Planting Bulbils

Starting new strains of bulbils in pots, for future seed.

 I've planted garlic bulbils in spring and fall. There are benefits to each planting time, as I will explain in a moment. But first!- What are bulbils?

  To ask this question, you must either be new to garlic, you have grown garlic before, and done it to the "T", never allowing a single scape to escape the knife - out of sheer terror that you'll harvest marble-sized bulbs; or, you are pretty sure you know what they are, and want to hear if you're on the right track:

Bulbils are a reproductive function of the Lily family, of which garlic is a member.  Most annuals have one method of procreation; garlic has three, the bulb, the bulbil, and seed from the flowers. (Heads up: you don't have to worry about the seed from the flowers, because the ability to sustain flower growth through to maturity and seed production, has been bred out of garlic, and now requires careful intervention to achieve.)
Like the flowers, Bulbils are found in the umbel of the mature scape. They are like miniature cloves.

 Bulbils are vegetative seed, meaning that no cross-pollination occurs. A bulbil is in the same genetic shape as its parent clove. (There is a possibility that the natural adaptation that occurs even in "clone-like" vegetative seed is more apparent in the bulbils than it is in the cloves, but this is my own theory, and grossly unproven.)  Bulbils are small, compared to cloves, and it takes a while to get a good-sized bulb to grow from a bulbil, which means that most people don't see the potential of bulbils. Until you grow them, you don't. It takes a leap of faith - something like true, green heroism to venture forth into the patient and exciting world of advanced seed production. 

Bulbil plants, from an Asiatic strain called Asian Tempest.
These are directly from bulbils, and will produce
either rounds or very small bulbs, for the first harvest.
Notice that a few plants have tiny scapes.
This crop was fall planted.

All very well and good, you say, but how do we go about this act of bravery?  Well, if you plant in the fall you don't have to worry about the chilling hours I mentioned in the last post. The bulbils are also very fresh in the fall, you wont have any dried-up ones, like in the spring. One of the things I advise ( though I don't always do this myself ) is to mulch the planted bulbils lightly, to help them through the winter. Straw, grass clippings, possibly fall leaves, as long as you check in the spring and make sure they can break through the matted leaves or mulch. Some growers advise mulching after freeze-over, so that mice do not make homes in your bulbil beds. I don't have problems. It would be up to your location and whether you want to worry about this or not. I have a plan that usually works for spring planting, partly because I work with heavier soil, and I like to be able to till it unrestrainedly at least once after the snow has finished packing the soil down.

You can also plant direct-seeded, in the spring. I like to make raised beds, or ridged rows, create a one-inch deep depression, and sprinkle the bulbils in a six-inch swath. Just like fall planting, you space them about 1 inch apart, 1 inch deep. The difference with spring planting is that you have to make sure the seed has been chilled, or vernalized, to grow properly.

 A third planting option is what I did in the first picture, starting bulbils in pots. I did this the first time I grew bulbils, and decided it was time to try it again. I planted these in the first week of February and put them in a cold storage room we keep just above freezing. I'll bring them out into the sun when I judge that I can grow them to a safe size, and not too big, because I intend to transplant these out into a garden plot once the soil is fit, and I don't want them too crowded and tangle-rooted. If I had given them more room, I could keep them in pots all summer. Much easier to weed. I don't intend to babysit their sun / moisture / soil temperature needs all year though, because that is not easy for me - it is up to you and how your system works. I also spent a lot of time digging up seed from a large plot of direct seeded spring bulbils last summer, and I have a memory of that. I should have sifted them, at the very least, because planting only the biggest bulbils increases the chances of a good harvest. The tiny ones are very tedious to find, especially if they get away on you, and the tops disappear. And then the ones you invariably miss become weeds next year. With my pots, I sifted the bulbils, and then when I transplant them I will sort them again, and only grow what I really want. This all seems like more work, but it comes at a time when I am not busy harvesting the main crop of 3/4 acre of garlic, so there are benefits.

Systems, we all work on them, and each is unique. They are the guiding principle to a long and successful relationship with your business.

A few last notes: Larger bulbils benefit from being planted upright. (The pointy end where it attaches to the umbel is the end that produces roots, and should be at the bottom. The other pointy end is usually pointier, if that helps ;-)
Rocamboles are awesome, and can only take one year out of production, until they are back on the "bulb-wagon". The first growth is usually a large round ( single-clove plant ).
Asiatics and Artichokes rank a close second.
Marbled Purple Stripes and Purple Stripes can be done in 2-3 years.
Glazed Purple Stripes and Porcelains can take longer.
I haven't gotten much experience with Turbans yet, or silver Skins. Creoles are small to begin with, so I'm not sure when they hit their potential ( I've got year one started, and counting...)

