The Garlic Bulbil Project Update

[GoDawgs]

Last summer I collected the little garlic bulbils that formed from the garlic flowers of a few forgotten Siberian bulbs.







Then in the fall I when I planted the regular garlic cloves in the garden I planted some of the bulbils in a window box where they lived until yesterday..





The tops have browned up and fallen over so it was time to dump them out and see that's what.



Wow, they had grown from 3/8" little things to rounds about 3/4-1" across.



There are 31 of them and I laid them out on a table under the pole shed to dry a bit before I bundle them and hang them in the garden shed to completely dry. They will be replanted this fall when the regular garlics go in.

Supposedly after another two growing seasons I might have 31 free regular sized garlic bulbs! This has been a fun project. I still have a slew of leftover bulbils in a jar. I think I'll start more of them in another window box this fall.

[bower]

Well worth the effort!

[rxkeith]

you should have some decent sized bulbs by next year.
compare the size of the round to a full size clove of siberian.
it is the tiny little bulbils from varieties like music that take three
years to size up. bulbils are an easy, and cheap way of increasing your garlic.
i am always amazed how much they can increase in size in just one season.


keith

[Sue_CT]

I have not planted garlic in a couple of years, just haven't gotten it done. But this year some left over probably too small bulbs have grown in a cluster. I threw them some Texas Tomato Food when I was fertilizing the tomatoes yesterday, lol. But can't I just leave them there until next year? Do I have to dig them up, dry them and replant them? They do seem too close together but at least I know if I leave them in the ground they won't get trashed because I never got them replanted, lol

[GoDawgs]

The bulbils were made by a couple of forgotten garlic bulbs that had been forgotten for two years. best I can figure is that they were small, matured way faster that all of the rest and when harvest time came, I just didn't see them since the tops had dried completely and been covered with more mulch. They were invisible until they came back that next year and still I forgot about them again!

After gathering the bulbils I dug the bulbs. They were small and not worth busting up and planting the cloves. I guess they were slack to start with and never improved themselves. Come to think of it, I've known a few people like that too.

I'd pull 'em and see what you have. If the cloves look decent, I'd dry them and replant at my usual planting time. That's October down here. I don't know when you do yours. Soon? Already past? Or if they're decent and you don't want to fool with them, just eat 'em!

[Sue_CT]

Sept/Oct here. Wonder if they would be bigger next year if I just left them. The must go from little to big when they are farmed for seed. I don't think they go from Bulbils or small bulbs to nice big ones in one year, but I could be wrong. That is what gardeners are used to because we buy large seed bulbs and they will each grow a full sized bulb in one year but doesn't seem likely they go from a bulbil to that in one year. Somehow they raise them from bulbils to large bulbs to sell. I might look into how it is done. Maybe I am all wrong.

[Whwoz]

@Sue_CT I would lift, divide and replant larger cloves only. If left in the ground the clove size gradually becomes smaller as there are multiple cloves shooting and forming bulbs in a space best suited to one clove. Plant at appropriate time for your area.

[JRinPA]

3/8" bulbils to 7/8" rounds on windowsill for 8-9 months?
Did you try a matching set in the ground somewhere?

[Sue_CT]

Then how do they get increasingly larger bulbs if they keep getting smaller smaller? How did they ever get large bulbs if clove size and therefore bulbs, only keep getting smaller? Somehow, someone, somewhere planted bulbils and grew them into large bulbs and cloves. So if first generation cloves grown from bulbils are not full sized, how do you ever get large bulbs if planting the small ones means they just keep getting smaller? I don't understand, I would love to talk to someone who produces and markets bulb garlic. How did they get started? Did they buy seed garlic? Someone, some time, at some point, it seems must have been able to grow larger garlic by successively planting and getting larger bulbs and cloves. Anyway, I think there is only one main bulb there that MIGHT be worth replanting based on your theory and how thick the base of the plant is. The others are off shoots or self seeded bulbils or something. Might be worth and experiment.

[JRinPA]

Whwoz is saying, correctly, that if you leave your garlic in the ground (instead of pulling/grading/replanting in a few months) that the garlic will multiply, crowd itself, and not get very big.

I have not planted garlic in a couple of years, just haven't gotten it done. But this year some left over probably too small bulbs have grown in a cluster. I threw them some Texas Tomato Food when I was fertilizing the tomatoes yesterday, lol. But can't I just leave them there until next year? Do I have to dig them up, dry them and replant them? They do seem too close together but at least I know if I leave them in the ground they won't get trashed because I never got them replanted, lol

Yes, you can leave them, but then next year you will have a cluster^2 in the just about the same space. Therefore, they will be smaller. Whereas, if you pull them normally, then you can separate them and replant and have one cluster worth of decent bulbs next year grown in 5x the space. I don't plant mine until late, often December, and they look fine. I think you could get away with anytime from Oct-Nov up there. If you need to set an alarm clock, someone here can holler for you.

I don't want them to pop through to the surface before winter comes, and the ground doesn't freeze here until at least January, so mid December is not to late for mine, 3-4" down through the raised row and sometimes mulched with wood chips or leaves as well. Mine don't set much below actual grade, maybe an inch or two at most. It is not a tough digging project for me, and it has been evenings with a headlamp the last couple years.


