I'm assuming they do flower otherwise how else do they breed new varieties. i found some missed bulbs from last year spring sowing have overwintered and have started to resprout i pulled and used them fresh in my cooking over the last week and i was just wondering ??? about the grow from seed option.
Both garlic & elephant garlic produce bulbils on the scapes which are full of seed. This takes a lot of the plants energy so you get significantly smaller bulbs to harvest. The seeds can be eaten & have a very strong garlic flavour unlike the mild taste of the scapes. The seeds are very popular in China where they are made into a sweet garlic pickle. The seeds can be planted and will come true, regular garlic seeds planted in the autumn will usually produce full size bulbs the following year but elephant garlic seed requires 2-3 years growth before producing full size bulbs.
thanks Baccy Man, if any more missed ones pop up i'll leave it to flower and try growing from seed as a little experiment.
its mostly grown from cloves. l have not heard of it grown from seed.
Hardneck garlic will flower and produce bulbils if left till the Autumn, as I did this year as an experiment. I replanted the bulbils and they are growing well but I think that it will take two years before they produce full sized cloves. This year I expect them to produce a small round, but we will see.
Quote from: realfood on March 07, 2009, 20:24:29
Hardneck garlic will flower and produce bulbils if left till the Autumn, as I did this year as an experiment. I replanted the bulbils and they are growing well but I think that it will take two years before they produce full sized cloves. This year I expect them to produce a small round, but we will see.
a couple questions;
1. how many did you let go to flower and how many bubils approx did each flower produce?
2. where did you plant them out, in cells or directly into the ground/ seedbed?
3. when did you plant them out?
4. at what depth did you plant them?
5. any chance of a piccy :)?