True Garlic Seed

[12540dumont]

I'll probably start planting this week and finish next week. I have to put in Leeks and onions too.

Usually I don't do garlic before October 15. Well, because the melons have to come out of the field first! I'm almost done harvesting. A few melons, lots of pumpkins and field corn and then I can finally get the alliums in.

Joseph, they're getting true garlic seed in Israel. So....I know you can do it.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

The garlic umbels were very dry last weekend, so I threshed them. I got a total of three seeds from the entire project this year. That is with using off-the-shelf garlic with no thought given beforehand to selecting for fertile varieties or environmental conditioning. I'm hoping to do better next year with more carefully selected varieties, and by providing a diversity of environmental conditions.

[raymondo]

Three seeds, and with little guarantee of viability! Developing seed producing varieties is not an easy task then. Still, good experience for a more concerted effort next season Joseph.

[oxbowfarm]

garlicseed.blogspot.com/p/growing-garlic-from-true-seed.html


They seem to be using a method very similar to Joseph's.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Nov 9, 2012 11:45:05 GMT -5 oxbowfarm said:

GarlicSeed.Blogspot.com
They seem to be using a method very similar to Joseph's.

Yup, that's where I got my inspiration: and for next year some of my germplasm.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Edit: This post is updated as new information becomes available.

Tuesday I received some garlic bulbils from Holly. They originated at GRIN. They are from accessions which are known to produce true garlic seeds. They are tiny and there are lots of them!!! Yesterday I tilled a spot at the house for them. It's a bit warmer micro-climate, and has very sandy soil so even though there was snow in the garden, it tilled up nicely. I expect to plant them in the next couple days. There are enough for sharing if anyone is interested. I'm expecting to put some of them in pots and try growing them during the winter.

Bulbils Planted --------- Harvested Bulbs	Plants	Name	Origin and Notes
		PI 540316	Former Soviet Union. Male Fertile. Purple Anthers. Very late flowering. Highest number of established offspring in Jenderek's study (2004). 38% of offspring were male sterile. Closed spathe, slow to open. Difficult to remove bulbils. More than 200 flowers per umbel. Slow scape senescence. Bulbils took 28 days to emerge in greenhouse. Growth in field is slow. Yield 30 g per 21 foot row. Planted the 10 largest bulbs for 2014 growing season. No seed obtained.
		PI 540319	Poland. Marbled purple stripe. Very early-flowering. ~300 Flowers per umbel. High pollen viability. Easy Bulbil removal by shaking. Very tall scapes with open spathe. Slow scape senescence. A photo is available at Heirloom Vegetable Archive: Garlic Quick emergence and robust growth of bulbils (7 days in greenhouse). Yield 300 g per 21 foot row. One seed found among bulbils obtained from GRIN. Planted an entire row for the 2014 growing season. 2nd year bulbils sent up scapes before 2014-05-27. 17 seeds collected. Bulbs left in field were strongly sprouted by mid-October. Plants about 8" tall. This is my favorite among the GRIN varieties.
		PI 540337	North Moravia, Czech Republic. Purple Stripe. Near base of DNA spanning network. High pollen viability. Very short scapes with open spathe. Mid-season flowering. ~ 50-100 flowers. Easy bulbil removal. Synonym: Adizanskij. Bulbils took 21 days to emerge in greenhouse. Slowest emergence and very slow growth of bulbils outdoors. Yield 20 g per 21 foot row. Planted the 10 largest bulbs for 2014 growing season. No seed obtained.
		PI 540357	[Group L, Purple Stripe]. Russian Federation. Male Sterile. Base of DNA spanning network. Inferred Synonyms: Metechi, Persian Star, Samarkand, W6-1885 (Ferganski), PI 540338 (Starobelski belyj). Open spathe containing more than 200 flowers per umbel. Late-season flowering. Slow scape senescence. A photo is available at Heirloom Vegetable Archive: Garlic Bulbils took 31 days to emerge in greenhouse. Growth in field is slow. Yield 24 g per 21 foot row. Planted the 10 largest bulbs for 2014 growing season. No seed obtained.
		W6 26171	From the open farmer's market in the city of Aktobe Kazakhstan. Synonyms: Novo Triotzk, Novotroitsk. A photo is available at Heirloom Vegetable Archive: Garlic Bulbils took 14 days to emerge in greenhouse. Growth in field is moderate. Yield 200 g per 21 foot row. Planted about 15 to 20 bulbs for 2014 growing season. Scapes emerging on 2nd year bulbils on 2014-06-03. No seed obtained. Bulbs left in field had sprouted by mid-October. Plants about 2" tall.
		Z058	Allium Longicuspis, Uzbekistan. Phenotypically diverse bulbils. From within the center of origin for garlic. Bulbils took 20 days to emerge in greenhouse. Growth in field is moderate. Yield 114 g per 21 foot row. Planted about 15 to 20 bulbs for 2014 growing season. 2nd year bulbils sent up strong 4 foot tall scapes before 2014-05-27. Flowers withered without producing swollen ovaries.

Emergence date was noted when 50% of bulbils had sprouted.

Planted outdoors in permaculture garden on 2012-11-17 from East to West in this order: PI 540337, PI 540319, PI 540316, PI 540357, W6 26171, Z058. Also potted some up and am growing them in front of an East facing basement window. Still some left for sharing. 2013-07-01. Couldn't find these to dig, so left most of them in the ground. They grew poorly compared to those in the open field. (Tree roots and shade.)

