Garlic

[seevs]

I planted out some garlic last November and some of the plants have grown flowering shoots...should I just cut these off. The plants are nowhere near full growth yet, the leaves are only 6 inches tall or so. Also...most books tell me that no feed is really required at this stage, is this what anyone would advise?

Help appreciated.

[PLUMPUDDING]

Yes, cut them off, or you will get smaller bulbs. I don't feed mine apart from when I prepare the ground before planting, but other people may do things differently.

[realfood]

Eat the flower buds! They are very tasty.

[Johnboy]

Hi Seevs,
Quite honestly I would ditch them. It is not yet time to plant the spring
varieties so you have time to source fresh supplies.
JB.

[PLUMPUDDING]

Don't throw them out Seevs, the hard neck variety always sends up a flower stalk, so doesn't mean they are no good. That is assuming they are a hard neck variety. If you cut it off like I said they should be OK, but from such an early planting they will be ready for using early too. I don't usually plant mine until the end of January and they are ready in June or July.

[Chantal]

Have a look here

http://www.garlic-central.com/flowers.html

[Mike Vogel]

What I am really interested in knowing is whether the little clones from elephant garlic can be cultivated. I get at least 6, usually more, from each plant, but so far none of them have ever developed into plants.
mike

[Geoff]

This is an interesting debate - it will be interesting to hear what seevs does and what happens. I think the advice to cut off the flowers and possibly eat them is good as long as it happens at the normal time in about 2 months but with them doing it so early and so small I think JB is correct to suggest scrapping them as they will never come to anything.

[Johnboy]

An interesting posting from Chantal but I do not remember seeing any time scale mentioned.
My point is that these 'flowers' were formed in February which as Geoff suggests is far too early.
My thoughts are that the ultimate outcome will be an inferior crop.
Why grow an inferior crop when there is still time to recover the situation and replant with a crop that will be meaningful at the end of the season?
It is not case of growing for the sake of growing. What is the sense in taking the chance. This is another instance of 'you might get away with it'! And more often than not you will not get away with it.
As an experiment may I suggest a compromise. Grub out 90% of the iffy ones and replant with fresh stock and note the difference.
As Geoff says we have yet to hear from Seevs.
JB.

[realfood]

On my website, I cover getting elephant garlic bulbils to grow.
When lifting the heads of elephant garlic, you may notice bulbils on short root stems or still protected by the papery layers of the head of garlic. These can be planted to produce a small “round” or undivided head of garlic the next year. However, these can be particularly difficult to get to grow if you have let them dry off and let the outer skin become tough. It must be one of the hardest, water resistant coatings known in the vegetable kingdom!

It is best to immediately replant these bulbils in a small area set aside where they can grow on for the following year undisturbed to grow into a small “round”. Eventually, the outer covering should break down to show another brown coating surrounding a round bulbil. This will eventually break down allowing the tiny roots to grow. See the three stages of growth of a bulbil, in the much enlarged photo.

[Mike Vogel]

Exceptional website, realfood. I must learn how to create one myself.

The advice regarding those little bulblets is iinteresting and I think I'll try what you suggest when I harvest mine this summer.

Thanks
mike

[realfood]

Thank you Mike, for your kind comment on my website.
I was a complete amateur when I started making my website three years ago. You need a WYSIWIG type of software that does all the coding for you, unless you are a computer programmer. I mention the one I used on my "overview" page.

[Johnboy]

Hi Realfood,
I too would like to compliment you on you website. I have only skipped through it but at the first real opportunity I will have a full read.
Like Mike I am a bit of a cluck where computers are concerned I can never find which I should click and always manage to click the wrong one. So much for the laws of average!
JB.

[seevs]

I've planted about 80 of these things...and only about 8 have come up with flowers and taking them out doesn't free up any meaningful space so I'll probably leave them in and see what happens. Solent white variety for anyone who asked. Its my first year growing garlic so I'd sort of like to see what happens to the ones that are working and the ones that aren't in any case. I've taken the flowers off so I'll let you all know what happens with them. They all seem to be growing pretty well, although I hope that we get a good spring as I'd like to take them out sometime in May so that I can use the space for something else.

[PLUMPUDDING]

Hi Seevs, Glad you're waiting to see what they do. I don't like throwing anything away that is growing. I'm surprised you have only a few surviving if you planted so many. They are usually as tough as old boots. Where did you get them from? Is the ground well drained, because the only thing I can think of that would kill them is really wet ground if they were healthy bulbs you put in.