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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 11, 2013 11:43:34 GMT -5
I went out and took photos this morning. Here is what an immediate fail looks like: The stalk dehydrated and turned tan. The flowers didn't even open, they just withered up. Removing bulbils while retaining flowers was difficult.  This garlic flower might produce seeds. The ovaries are swelling. The stalk is green, and there are still two green leaves on the plant.  |
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Post by richardw on Aug 11, 2013 14:35:57 GMT -5
That does look promising Joseph
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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 12, 2013 8:43:14 GMT -5
I never got around to picking off bulbils on mine Joseph. I have noticed that almost all of the accessions I got from USDA have purple anthers on the flowers, so may be fertile? I'll send you some bulbs of each.
Tim
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 12, 2013 13:11:03 GMT -5
Thanks Tim: You might still check for seeds if you left the scapes to grow. I found a seed in bulbils sent to me from GRIN.
I had 3 kinds with purple anthers this summer. One of them still looks promising, one seems to be senescencing to soon, and one croaked quickly.
White (petaled) flowers almost always wither away quickly. Purple colored flowers seem much more robust.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 16, 2013 18:00:17 GMT -5
I'm disappointed that the photo doesn't show this off as well as looking at it in three dimensions, but one garlic flower has an ovary that has swollen up much larger than I have ever seen a garlic ovary before. (At least double the diameter of any other.) So I have great hopes for this plant. I am headed out to the garden now to bag the flower head. Wouldn't want that thing to fall off and not be able to find it later. I marked it with a red line on the photo.  |
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Post by steev on Aug 16, 2013 22:02:31 GMT -5
Yes, I saw that before I saw the red line, strikingly different; bon chance!
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Post by richardw on Aug 17, 2013 0:34:20 GMT -5
Even the one right behind it looks full enough maybe,good luck.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 1, 2013 15:28:21 GMT -5
I harvested the first garlic seed-heads yesterday. Plant height was around 4.5 feet tall. They were in my main field, and I was getting ready to irrigate, and they looked plenty dry, so I harvested some, and left some. I harvested the bulb and the seed-head together, so that later on, if any of the seed-heads produce seeds I can replant the corresponding bulb.
The leaves have all died in the planting on the north side of a building. Some stems are still green and nourishing the seed-head, which still contains green ovaries. Many plants have turned tan and the flowers shriveled up with no hope of producing any seed. There are 23 plants remaining in this planting that have possibilities still.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 4, 2013 16:40:01 GMT -5
I finished harvesting the last of the garlic seed heads yesterday: The bed on the north side of a building. Sorry no photos: nearing the end of our frost-emergency-harvest. Two flower heads were particularly prolific: with a number of large swollen ovaries. I kept them separate. Heads with only one swollen ovary went into a common lot.
One of the seed heads with a number of swollen ovaries was separated from its root, so I couldn't tell where it came from. The other one was still attached, so I dug the bulb and planted it in it's own row for next year. I mostly left the bed intact: So they will get another chance next year. I'm intending to add the GRIN garlic to the bed this fall.
The pods are still green and moist, but starting to dry down, so perhaps I'll thresh them in a few weeks.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 6, 2013 15:16:14 GMT -5
Here is what the best looking garlic flower of the year looked like a few minutes ago... It seems like it has more huge swollen ovaries on it than the rest of the patch put together. I'm intending to thresh it in about 3 weeks. I moved the mother to its own row in the garlic seed bed.  |
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Post by meganp on Oct 7, 2013 0:15:41 GMT -5
I harvested the first garlic seed-heads yesterday. There are 23 plants remaining in this planting that have possibilities still. Great to see the photo's. How many plants in total did you remove bulbils from and how many have you saved that look as though they have set seed? I received an email from Ivan's Garlic today and he has three varieties of true seed for sale, have already placed an order and eagerly awaiting their arrival:) However, I will also be setting aside some of my garlic to try to produce my own true seed. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 7, 2013 1:17:53 GMT -5
I removed bulbils from perhaps 400 plants. Many of them failed almost immediately, and so were harvested for eating. About 100 plants were in a dedicated bed. Two plants had a number of swollen ovaries on them. The seed heads were saved separate. The rest of the flower stalks that looked like they might have a partially swollen ovary on them were harvested and saved in bulk. All of the above are from my general garlic population which are not known for setting seeds. The varieties that I acquired last fall, which have sometimes set seed for others did not set seed for me this year: Brown Vesper, Brown Tempest, Chimgan, Punuk, Sural. I expect to add the GRIN garlic to that patch in the next week or so. I wish that I had harvested the seed a bit earlier: Before the flower stalks separated from the roots. That would have allowed me to locate and transplant more of the most promising bulbs. I was only able to transplant the best most promising bulb. The next best and the sorta ok bulbs got left in the ground with the failures. I'll try again next year. I still have around 40 plants that had promising traits in the main field that need to be dug and transplanted to the garlic seed bed (mostly plants with purple anthers). I also received a message from Ivan, and immediately sent in an order. |
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Post by nicollas on Oct 7, 2013 3:13:30 GMT -5
Hope that'll help, its from Allium Crop Science docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw8kgMpvhLfqZ2ZuOUl0WlljOTA/edit?usp=sharing(i'm a bit confused about TGS, are you trying to get virus-free garlic, breeding some new cultivars ? i'm not sure how it is interesting to get seeds, unlike as for potato onions that had very small bulbs and no genetic diversity and from seed very big bulbs with a lot of genetic diversity ? But i dont want to pollute this great thread so i dont know where to ask) |
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Post by meganp on Oct 7, 2013 3:56:59 GMT -5
I removed bulbils from perhaps 400 plants. oh dear, I need to plant more garlic to have any chance of getting true seed! still, I'm willing to try with my much more modest number of plants - only 250 hardnecks in total but plenty of bulbils for future years experimenting:) |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 7, 2013 9:31:51 GMT -5
I am trying this with varieties that do not typically set seed. It is what I had to work with, so it's what I started using. I had about 4 to 6 plants each from 4 varieties that have set seed in other gardens, and about 30 plants from another variety (if the name matches the genes).
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