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Old May 28, 2016   #16
Ozark
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I realize now that the garlic starts that were given to me last summer were sprouts from bubils that had fallen on the ground. Is "bubils" the right word? Anyway, the seeds from the top scapes of hard neck garlic. They were given to me as straight shoots like green onion plants with little 1/4" bulbs at the bottoms.

I spaced those out in a corner of my garden and the plants looked OK for a few weeks, then they died down and disappeared in the fall. This spring they came up real well and they've made full-grown, vigorous looking plants. A couple of weeks ago they started sending up scapes, which have now turned a full circle and the "bulbs" at the top are turning white. I cut off a bunch of those scapes and chopped them up in an Asian stir-fry with veggies and rice and they were real good.

Poking around in the soil with my fingers, I think the bulbs are now about 1" to 1 1/2" and I expect they'll be ready for harvest by July. I've read that all the scapes should be cut off to make garlic bulbs grow bigger but I don't have a use for all those scapes. I've also read that they're good pickled, and I might try that as I like garlic and I like all kinds of pickles. Has anyone here ever pickled garlic scapes? Thx.
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Old May 28, 2016   #17
Kazedwards
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Bulbils is the right word.


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Old May 29, 2016   #18
Durgan
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I have done a lot of rethinking about harvesting garlic. Experimenting with the scape seeds, bulbils, a few things have been learned by serendipity.

When collecting seeds the plant is left in the ground about 6 weeks longer than the conventional harvest in early July. This causes the bulb in the ground to get much larger and basically split the envelope and the cloves are bursting the sides of the clump. This year 2015 such bulbs was dried and simply placed in my root cellar. I found the bulbs thus treated lasted in prime condition as well as the completely encased cloves of the July harvest. This year all my garlic will be allowed to mature until splitting occurs, thus giving larger cloves, hence more garlic. This means harvest will be about the end of August in my Zone 5.

Another observation. I don't enjoy the scapes and use to cut them off at some stage of growth. In 2015 I left many on and found that growth is better than when cutting them off.

Conclusion; My hard neck garlic will be allowed to mature, harvest at the end of August, and harvest bulbils, since no scapes will be cut off.

For seed stock I will probably have enough rounds maturing this year to use for normal planting in October 2016.

http://durgan.org/2016/May%202016/15...20Garlic/HTML/ 15 May 2016 Garlic
Garlic, cloves, rounds and bulbils are all thriving. I expect a good harvest.
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Old May 31, 2016   #19
Jeannine Anne
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Mine is almost ready to harvest, very early this year
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Old May 31, 2016   #20
bjbebs
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I've grown the same unknown strain of hardneck for decades. It is very predictable.
Scapes start the first week of June. Harvest begins around July 10, weather dependent.

This year is different. All scapes will be clipped by mid week. Plants are taller than normal,
up to 36". I expect harvest will begin sooner.

I grow big blocks, a few thousand plants. My cultural practice is the same. This garlic sees no supplemental water or food. Why is this years crop so far ahead of schedule?

We had a dry winter. The up and down weather this spring has been warmer than usual.
I'm thinking other folks in the Midwest are seeing the same thing.
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Old May 31, 2016   #21
Darren Abbey
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Durgan View Post
Most garlic is very similar. If you have a good crop perpetuate that. There is never any new breeds of garlic since all crossing is impossible because the seeds are sterile. They produce but perfect clones of the parent. Go to a garlic festival and look around. Almost all garlic is the same. Some is a little different in size but this is normal depending upon growing conditions. Rhetoric looks after the rest.
There are people working to breed new garlic varieties. The actual seeds take some effort to produce, but they're not sterile. They're usually referred to as "true garlic seed" (or TGS) because many people will refer to the bulbils (little bulbs) as "garlic seed". The bulbils grow out of the flower head and produce the perfect clones of the parent plant that you described.

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Old May 31, 2016   #22
KC.Sun
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Mine is also almost ready for harvest. I started seeing growth in January for mine.

