can move my watering wand easily up/down the row to water the garlic. This way, it does not get tangled in the leaves.

[AZGardener]

I never knew about it either. I just made sure the root side was down. I am going to try Tom's method in the Fall and see how it works out for me.
Thank you for the link. I haven't been over to the sister-station in a while.

[ponyexpress]

Someone kindly provided the image from that thread in the other forum so I'll post it for everyone's benefit. This is what his garlic patch looks like:

[pepperhead212]

I never paid attention to this, either. Maybe I'll try this next season, to see if it makes a difference with mine.

[Whwoz]

Certainly works folks, I planted some at different orientations deliberately and one can see how they align easily. Will get a photo shortly