Dug the Inferno and learned about bulbils
 

Yesterday I dug the Russian Inferno garlic as the Siberian needs just a bit more time. They are both new to me and are a lot taller than the turban types I had for the past two years. Again I made the mistake of leaving them in too long so the four bulbs on the right were starting to open. They’ll get used first. They are all now hanging under the pole shed to cure.

Thanks to Pure Harvest for that tip about stripping one or two leaves to remove all the dirt after digging!

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/xY24ud2.jpg[/IMG]

Along the stems of a few of the opening bulbs I noticed what looked like baby bulbs growing out of the stem. You old garlic hands know about these but since I had never seen this before I had to look it up and found they are bulbils. I will save them to plant and in a few years of replanting I might have full sized bulbs. Just something to play with.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/71TsLad.jpg[/IMG]

These bulbs were vernalized in a drink refrigerator at 45-50 for nine weeks late last summer since they're not the optimal types for this area. Seems like they did OK so I'm thinking of doing both again next year and adding some Lorz Italian softneck and maybe a Creole type, both of which are supposed to work in the South.

Has anyone already put in their order for fall garlic yet? If so, how's availability seeing that there's been a run on spring stuff?

I’ve been looking, haven’t noticed anyone sold out yet.

Are those a softneck? I have never seen bulbils inside the stem on my garlic. They form atop the scape.

Yes, a softneck garlic

Russian Inferno is an asiatic hardneck and the Siberian is a marbled purple stripe hardneck. It was a test to see if vernalization would make it easier to grow a hardneck down here in softneck territory. :)

This is where I got them last fall:
[url]https://keeneorganics.com/product/russian-inferno-certified-organic-garlic-bulbs/[/url]
[url]https://keeneorganics.com/product/siberian-naturally-grown-garlic-bulbs/[/url]

I'm lost, as usual.


So, the scape started to grow out, but since they are in GA instead of up north, they ran out of time, stopped pushing out and just set the bulbils right there in the stem? Like a young cottontail dropping her litter wherever she happens to be when it is time?

Interesting behaviour from this clone. Looking at the relevant link, it is obviously a hardneck, with the scape visible in the cut globe and yet these bulbils have formed in the pseudostem, which is classic softneck behaviour. Unsure what's going on here, but have heard that a large number of the 120 plus garlic varieties imported into Australia in 1994 have changed expressed characteristics to some extent. Appears something similar maybe going on here

Whwoz, thanks for that insight. Another clue for you... if you look at the photo of the garlic on the bench, the stems with the bulbils all happen to be on the right side and belong to the bulbs that are opening up. Do you think being in the ground too long triggered bulbil formation? Just thinking out loud...

According to Henry's page, Asiatics are part of the group of "weakly bolting hardnecks"... which seems to mean they can do one thing or the other... or in this case, both! :twisted:
In the true hardnecks, the bulbs are not even ready until weeks after the scapes are removed, so I have no clue why the overmature bulbs would have true scapes and bulbils in the neck simultaneously.

Those are nice looking bulbs, GoDawgs! :) The bulbils look good too!

Just dug my garlic today. Should have done it before this monsoon we’ve had this past two weeks.The biggest ones had started to rot. Some looked like elephant garlic bulbs! I’ll try to salvage what I can m those and dehydrate them.
Overall,though,a great garlic year ,considering I only grew hardnecks, turbans and creoles. I’m thrilled with the result. I think it’s a gamble this far south but I love the hardnecks.

Godawgs, it would appear that this forming of bulbils in the pseudostem can be done by a number of different groups within the weakly bolting garlics, there are four different groups that make up the weakly bolters, the Asiatics, Creoles, Middle Eastern and Turbans. Of interest to note, several garlics imported to Oz as Middle Eastern are now considered non-bolting Artichokes and produce the stem bulbils you have. Not sure if leaving them in the ground for an extended time had anything to do with the bulbils forming, weather while growing may have had more to do with it.

Those that you have that have opened up and started to side shoot would have kept growing if left. Those cloves would have grown very large and as long as you can cure them will keep as well as a standard globe, good for home use. Jaden some Monaro Purple do that 2 or 3 years ago, cloves were about double the size of the best normal cloves.

Actually thinking about this a bit more Godawgs, a number of garlic varieties produce a more robust scape the further away from the Equator they grow until they get past there optimum growth zone, you may have the reverse happening here, growing a clone closer to the Equator may actually be pushing it more towards a softneck style of growth resulting in the pseudostem bulbils

Pretty neat. I could see the little bulbil heads/scape heads started on some on the right side, but couldn't tell if they are the same plants that short stopped their bulbils in stem.

So, the ones I had going soft were still hard for the most part so I chopped them and put them in the dehydrator. Amazing flavor when dehydrated!
They had started to separate into multiple bulbs from the same plants,huge cloves and bulbs, too.
I should have taken a picture before chopping hem. I’ll see if I can get a picture of the rest of the harvest and figure out how to post it tomorrow. Overall, very pleased with my harvest. Go Dawg, were you happy with yours?
I think I’m going to see if I can order my garlic or the fall right away. I’d like to triple what I planted this year and also add about the same amount in soft necks.
.

Whwoz, I really appreciate your insight and thinking about this. This year is my fourth harvest so I'm still experimenting and learning. In fall 2016, after searching online for growing information I used The Garlic Store's planting instructions ([URL]http://www.thegarlicstore.com/pages/How-to-Grow.html[/URL]) and ordered their Southern Collection which consisted of four bulbs, one each of Maiskij, Shilla (both turbans), Spanish Benitee (Creole) and Blanco Piacenza (softneck artichoke). Only the Maiskij and Shilla grew into decent bulbs spring 2017.

In fall 2017 I planted only the Maiskij and Shilla from saved bulbs and in 2018 harvested some fantastic garlic!

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/3TFJIIf.jpg[/IMG]

But fall '18 I planted saved garlic again and last spring the harvested bulbs were OK but the cloves were a lot smaller. Definitely not like the previous year!

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/rbvy6gb.jpg[/IMG]

Back to more internet sleuthing. I ended up at a great site with a lot of information about growing garlic in the South:
[URL]http://greyduckgarlic.com/Southern-Garlic-Growers-Guide.html[/URL]

Since Grey Duck doesn't sell garlic anymore, I ordered the Russian Inferno and Siberian elsewhere to plant this past fall. They're both Turbans. And I did the pre-plant vernalization I read about in the southern growing guide; 10 weeks at 45-49 degrees in a drink refrigerator. The Maiskij and Shilla were planted too. Neither of those did well at all, making bulbs about 1.5" in diameter. Those have been sliced, dehydrated and await grinding into fantastic garlic powder. :D
Now the Inferno is out of the ground and I'm thinking about digging the Siberian. This is it as of five minutes ago:

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/xg92QRV.jpg[/IMG]

The Siberian is scaping and one of them looks like it is forming bulbils at the end of the scape, not in the stem:

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/bDN9NOL.jpg[/IMG]

So do I dig now? There's not much yellowing of the leaves except the tips of some. Maybe dig up one to see what's what?