I hope they form well.
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Old May 31, 2016   #23
Jeannine Anne
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I am a bit worried about mine actually, the scapes are double curled now but the stems are thinner than I usually get. My garlic, which I have grown for along time is usually very big. This year everything has grown oddly. We had high heats in February and March and things started to race ahead then it cooled down somewhat, then picked up to normal again. I am not sure if this stop and start weather may have affected them. Not sure what to do at this point.
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Old May 31, 2016   #24
KC.Sun
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I'm not sure either. It was so warm in my area that seemed like winter didn't even arrive. It reached the 70s by mid January. Temps were circulating between 50-70s pretty regularly. Then by the end of March through early May temps would hit freezing temps at night with daytime temps around 50-60s. But most of the time around the low 50s.

Some of my garlic looks strange to me. The first time it sprouted and grew, it looks like the other post and has one fat stem. I have at least 4 plants where the fat stem seems to have died back, only to regrow into tiny little grass like leaves.

Has anyone encountered this before. I almost have a feeling that these plants are behaving like bulbils plantings.
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Old May 31, 2016   #25
Jeannine Anne
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I can't answer that one. I am just hoping that I get enough really big cloves to regrow in the fall, I can use the smaller ones myself.I have never had any bother with garlic before, I would have said it is the easiest of veggies to grow. I have seen folks who have had small garlic and wondered what they did wrong as mine seemed so easy, but this year it seems my smugness had gone AWOL. I have done nothing different, Same garlic, home saved and had been for years. I have heard that home saved eventually gets smaller but I have been growing this one for years without problems. I am going outside to pull one and take alook what is happening down below.
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Old May 31, 2016   #26
Kazedwards
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KC.Sun View Post
Some of my garlic looks strange to me. The first time it sprouted and grew, it looks like the other post and has one fat stem. I have at least 4 plants where the fat stem seems to have died back, only to regrow into tiny little grass like leaves.


The plants that look like grass have divided and the individual cloves are growing as separate plants. The same thing happens when you leave it in the ground after a season. I imagine you will get rounds out of those plants instead of bulbs. You can use the rounds in the same manner cooking wise. It you plant them in the fall the will be bulbs the next spring.


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Old May 31, 2016   #27
Kazedwards
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The curling scape is normal. As far as the size I have heard that each leaf represents a clove. So maybe thinner stems means few leaves and few leaves means fewer but bigger cloves?


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Old May 31, 2016   #28
Jeannine Anne
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Yes, I usually harvest mine when I have 2 curls, but this year the two curls have come much earlier so I am holding off a bit as the stems are thinner.I only get about 6 cloves on my garlic anyway but they are usually huge. We will see
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Old May 31, 2016   #29
KC.Sun
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kazedwards View Post
The plants that look like grass have divided and the individual cloves are growing as separate plants. The same thing happens when you leave it in the ground after a season. I imagine you will get rounds out of those plants instead of bulbs. You can use the rounds in the same manner cooking wise. It you plant them in the fall the will be bulbs the next spring.


-Zach
I'll look out for that. At least I can expect something...I was starting to wonder if I'd get anything out of those.

Thanks Zach
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Old May 31, 2016   #30
pmcgrady
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bjbebs View Post
I've grown the same unknown strain of hardneck for decades. It is very predictable.
Scapes start the first week of June. Harvest begins around July 10, weather dependent.

This year is different. All scapes will be clipped by mid week. Plants are taller than normal,
up to 36". I expect harvest will begin sooner.

I grow big blocks, a few thousand plants. My cultural practice is the same. This garlic sees no supplemental water or food. Why is this years crop so far ahead of schedule?

We had a dry winter. The up and down weather this spring has been warmer than usual.
I'm thinking other folks in the Midwest are seeing the same thing.
Wow, good report, but my scapes are just starting in Illinois...must be the different varieties, or when we planted them.
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