Multiplying garlic with Bulbils.

[bower]

FWIW, I have only seen a bulbil go straight to a full divided bulb once, and that was a rocambole (Spanish Roja). In growing out purple stripes (Persian Star and Chesnok Red) and porcelains (Music, Argentina, Susan Delafield) and a bunch of other afaik marbled purple stripes, I have seen maybe three?? rounds that were split into two. Every other bulbil I've grown out has produced a single round in the first year.

So I suspect the issue of bulbils going straight to bulbs is variety specific, likely rocambole.



Equally rare for me is the round that goes on to produce a bigger round... 99%+ of all the rounds I've grown out have produced a small divided bulb, proportionate to the size of the round.


I don't know if climate differences are a factor, but they could be so YMMV.



Varieties with few cloves per bulb will size up in a couple of years, because the small size of that first bulb is only divided by 2-4 cloves. (eg porcelains, some marbled purple stripes). The cloves for replanting are a good size, and the next year bulb is much larger.

The same sized bulb which has 8 or 9+ cloves (eg Persian Star, Chesnok) will increase in size more slowly because each clove is small. Those first cloves from the rounds were barely as large as the rounds themselves, for me. OTOH, these are great varieties to increase your stock from bulbs, because of the larger number of cloves. So if money is scarce to invest in bulb stock, you might factor the number of cloves into your choice of varieties.



Rocamboles are a special case, because they do have really large bulbils already. Even going to a divided bulb the first season, there is some increase in clove size cw the bulbil, and if they go to rounds they will be large enough to produce sizeable divided bulbs with nice size cloves, even though there may be 8-9 of them. And once they are full sized, a breeze to maintain or increase your stock using cloves, or the largest bulbils as well.


The only real down side to porcelains for us, is that you have to save 1/4 of your stock for replanting the same amount. So growing up stock from bulbils on the side is well worth it.

[Tropicalgrower]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

Just keep in mind that it may take a few years to get from bulbils to full sized heads of garlic. Mine went from tiny bulbils planted in October to pea-sized rounds harvested this past July. I'll replant the pea-sized rounds in October and hopefully harvest larger round next summer. Hopefully the following year will get me some heads with clove separation. Good luck!

I am aware of that,and it does concern me.I am getting older now and time is a real consideration.

Originally Posted by bower

FWIW, I have only seen a bulbil go straight to a full divided bulb once, and that was a rocambole (Spanish Roja). In growing out purple stripes (Persian Star and Chesnok Red) and porcelains (Music, Argentina, Susan Delafield) and a bunch of other afaik marbled purple stripes, I have seen maybe three?? rounds that were split into two. Every other bulbil I've grown out has produced a single round in the first year.

So I suspect the issue of bulbils going straight to bulbs is variety specific, likely rocambole.



Equally rare for me is the round that goes on to produce a bigger round... 99%+ of all the rounds I've grown out have produced a small divided bulb, proportionate to the size of the round.


I don't know if climate differences are a factor, but they could be so YMMV.



Varieties with few cloves per bulb will size up in a couple of years, because the small size of that first bulb is only divided by 2-4 cloves. (eg porcelains, some marbled purple stripes). The cloves for replanting are a good size, and the next year bulb is much larger.

The same sized bulb which has 8 or 9+ cloves (eg Persian Star, Chesnok) will increase in size more slowly because each clove is small. Those first cloves from the rounds were barely as large as the rounds themselves, for me. OTOH, these are great varieties to increase your stock from bulbs, because of the larger number of cloves. So if money is scarce to invest in bulb stock, you might factor the number of cloves into your choice of varieties.



Rocamboles are a special case, because they do have really large bulbils already. Even going to a divided bulb the first season, there is some increase in clove size cw the bulbil, and if they go to rounds they will be large enough to produce sizeable divided bulbs with nice size cloves, even though there may be 8-9 of them. And once they are full sized, a breeze to maintain or increase your stock using cloves, or the largest bulbils as well.


The only real down side to porcelains for us, is that you have to save 1/4 of your stock for replanting the same amount. So growing up stock from bulbils on the side is well worth it.

Very helpful post bower.I contacted a seller asking him what varieties he favors,based on my limited experience.I like the bold hot varieties...but again,I am not that experienced.He suggested Metechi,and then either Spanish Roja or Polish.

Feel free to share your opinion,as I can't really afford more than 1,unless he were to agree to sell in 1pound quantities instead of 2.I was leaning towards the Turkish that I mentioned in my first post,but based on the sellers suggestion,I have changed my mind in favor of the 3 mentioned above.I'd prefer a bigger planting...but oh well.

Any help is muchly appreciated.

[bower]

Spanish Roja is a great garlic but it doesn't meet your criterion of long storage. They don't last as long as my porcelains, and the purple stripes seem to keep the longest.


Afaik Polish hardneck is a porcelain, that means "4-6" cloves. I'm only getting 4 cloves from most of my porcelain, and maybe it's growing conditions I don't know. Argentina was a robust, mostly six clove garlic when we got it but I don't think I had any more than five, and that's just the occasional one, nearly all are four. I must check how the farm stock is holding up re number of cloves. The reality though, IMO for a porcelain you can only count on four cloves most of the time, and that means replanting 1/4 of your stock. Someone may correct me if I'm wrong, maybe some varieties are consistently sixes but I just haven't seen it.


Metechi and your Turkish are both marbled purple stripes, which means they should have a few more cloves. They both sound good and tasty and good keepers, from what the sellers say.


If your supplier has both, ask him what the average number of cloves are for each of them, and if I were you, I'd take the one with more cloves, and use less of your harvest to replant.