Planted bulbils in North field on 2013-03-19. Dug 2013-07-26. Stored in refrigerator.
Harvest weights are for one row in the north field. They are only provided as an indication of the relative growth of the plants in my garden. I didn't count bulbils going into the ground. A generous amount was planted except for PI 540319 which was limited.

2014-11-01: Planted bulbs in East Field. Planted all of PI540319, and 10 to 20 bulb samples of the others. Planted largest bulbs. Some of PI540319 were divided bulbs (3 cloves per bulb.)

2014-04-25: PI 540337 in permaculture garden didn't survive the winter.

Edit: Copying the contents of a post from some time ago, so that all the data about my cultivars are in the same post.

Image	Name	Origin and Notes
	Brown Vesper	By Maria Jenderek. From USSR. Did not produce seed in 2013.
	Chimgan: (Z 059)	By Barbara Hellier and Phillip Simon. Growing wild near Chimgan Mountain (Большой Чимган) in Uzbekistan. Punuk is a nearby village in Tajikistan. This area is within the center of origin for garlic. Did not produce seed in 2013.
	Punuk, (W6 27971)	Growing wild near Punuk in NW Tajikistan. Collected on 25-Jun-2006. Punuk is close to Chimgan Mountain in Uzbekistan. GPS: 40.81416667N, 70.70444444E, Elevation: 2045 ft. This area is within the center of origin for garlic. Two flower stalks had radically different flowers: (petals in star shape instead of typical fused-cup shape). Did not produce seed in 2013.
	Sural, (W6 26172)	From the southern Ural Mountains. From the open farmer's market in the city of Aktobe Kazakhstan. 2013: Leafs yellowed in planting on North side of building (due to bad compost?). Did not produce seed. 2014: Plants very yellow. Grew poorly. Chopped out.
	Mt. Ukraine	Collected in Ukraine by the friend of my neighbor. Leaves yellowed in planting on North side of building due to bad compost. Did not produce seed in 2013.
	Brown Tempest	[Group J], Marbled Purple Stripe.. North Moravia, Czech Republic. Male fertile with high pollen virility. Medium height scape with open spathe and difficult to remove medium-sized bulbils. Early/mid season flowering. Slow scape senescence. Inferred Synonyms: Bogatyr, Marino, Nap's Mystery, Siberian, W6-12839 (Gourmet Red), PI 540334 (Monsanskij), PI 540335 (Americky Maly), PI 615419 (W6 4264) Purple flowers. Yellow Anthers. Did not produce seed in 2013.
	Metechi, Craig's	Purple Stripe.
	Metechi, Amber's	Purple Stripe. No seeds produced in 2013 growing season
	Joseph's Landrace	Landrace garlic collected from usa suppliers. With the 40% duplication rate of commercial garlic, this amounts to around 15 genetically distinct clones. Collected 9 seeds in 2014 growing season after dropping seeds into lawn while winnowing.

I have plotted the locations from which some of these garlics came to me in a Google Earth file.

[cortona]

please consider me for some of the bulbils!

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I planted some outdoors, and some indoors, and I reserved some for sharing: Eight collaborators are currently working on this project with me. (11 as of 2013-05-13)

I've been threshing and winnowing the flowers as I plant and share. I found one more seed today!!! It was in PI 540319. So I'm up to 4 seeds already.

Holly: If you have any flowers left, you might try looking for seeds.

Other Collaborators: I didn't winnow the first few packages I sent out, (it was raining and I don't winnow inside), so you might check for seeds too.

[raymondo]

Already promising Joseph. I'll follow with interest.

[templeton]

Of my 5 or so varieties of garlic, only two are producing scapes. One variety is badly senescing before it has even properly formed a scape.Would beheading and putting in a jar of water work? or should I dig up the whole plant and suspend it in a jar of water? I was planning on leaving them in the ground and letting them grow out, but these plants now have only green tinges left on a couple of leaves.

T

[Joseph Lofthouse]

In my very limited experience, the scapes that I put in water in a bucket under a shade tree scenesced much slower than the ones still attached to the plant in the open field with full sunlight.

That seems like a clever idea: Digging up the root and all and putting in water. I wonder if a shade cloth or something would help if left in the field. On the other hand... I don't know that fast senescense is necessarily bad. I don't try to slow down the maturity of my radish seeds, or the corn.

On some of my plants, the flower stem stayed green for ages after the leaves had turned brown. On other plants the leaves and flower stem turned brown at about the same time.

[raymondo]

I de-bulbilled a scape this morning. Damaged a few flower buds but not too many. Others will be opening over the next few days.

[templeton]

I've picked my scapes, and have them in vases on the kitchen windowsill (another kooky experiment? says Ms T).
I got a bit over excited, and dissected one of the swelling heads on the most badly senescing scape - lots of little bulbils, but not even anything that looked like a proto-flower.I've bandaged the scape up with cling film to reduce moisture loss , so will see what eventuates.

Ray, what variety of garlic do you have forming flowers?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Templeton & Raymondo: Good work with the garlic. Looking forward to continued progress reports.

[raymondo]

Thanks Joseph.

T, I have California Late and two other unknown cultivars. One is said to be of Russian origin. I've left 3 or 4 scapes on each of these. I won't cut the scapes, just leave them on the plant to see what eventuates. They are close enough that pollinators will move from one to the other. I also have some leeks flowering with them. These always bring lots of pollinators so some of them should find the garlic.