Garlic life cycle and uncommonly known info

I prefer hardneck garlic over soft neck even though it doesn?t keep as long. Harvest day was today and I grabbed a pic of the different life stages of hardneck.

hardneck produces a hard center stem while soft neck does not, everything purchased in store unless stated otherwise is softneck.

the hard stem when young curls in a coil shape and is called a scape, it is delicious thinly sliced and served as a garnish on anything and makes a great pesto and compound butter. if the scape is allowed to mature it forms bulbils that when growing almost look like a flower bud. When the scape matures it stands straight up and the paper cover splits and eventually the bulbils fall off. They are basically small little garlic cloves that if allowed to dry and fall off they will overwinter and then germinate and grow in the spring.

Once it germinates and grows a season normally they produce a single bulb marble sized and up. This then dies back and over winters with some growth in the fall this is called vernalization. The next spring the single bulb fully grows and will finally produce a bulb with multiple cloves. Most farmers will plant the individual cloves in the fall which bypasses the bulbil stage and reduces the time needed to produce more bulbs. Normally the only reason bulbils will be used is when a disease is introduced to the bulbs of the crop which can carry over year to year. So to maintain genetics but take the ground portion of the life cycle out they will do bulbils. Softneck is solely planted with bulbs year to year.

Here is a picture of hardnecks life cycle mature bulbils on the left first year singles in the middle and second year bulbs on the right. The variety is Russian purple

https://i.imgur.com/9kqOu8P.jpg

My photos didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, but this is garlic right?

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I know I've pulled garlic from this area before, and I thought I accidentally dug it all up a few years ago. These used to smell like garlic in the past, the bulbs, but they don't now. They've been growing here for years, and I never knew what they were until recently.

Yup that’s a hardneck bulbil

Oh cool. Are they ready to dig up? Should I cut the tops off and bury them after I dig up the bulbs?

Sorry, I'm a bit dense with this stuff.

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Originally Posted by Irving

Oh cool. Are they ready to dig up? Should I cut the tops off and bury them after I dig up the bulbs?

Sorry, I'm a bit dense with this stuff.

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Harvest them when the paper falls off similar to the one you are holding then let them sit in a cool area until September then break up both the the little bulbs off the stalk and the cloves them selves then bury them 1” or so and mulch

Oh, so keep those bulbs somewhere and then replant them in fall? This is at the base of a vine, that now has an abundance of green onions as well (which I should probably check out). Should I dump a bunch of the balls in each hole, or plant them separately?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Irving

Oh, so keep those bulbs somewhere and then replant them in fall? This is at the base of a vine, that now has an abundance of green onions as well (which I should probably check out). Should I dump a bunch of the balls in each hole, or plant them separately?

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We plant in late oct, early nov. This year they have already been harvested, normally not till late aug. I'm surprised how easy they are to grow, looks like the one on the right. Have them hanging till they dry out, ended up with 23 bulbs.

I've never planted these. There are a lot of things in my yard that have probably been growing for decades. I'm just lucky I never harvested them all.

That is so cool, thanks for the info!
My wife's Grandfathers entire back yard was his garden, most of it was planted with Soft Neck Garlic, I never knew there were different types until now.
He used to sell most of it to Colacci"s in Louisville when they were in business. The rest he gave out to Family or used himself.

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Originally Posted by Irving

I've never planted these. There are a lot of things in my yard that have probably been growing for decades. I'm just lucky I never harvested them all.

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The spouse plants the cloves in late oct, usually. They're real low maintenance, requiring minimal water. You pull the garlic when the tops turn brown and wilt, which look like the top sections of green onions. Not sure if it was the 100+ temps we had in june / july, followed by rains. But these were ready a month early. I have them hanging till they're dried out.