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Old January 9, 2017   #14
Kazedwards
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Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha View Post
Hi megabp, I had eight varieties of hardneck garlic so I can't identify the particular variety. I don't remember any of them "not" producing scapes. Is it an either or proposition, that is, does some garlic go straight to seed with no bulbils? Is it possible that I missed harvesting a few mature cloves with bulbils and the bulbils went on to produce seeds?

- Lisa

changed the order of my google search words and your blog popped up.. Joseph too ... nice!


It's very doubtful that they are from true seed. In order to get true seed you need to remove the bulbils as soon as the scape opens. It you don't then the plant will focus its energy to the bulbils instead of the flowers, if there are any flowers, which then wither away. The bulbils tend to crowd out the flowers too. The true seed also doesn't germinate well. Typically less than 5% a lot of which tend to not last long due to the genetic damage caused by asexual reproduction over many years. The good news is that each generation produces more seed with better germination. There have been some reports of germination as high as 95% after several generations of true seed.

I wish there was a variety that didn't produce bulbils. It would make getting true seed a heck of a lot easier than plucking bulbils out. Joseph had a whole field of garlic grass one year because of picking out bulbils and letting them drop to the ground.

You should try to get true seed. Purple stripes are the easiest to get it from. Chesnok Red has been very good for me. My biggest challenge is getting the true seed to grow once it is produced.


-Zach
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