sowing garlic

[Itoero]

Does anyone have any exp. in sowing garlic?
I'm planning to sow the seeds of 2 elephant garlics when they come in bloom.

[tomc]

The "seed", actually bulbils will set in late spring. They will need to grow a year and some to become large enough to harvest as fully mature garlic. usually garlic is propagated by divisions of the mature bulbs plant those in the fall and harvest July or so the following year.

Planting bulbils is a good way to interupt disease in garlic. and probably aught to be done every few years. Its downside is allowing them to grow out diminishes size of roots.

Still if your looking for a bargain basement way to multiply your stock dividing and planting both bulbils and roots is how you get there from here.

One other true-ism for garlic is size begets size. If you want bigger garlic, plant the biggest third of what you have.

[jal_ut]

I have never planted garlic seed. (Does garlic make true seed?) As noted, vegetative propagation is the way we usually do it.

Nothing saying you can't try it, If you get some viable seed. It will take two seasons of growth to get what we usually expect from garlic, a large bulb with several bulbils, and coming from seed it is not likely to be exactly like its parents.

[outdoorjim]

Yeah garlic scapes can develop into flowers and then seed.

Normally though, you tear off the scapes so that the plant will direct its energy into growing bigger bulbs (also because fried scapes taste delicious)

[MB3]

I am thinking of letting some garlic go to seed (bulbils) this year, I just usually can't help but trim scapes and pull bulbs since I use lots of garlic. then I save the largest cloves to replant, these I just peel some of the outer skin and plant root end down, sprout end up.

[hendi_alex]

Elephant garlic is so very easy and productive. The plants make small bulbils from the flower, but the mother bulbs also produce (much larger than bulbils) side bulbs which mature quicker. Of course the quickest and largest new bulbs come from planting one of the larger cloves.

[jal_ut]

As noted the Elephant Garlic makes bulbils on top. Bulbil = small bulbs. You can separate them and plant them and get a bulb about the size of a walnut to a golf ball. If you plant them, in the fall, next season you will get some nice large multi cloved bulbs.

Flowers make seed. Bulbils are not seed. I have never saved garlic seed, nor grown garlic from seed. I am not suggesting it can't be done, just that I have not. Guess it depends on what we want for our efforts. If some large bulbs for storage, sale or eating are the goal, seed is not the way to succeed the first season at least. If you are prone to experiment, go for it.

[Green Mantis]

Will garlic cloves grow if they have had the brown/whiteish stuff peeled off them, when they were planted?

I did that this last fall and now I think I probably wrecked them? Guess I will see if the snow ever melts

Probably not until may.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, I have planted peeled garlic cloves and they have done just fine.

[Green Mantis]

Oh thank goodness. Thanks for answering that.