Year Two For Bulbils

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GoDawgs
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Year Two For Bulbils

#1

Post: # 88685Unread post GoDawgs
Thu Feb 09, 2023 2:08 pm

In '21 I collected a bunch of pretty small garlic bulbils (about 3/8") and planted them in a window box that fall. They were harvested late spring last year and were about 3/4" diameter. Wow. Then those were replanted out in the garden this past fall. Now they're looking pretty good. I forgot to record how many I planted but it's probably something like 20-25.

In this pic there is an outside row of other garlic top and bottom along the sides but all those between those two rows are the bulbils. I can't wait to see how big they'll be this year. A fun little experiment. :)

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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#2

Post: # 88687Unread post rxkeith
Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:01 pm

if they started out really small, the first year will produce small tear drop bulblets.
this year should give you some nice sized rounds. next year, full size bulbs from my
experience with music, and one from sandhill preservation.


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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#3

Post: # 88694Unread post GoDawgs
Thu Feb 09, 2023 5:55 pm

These were the Siberian bulbils that cured over the summer of '21 and were planted that fall.

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This is a shot of what resulted from those small bulbils last spring and those are what's in the ground now.

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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#4

Post: # 88698Unread post rxkeith
Thu Feb 09, 2023 8:13 pm

you should have your self some nice sized bulbs THIS year i predict.


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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#5

Post: # 88758Unread post bower
Fri Feb 10, 2023 6:39 pm

I expect you will get a divided bulb, smaller than full size but with nice fat cloves, especially any with 4 cloves.
The purple stripes have a nice size bulbil, and those are good rounds. The ones I grew up had mostly 4 cloves in the first divided bulb, and mostly 5 or 6 in the full sized bulb the year after.
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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#6

Post: # 88781Unread post GoDawgs
Sat Feb 11, 2023 7:05 am

@Bower, about those first divided bulbs... did you separate and replant the cloves or just let the 4-cloved bulbs stay in the ground to continue on?

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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#7

Post: # 88818Unread post rxkeith
Sat Feb 11, 2023 10:30 am

not bower,

if you have multiple cloves, even two, you want to separate, and replant to maximize bulb size.
you can leave some in place if you just want green garlic leaves for the kitchen.



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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#8

Post: # 88847Unread post bower
Sat Feb 11, 2023 3:52 pm

@GoDawgs yes, separated them and planted the fattest ones.
The Purple Stripes should have a nice sized clove for planting. Porcelains also have large cloves even in the first bulb. It's some of the other kinds, which have a lot of cloves per bulb, they end up being smaller than the round you got the year before.
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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#9

Post: # 99712Unread post GoDawgs
Sat Jun 17, 2023 7:25 am

These are the garlic plants I started from little 3/8" bulbils two years ago, pulled up last year and replanted this past fall. They're getting near time to pull.

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They're starting to make bulbils of their own and those are a whole lot bigger than the 3/8" ones I started with! I think I'll harvest these later and replant them this fall.

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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#10

Post: # 101298Unread post GoDawgs
Sat Jul 08, 2023 6:16 am

I had forgotten to look at these for a while and they're certainly dried down! Digging time.

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I was really surprised at the size of some of them. Left to right, these are sorted into piles of large (5 bulbs, about 2" diameter), mediums (8 bulbs, avg 1.25") and smalls (10 bulbs, .75 to 1").

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The larges have some big cloves, large enough to separate and plant this fall. The mediums are not rounds and have noticeable cloves but they're small cloves. Some of the smalls are rounds and some seem to maybe have noticeable cloves but it's hard to tell.

For sure I'm going to separate cloves from the large ones and replant this fall. I think I'm just going to replant the smalls whole. But I'm not sure what to do with the mediums. Any suggestions?

Each of the three groups has been bundled and those are hanging under the pole shed. However they're pretty dry so they won't be out there long before I bring them in and hang them with the rest of the garlic in their closet.

Before I dug I checked all the bulbils. They were all pretty small, smaller than the ones that grew into what I dug. There were two exceptional clusters as I noted in the previous post. Those I'm saving and they'll get planted in a window box this fall to see what they make in two years time. The largest is 7/8" wide. The rest average 1/2" to 5/8" wide.

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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#11

Post: # 101305Unread post Whwoz
Sat Jul 08, 2023 7:45 am

@GoDawgs, for your mediums, I would separate the cloves of any that I was going to replant, otherwise if you plant them whole they will just produce smaller cloves next year within the multiple plants that will be in the one spot. You could always plant one whole to see for yourself what happens......or just eat them all.

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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#12

Post: # 101374Unread post rxkeith
Sat Jul 08, 2023 9:07 pm

the large are a no brainer, plant those.

the medium size ones, typically have about four cloves per small bulb, at least the ones i grow from bulbils do.
you can plant them or eat them. normal spacing for garlic, and you should have a full size bulb next year.
the smaller ones, if any are rounds, they will be smoother in shape than the ones that have divided, fuller, and rounder
if you compare them together, you can tell them apart.
usually what happens at my house, is i don't bother replanting the small bulbs. i bring them in the house thinking i will use
them in the kitchen, but after separating the tiny cloves, and peeling them, it takes about eight of them to make a full size
clove, i give up, and they end up not being used, and they dry up, and they get pitched.
now, if you are really in to wanting to see if those tiny little bulbs will ever size up, i would suggest separating the cloves if they
have divided, before planting other wise they won't get much bigger in size.

like you, i will get the range of sizes when growing garlic from bulbils. i stick with replanting as many bigger cloves as i need.
i figure by the time those tiny cloves size up if ever, i would be farther ahead starting over with large bulbils.
it just depends on what you want to do.


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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#13

Post: # 101506Unread post GoDawgs
Mon Jul 10, 2023 7:31 pm

@rxkeith, thanks for the input. You're probably right about trying to separate and replant any tiny cloves from the small ones. That would be a serious drain on my patience! Mediums will have their largest cloves replanted, small rounds will go in too, small cloved bulbs will pay a permanent visit to the compost pile. Or maybe planted outside the garden to make themselves into emergency use clumps.

And the only bulbils I will plant this fall will be those nine large ones. I wonder that they'll produce in another 2-3 years!

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Re: Year Two For Bulbils

#14

Post: # 101522Unread post Whwoz
Mon Jul 10, 2023 10:28 pm

@GoDawgs , another use for small cloves is to grow them as green garlic or garlic scallions

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