Comments on: Real Seeds from Garlic Plants

By: Meg

Meg — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:47:57 +0000

Patrick, this is really interesting. Our landlord has been growing Music (Musik?) garlic forever, and his garlic is quite a bit different from the bulbs of the same variety that we bought online earlier this year. Even stuff that we’ve been planting on the property for a few years has changed alot since we started it.

We haven’t tried experimenting with seeds, but your and Avram’s emails have given me some interesting stuff to think about. Thanks for sharing.

By: john curtin

john curtin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:53:59 +0000

Patrick,

Just to let you know that on my visit to the allotment last weekend all my garlics are affected by rust. I dug up one bulb but the rust hasn’t got to it so I’m going to leave all of them in the ground and harvest as usual July time. So far the other alliums (onion, shallot and leek) are showing no signs of rust and they are growing in the same bed. Had some scapes in a salad and also added some to a soup – nice garlicky flavouring.

By: Søren

Søren — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:28:26 +0000

I find it very convenient how you have collected a lot of important information on garlic true seed production here. Thanks!

I shall be plucking topsets when the spathes opens – and just hope and wait.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:55:36 +0000

Leigh: Garlic is really amazing in it’s ability to adapt to where it’s grown. There are a number of theories of how many different garlics there really are, but one of them is these 10 types:

http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/?p=188

Many people disagree with this assessment, and it’s not really that simple, but it’s a good place to start thinking about it.

I grow nearly 100 different kinds of garlic, and several people have asked me to describe the differences. Not only does all garlic taste like — garlic, but it so much depends on the garden that it was grown in that it wouldn’t do any good for me to try to explain the differences that exist in my garden!

I’m coming up on three years for most of my varieties in my garden, and I’m expecting them to look a lot alike this year.

By: leigh

leigh — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:00:29 +0000

Avram’s mention of how varieties are really so similar, and actually may become more like each other over time in the same growing location is fascinating! We have 7 garlic varieties, most of which we have been growing more than 15 years – 4 hard stem and 3 soft stem. I have to confess to very bad garlic label management over the years, so I am no longer sure exactly which is which, though each variety has been kept separate. Four of our seven varieties came from the produce sections of various natural foods stores over the years. If I would see some interesting looking garlic, I would buy it and plant it. At first each variety was fairly distinctive, but after years of being grown out, I can now only distinguish hard stem vs. soft stem…