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I just noticed today that one of my Garlic stems has split just above ground level and is producing what look like tiny little bulbs.

Never had this happen before, anyone know what I can expect?

That's normal with some types of garlic. The plant produces bulbils from the stem. You can plant them, and after two years you'll get decent bulbs from them. This can be useful if you have an outbreak of virus, which often only affects part of the plant. Bulbils from the stem or the flower are often free from infection.

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on June 11, 2009, 13:34:37
That's normal with some types of garlic. The plant produces bulbils from the stem. You can plant them, and after two years you'll get decent bulbs from them.

Robert do you mind explaining the steps involved;

do you plant them now or later, etc....

Quote from: thifasmom on June 11, 2009, 13:40:54

Robert do you mind explaining the steps involved;

do you plant them now or later, etc....

...Which was going to be my next question?

Do I cut the rest of the plant off and let them develop or leave it as it is?

Thanks Robert.

They'd probably grow now, but I'd wait till you lift the garlic. I've tried planting walkng onion bulbils direct, and it only works if you get a mild winter. So I'd plant them in pots and keep them under cover for the first season. After they died down, I'd plant them out of doors to grow on. I've got very little experience of this, but Patrick at http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/ will probably know a lot more than I do.

Thanks Robert, it seems like a lot of faffing about but I'll let them grow and experiment with them.

thanks from me too ;)

If you can't be bothered waiting for 2 years you can eat the mini bulbs. Sadly they were the best bit of my garlic harvest last year  ::)

I noticed today that one of my garlics have risen to ground level and blue in colour, would this be the same thing? I did plant them about 3-4" deep.

Neil

Quote from: nilly71 on June 13, 2009, 01:08:44
I noticed today that one of my garlics have risen to ground level and blue in colour, would this be the same thing? I did plant them about 3-4" deep.

Neil

Had to pull them up yesterday, it was a normal garlic (base of stem) so i must it couldn't have been as deep as the others.

Neil