Growing Garlic from True Seed

[zenovato]

We don’t have record of the number of umbels used, but in 2011 Avram Drucker harvested 362 seeds from four different cultivars. In 2012, Avram harvested 578 seeds from 13 different cultivars. Four of the cultivars are second generation seed-produced plants and their seedlings seem to exhibit the increased viability and vigor associated with subsequent generations of seed produced plants.

Unfortunately, our germination the past two years has been very poor relative to prior years. The potting soil seems to be the cause. The past two years we have unwittingly used a potting soil that clumps heavily and compacts. In our article on producing garlic from true seed http://garlicseed.blogspot.com/p/gro...true-seed.html , we advised that we had never had a problem using good quality potting soil, but that a sterile seed starting mix is probably a safer option. Given what we have seen with poor potting soil the previous two years, we would amend the article to say that a good seed starting mix should be used unless you are assured that your potting soil is finely textured and non-clumping.

Our first garlic seed grow-outs were exceptionally vigorous and precocious (from an exceptionally vigorous mother cultivar). They produced rounds or divided bulbs in the first year of growth (seed planted late winter and rounds/divided bulbs harvested in late summer/early fall). As described in our article, this led us to believe that this growth timeframe was the norm and that early planting was an important factor in producing rounds/bulbs the first year.

However, subsequent experience with seed from a variety of other cultivars has caused us to believe that this was perhaps more of an exception rather than the norm. More typically now, we are not getting routine round formation in the first year, thus we need to overwinter plants for round/divided bulb formation the following spring/early summer, generally harvesting alongside other fall-planted garlic. The size of the plant does not seem to be a determining factor in round formation in the first year, or at least the correlation seems weak---quite small plants sometimes form a round and rather large plants sometimes not.

In the Pacific Northwest, unless a divided bulb is produced the first year, we simply leave the seedling garlic in the ground for harvest of a round or more often a divided bulb the following year. Some of the more vigorous plants yield normal full-sized bulbs when harvested the following year along with the fall-planted cloves of other garlics. Garlic is quite hardy, but in a more severe climate it may be necessary to move the non-dormant plants to containers and a cool/cold greenhouse or porch for transplanting again in early spring.

Ted