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Post by kazedwards on Jul 23, 2014 12:24:45 GMT -5
So I have been thinking about this for a few weeks now. From what I have gathered from reading this thread, weather has a lot to do with garlic flowering. This year so far has been quite mild (80s with moderate humidity) compared to most years (90s to 100s with very high humidity). From all of the things that you all have said about the pictures that I have put up, I have a lot of flowers. This is the first time I have grown garlic so I am very inexperienced and don't have anything to compare with. I am very interested in all that you have accomplished with this topic and would love to get TGS my self. My thoughts are thus-
I was not thinking of working on TGS for at least a few more years, but the weather this year is very cooperative with the project. I fear that it will be a long time until the conditions are this good for garlic flowers. I don't want to miss the chance!
I was also thinking that I might as well try to get TGS because I don't have much to lose. So I know that I need to pluck the bulbis out but then what? Some of the flowers appear to be open, so how do I know if they get pollinated? Do I need to cut them and put them in water? I would rather wait for that because they are getting a lot of pollinators. Any help is great
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Post by kazedwards on Jul 23, 2014 12:39:53 GMT -5
Also the bulbis I pick out will still grow in to plants if I plant them right
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 23, 2014 13:14:43 GMT -5
I pluck out the bulbils, and drop them on the ground, then they grow as weeds the next year. With a bit more care I could catch them for replanting or eating... Definitely good to take advantage of unusual weather conditions. Those garlic are flowering wonderfully. In many varieties the flowers would have already been shriveled up by the time the sheath opens. And the purple flowers and anthers are a hopeful sign. After the bulbils are plucked out the flowers will either dry up and wither away, or they will turn green and swell up. I prefer to leave the flowers attached to the plant. I have never understood why someone would remove a flower from a perfectly good root system. I brute force the bulbils out. Take my thumbnail and rake them away... About 5 seconds per flower is all it takes. One disadvantage of attempting to get true seeds and leaving bulbs in the ground is that the clove wrappers will disintegrate. Here's examples of an immediate fail and a normally developing flower head. Immediate fail:  Looking good so far.  Seed Pods swelling:  |
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Post by kazedwards on Jul 23, 2014 14:56:25 GMT -5
Thank you for the help! Mine look like the second pic but with more bulbis. I am glad to here about not cutting them. I will also keep an eye out for the swelling. I will also post a pic or two if them soon. Thank you again for your help
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Post by kevin8715 on Jul 23, 2014 17:23:33 GMT -5
Quick, semi related question. I observed rust on my Japanese Long onion in the spring whuch are in pots. Right now in summer there are no symptoms. Now onto the question. Will the disease return in fall and the mild winters here anf spread? Should I plant the seeds I collected (need to check viability) and bake the soil and uprooted plants to death?
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Post by kazedwards on Jul 24, 2014 1:38:36 GMT -5
well I am not as proficient at removing bulbils as Joseph. I debulbed two scapes and it took about an hour. I kept all bulbils but a few that were dropped by accident. I counted how many came out of the first head and there were 203. So if any one would like a few let me know I should have plenty to go around. The first head took a lot longer than the first because I was overly careful around the flowers. Once I got a few bulbils out of the second head it took just a few minutes. Hopefully I will get more of them done tomorrow. Here is a picture of the first head. Most of the flowers made it through the process.   |
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Post by richardw on Jul 24, 2014 3:32:02 GMT -5
Wish mine were more like yours Zach,the heads that i tried to work with last summer had small white flowers on short stems where it was hard to get the bulbils off without taking the flowers off with them,the flowers on yours look so much more robust than what i had to work with.
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Post by kazedwards on Jul 24, 2014 9:30:29 GMT -5
Wish mine were more like yours Zach,the heads that i tried to work with last summer had small white flowers on short stems where it was hard to get the bulbils off without taking the flowers off with them,the flowers on yours look so much more robust than what i had to work with. Well the second head didn't make it through as nice. Lost several flowers in the process. They also started out as white flowers then turned purple. The ones that were still white came off with the bulbils along with several purple ones. Hounestly I'm surprised I didn't strip the entire head of everything when trying to get that first bulbils out. |
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Post by 12540dumont on Jul 24, 2014 19:57:11 GMT -5
Joseph, they are beautiful.
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Post by kazedwards on Aug 9, 2014 13:22:04 GMT -5
So the seed pods are swelling on the garlic. Now I just need to wait until they dry. Then I pick and thresh looking for seed. Right?   I can honestly saw that I'm surprised with how this has turned out this year. Thank you all for the help and advice. |
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Post by richardw on Aug 9, 2014 14:41:37 GMT -5
youve done well Zach,looks like you should get a fair amount of seed too.
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Post by philagardener on Aug 9, 2014 20:01:32 GMT -5
Looks great kazedwards ! Watch for when the green seed pods start to dry to brown (won't take long now that the main stem is yellowing). They split easily after that and you might lose seed. On my onions, that's when I clip the entire head (over a container to catch any seed that might spill) and let it dry down. The black seeds then release easily and you can winnow out the chaff. TGS! |
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Post by kazedwards on Aug 10, 2014 0:09:54 GMT -5
Looks great kazedwards ! Watch for when the green seed pods start to dry to brown (won't take long now that the main stem is yellowing). They split easily after that and you might lose seed. On my onions, that's when I clip the entire head (over a container to catch any seed that might spill) and let it dry down. The black seeds then release easily and you can winnow out the chaff. TGS! You clip them when they turn brown or now when they are green? Also does anyone know if the garlic in the ground still good? |
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Post by philagardener on Aug 10, 2014 7:00:21 GMT -5
Looks great kazedwards ! Watch for when the green seed pods start to dry to brown (won't take long now that the main stem is yellowing). They split easily after that and you might lose seed. On my onions, that's when I clip the entire head (over a container to catch any seed that might spill) and let it dry down. The black seeds then release easily and you can winnow out the chaff. TGS! You clip them when they turn brown or now when they are green? Also does anyone know if the garlic in the ground still good? I'd wait as long as possible until the first pods turn tan/brown. That way, the seeds have the benefit of receiving energy from the mother plant. Just keep an eye on them because they can progress quickly when the time comes. Of course, if the mother plant has browned you can pick the stem and put the cut end in water. As long as the pods are green, they can carry out photosynthesis (making food from the sun) and that lets the seed mature more gradually than just cutting the head now and letting it dry. You probably aren't far off, and even if you did just pick it you should still get good seed. The garlic in the ground is OK but as the above ground leaves die back the wrapping leaves around the cloves break down so the cloves may fall apart when you dig them. They also will be a bit smaller than when harvested normally because of the energy that went to the flowering stalk. (That is why we generally harvest when about a third of the leaves had died back and conventionally remove the scapes). You can plant these cloves again to get plants that presumably will set seed as they did this year (because they are genetically identical clones). You also have the bulbils you removed earlier from the flower head to stimulate seed set; those also are clones of the original plant (but will take 2-3 years to get to blooming size). It will be interesting to see how much the trait of setting fertile seed is genetic vs environmental (i.e. maybe there was something about growing conditions this year that contributed to your success). This is part of what makes this interesting! |
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Post by richardw on Aug 10, 2014 14:24:53 GMT -5
The black seeds then release easily and you can winnow out the chaff. TGS! Like all seed in the Alliaceae group i reckon its best to float off in water not only the chaff but also the immature and hollow seed,ya best seed sinks to the bottom, just gota have to make sure you dry it ..FAST |
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