True Garlic Seed

[moloch]

I have some TGS seedlings that are not exactly thriving.  I started them indoors under a grow light, and am hardening them off to plant in the ground tomorrow.

I'm not sure why they look so rough... It could be the cheap "seed starting mix" that I used is too acidic, or perhaps my grow light was not adequate, or whatever that mold is...  I don't know, but hopefully they will do better once I get them planted outside.

[meganp]

You have done well to germinate the tgs. Have only ever grown one batch of Dr B's seeds and they were sown outdoors without a grow light, they are surprisingly hardy once you get them germinated. Am hopeful of producing my own seed from a no ID marbled purple stripe this year.

[moloch]

I'm guessing one reason they were not thriving indoors was that my containers were too shallow. I removed the containers when I planted them in the ground, and the worst looking ones all had bare roots curving along the bottom of the container. They are only a few weeks old, so hopefully they will bounce back now that they are planted in the ground with nothing blocking their roots.

[tedmeredith]

Hi moloch—


First of all congratulations on your seedlings. Successfully germinating garlic seeds can be a challenge.

Garlic seedlings have surprisingly long roots. It does look like your seedlings are suffering from problematic growing conditions, and hopefully planting them out will bring them along.  Having said that, a couple of other factors may also be in play. Garlic germinated from seed, particularly in early generations, suffer from a fairly high frequency of genetic deficiencies, and may be chlorophyll deficient or absent, or have other issues that causes poor growth or premature death. Also, in healthy normally vigorously growing seedlings, the first early small leaves will die back as new larger leaves are produced.

It may be that all three factors are in play with your plants. It does look like you have some promising seedlings that may grow well once given better conditions.

Best of luck.

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

[moloch]

There are definitely some genetic abnormalities. The seedlings were various shades of light to dark green, with one of them being a cream color (chlorophyll deficient?).

I was quite surprised at the depth of the garlic seedlings' root(s). I had anticipated them being like a very small garlic, having many short (1-2" long) roots. It appears they might only have a single root that is 6"+ long after about 3-4 weeks.

I have a few more seeds that just finished 4 weeks of vernalization. I will plant most of them directly in the ground this time to see if they do any better/different. I will start a few indoors, in deeper containers, to test if they grow any better with roots that are completely surrounded in soil.

This weekend will probably be the last frost of the year here in NC.  I planted my TGS garden very early last fall, and fertilized them (is it bad to fertilize right before planting?), but most of them have survived the winter and are looking healthy.  They are definitely bigger than the previous year when I did not plant them as early.  The winters here are so mild I was experimenting to see if they would survive the early planting, and they seem to be doing well except for 2 varieties which mostly died (2nd row from the left is quite small and yellow)

[richardw]

Your outdoor plants are looking good. Wish i could use leaves as mulch, would all end up being blown out to sea if i did.

[steev]

I am lucky to have a source of rabbit-bedding straw for coarse mulch/fert and hardwood sawdust for fine mulch; now, if I can just get reliable rainfall, I'll be good to go, once again.

Didn't know you're that near the coast, or is that just an idiom?

[richardw]

Mar 22, 2018 23:39:57 GMT -5 steev said:

Didn't know you're that near the coast, or is that just an idiom?

Yes the term 'blown out to sea' is what of a commonly used idiom here.

Check out all but one of my dried TGS pods, empty. Got one last scape that had larger but still green seed pods, all hope is pinned on those.

[richardw]

Fourth year running, still no seed produced. Luckily i'm no old coot so hopefully i'll crack of these years before i'm composted.

[joeyd]

I had around 20 seeds from my first attempt. I was growing only one variety and so I did not expect any germination; and indeed non germinated. I have a few more varieties that I am growing this year. Maybe I will have better luck this time, but I may be moving later this summer. So, I may not get to collect any seeds at all this year. Still a fun gardening experiment that I plan to continue.

[walt]

If moving when seeds aren't ripe, remember that there have been reports here of seed stalks maturing seeds in a vase of water.  Worth a try.

[joeyd]

May 22, 2018 11:33:11 GMT -5 walt said:

If moving when seeds aren't ripe, remember that there have been reports here of seed stalks maturing seeds in a vase of water.  Worth a try.

Yeah, I will probably try that. It depends on how developed the seed heads are by the time I move. On the plus side I'll have more garden space were I'm moving.

[moloch]

You guys must be busy gardening, while I'm just here taking pictures...  (if anyone wants to use these pictures, feel free to download them, consider them public domain. I also have the raw images, these are shrunk to 25% and cropped)

My best close-up pic

This little guy looks like a bee, but you may notice he is actually smaller than a single garlic flower... he's tiny

[richardw]

Neat close ups

[philagardener]

Jun 16, 2018 14:28:49 GMT -5 moloch said:

This little guy looks like a bee, but you may notice he is actually smaller than a single garlic flower... he's tiny

Actually a fly that is a bee mimic.  Great pictures!