Pink, maturing bulbils on a Purple Stripe scape. These bulbils can be used as seed.
The flowers are nicely visible yet, as they are still budding.
The flowers are small, in comparison to the bulbils.
 Later, they will wither, as the bulbils steal too much space and energy.
Garlic flowers are small and numerous, ranging from
 white to purple in colour, depending on variety.

Planting Garlic in the Spring

Ah... Spring is finally here, peeking demurely at us from around the edges of dense, half-melted snow. I've gotten a few calls already for garlic seed. There are always a few who want to plant it in the spring, and are disappointed to find that seed is hard to come by. I never keep any amount of seed quality garlic stocked for spring because it sells so well in the fall, it looses weight over the winter, and I'd be taking risk that it may spoil. I also don't like keeping seed for spring planting because the bulbs loose some vigor by being kept dormant, and I understand that garlic grows so much better when planted in the fall. I don't have very much experience with spring planted crops, and how the bulbs fare out for size, but what I've heard is usually not so promising.

  In Ontario, I always advise planting garlic in the fall ( late September - late October is best, for most regions ). The time spent underground through the winter is not wasted time. Garlic cloves go to work immediately once they are in the moist ground. This is the starting flag - the moment they have been waiting for! The conditions are right for rooting, and the clove skins start to pop as these vigorous little root nodules expand into new territory. Humidity is what tells garlic to start this part of dormancy period termination.
  Temperature is the factor that acts as a clarion call for upward growth. Sometimes, if the fall is right, and you planted "too soon" ( you never know until the fall is over, because in another year, that might have been the right calendar date anyway ) your garlic will experience some cold, and then a period of warm weather that will draw the green shoots out of the ground. This is not disastrous, so long as the plants don't waste too much energy getting really big above ground, just to flash-freeze later. Above-ground leaves die off over winter, but if the leaves are 3 - 4 inches or less, the root stock can recover from this loss fairly easily.

   Ideally, garlic planted in the fall will devote this time to root growth, and the cold will both trigger leaf growth, and hold it in check until spring. Garlic can freeze in the ground, and still come up in spring, so long as the freezing happens slowly enough and there is no water sitting, or ice over the ground, creating anaerobic (airless) soil conditions. Even at very cold ground temperatures, garlic will continue to extend roots into the soil. This way, when warm weather comes in April, the garlic has a head start, and emerges like a magic trick, growing fantastically fast for the first two weeks.
  Spring planted garlic doesn't have that advantage. What's more, if the seed garlic hasn't been treated to a vacation of cold temperature ( weird, I know, most of us like to go where it is warm for a vacation, but garlic is special); if the garlic seed has been stored consistently, just below room temperature, over the winter, it won't know what to do with itself when planted in the freshly tilled ground of April. Sure, it will grow, but to bulb properly garlic requires the right ingredients of cold temperature, and time. Rather than try to figure out the proper proportion, I like to delegate that to mother nature.

   I have occasionally planted garlic in the spring. I do this mainly with bulbils, which are a secondary seed source of great potential.  I try to give the seed at least a month to six weeks, at temperatures a bit above freezing. So far as I can figure,each variety may need a different amount of cold time, or chilling hours, but I haven't decided on the numbers yet, so I play on the safe side of excess. I've planted bulbils in the spring without doing this, and the results are only good for Chistmas garlic greens. You might harvest a little seed that way, but it is usually down to luck, because the bulb formation doesn't happen. Garlic needs seasons.  Look at it's close relative, allium cepa, the onion. Onions have a most particular need for the daylight patterns of the summer solstice to set the internal clock for bulb maturation time. Garlic is flexible, but not fooled. It needs temperature patterns in the same way.

  I've seen University students fail to recognize this. A few years ago, Guelph did a clean seed trials program with the Garlic Growers Association, using tissue culture regeneration to remove all viruses from a common strain of Music garlic.  It was great idea, and has been done successfully with potatoes for decades. Unfortunately, their use of a greenhouse to nurture the sterilized seedlings did not provide the right temperatures. The garlic seedling wouldn't die down when they were supposed to, and failed to produce viable seed.
  I was granted a packet of this seed because I'd given my name to grow it out as part of the continuing trials. Out of a few hundred dehydrated, leek-like tiny bulblets, five were properly formed, with storage capabilities and protective skins. Only much later, when I tried growing spring bulbils that were stored in our house until May planting, did I come to understand why the University had had this problem.
 This is part of seed saving. Part of understanding the exquisite way in which the species have evolved to survive in their native climate. Long ago, the weather patterns were more consistent ( I think ), and this was garlic's way of timing its growth to benefit from everything the seasons had to offer; staying dormant sometimes, and rapidly producing new seed at other times, but always remaining alive, and patient.
 Like the garlic, I've been fairly dormant this winter, waiting dispassionately for chance rays of inspiration. I like to think that time spent in this way is not wasted, but is spent rooting a little deeper into life, so that when the spring comes rushing in like a tide, we are ready once more to leaf out and seize the sun.