Regarding market growing...I rather doubt they start with bulbils to sell seed garlic. I'd expect a full size clove is used to grow most full size garlic bulbs to be sold for either seed or consumption. But then, who knows, it has been a long time since I have bought garlic in a store, and it was often pretty small.

[Sue_CT]

Thanks, I understand why I need to replant, but I would hope to get bigger bulbs over 2-3 yrs after replanting. I will try to do that. The seed garlic is crazy expensive around here and getting to the local garlic farm to get nice sized seed garlic you have to get there soon after they announce the seed garlic is ready. Then I paid what I thought were huge prices for it and never got it planted. Sometimes life gets in the way. It was somewhere around 18.99-21.99/lb. Large garlic bulbs add up to a pound pretty quickly. But if I can just dig and replant these and actually get them in it would be fun to see if I can get some decent sizes over a couple of years. I probably like the scapes as much if not more than the garlic.

I did find something that said if you only have access to small cloves you can replant and get larger bulbs over 2-3 yrs, which is what I was hoping. But it also said exposure to more cold increases garlic size and our winters have not been very cold recently so that could also factor in. Anyway if it is possible to do since they are bulbs I already have it might be worth a try.

https://www.groeat.com/post/how-to-grow ... lent-taste

[JRinPA]

Yes, they will get bigger. The sooner you start it, the sooner it will reach its limit.
The garlic we had in the yard was walking for years, many years. We would dig some up after it dropped bulbils and died back. The largest bulbs would be 1" or so, but great taste. The bulbils were less than 1/4" each.
After 3 years of planting it more or less properly, the size averaged well over 2-1/2" bulbs with bulbils about dime size. Some bulbs are well over 3", now.

[Whwoz]

@Sue_CT, it maybe worth you having a read of some of the garlic threads on here if you haven't already. Seed garlic for planting is usually the largest cloves on each globe, with the smaller ones used for eating. Plant each separate clove at roughly 6 inch centres and mulch and feed well. Garlic does not like competition. Small cloves will eventually make big globes, just takes a few more years. If you want to plant those small cloves that you currently have, go ahead, just remember that it will take a few years to get to fill size.

You may want to check out the work by Ted Meredith, his book from memory is called The Complete Garlic
Avram Druker is another worth checking out.

[Sue_CT]

Thanks, I have read up on growing garlic many times in the past since I have been growing it. I am aware that they usually recommend saving the largest cloves for planting to get the largest bulbs. I don't think I was understood. My question was regarding the statement that bulbs get smaller each year. But now I reread it, maybe you were saying they only get smaller each year if they were left in the ground and not replanted? Because I took that even replanting them they would get smaller every year and not larger. In actuality the main bulb that was apparently left in the ground a couple of years ago, if the stalk or main stem is anything to go by, has been getting larger even though it wasn't replanted, but it has produced more, smaller plants around itself each year. I don't think it is full sized yet but I won't know unless/until I dig it up. Many of the little plants around it I am sure are not large enough to have developed cloves. I will have to see if the largest one in the center has developed cloves or not. If not, I will have to just replant or dry and then replant. Not sure about the benefits to drying before replanting if the original plant was not yet large enough to form cloves, verses just replanting at an appropriate spacing.

This is the garlic I have grown in the past, not my best year. Maybe not huge, but respectable, I think. I just don't think garlic necessarily gets smaller every year, I think you can grow it in successive years and it will get larger, not smaller.

[rxkeith]

if you are digging up the bulbs each year, separating them into individual cloves, replanting them at proper spacing,
and the bulbs are still getting smaller each year, then i would look at other factors.
soil too dry or too wet or too compacted. garlic typically doesn't like wet feet.
planting in same spot depletes soil of nutrients, also encourages disease or critters. rotate spots if you can.
garlic variety maybe not suitable for where you live. hard necks should grow best for you, but not all hard necks are the same.
keep garlic beds well weeded.
i tried growing idaho silver, a silver skin for a few years as a long keeper. it just didn't do well, and kept getting smaller, didn't matter
where it was planted. i gave up with that one.


keith

[Sue_CT]

OMGoodness, no rxkeith, that is NOT what I said at all. OTHER people were saying garlic gets smaller every year, and I was pushing back a little on that. I give up, lol.

[GoDawgs]

3/8" bulbils to 7/8" rounds on windowsill for 8-9 months?
Did you try a matching set in the ground somewhere?

No, I didn't. I probably should have just to see. These bulbils were planted in the window box on Oct 25, the same time my regular garlic was planted in the garden. The bulbil box stayed outside on the porch all winter open to the weather and getting a little water supplementation now and then from me.

@Sue_CT, it will take several years of pulling and replanting these before they really size up. It will be interesting to see what size they max out at after however long it takes. It's a long term "toy".

[Sue_CT]

I am sure it will depend on the weather and how much I actually keep up with keeping them watered, fertilized and weeded, lol. I wonder if they would survive being in pots all winter? I am more likely to keep up with them that way.

[rxkeith]

i did say IF.


keith

[Sue_CT]

It was my fault, I read a post quickly and thought it said garlic will keep getting smaller each year and will not get larger when they were really saying it will only keep getting smaller if you don't dig and replant it. I should have read it more carefully. I thought you assumed my garlic was getting smaller each year. It is not. I have not planted it in 2 or 3 years, so what is out there is just small stuff that was never dug up. Sorry for the misunderstanding(s).