They're called bulbils and I don't know if it will help the bulbs to cut them off at this point. I think people use them for seed, although I've read it takes a couple years for them to fully mature. Advantage is that they were never underground and thus are less likely to carry a disease.

I'm sure there's someone else here who knows a lot more about this than me.

Those are bulbils growing on scapes (flower stalks). Normally you would pinch the scapes off and eat them (they are very tasty) long before they got to this point as they do rob the underground bulb of nutrients.

It's up to you as to what you want to do now. You could cut the bulbils off that you can, leave the ones that are growing in the stem, it may or may not help the some of the underground bulbs grow a little more. Or you could leave them alone and use them as you would garlic cloves but obviously the bulbils will be smaller.

If you plant the bulbils you will get what is called a "round" which is a single garlic clove. Then if you plant that round again you'll get a regular garlic bulb. It takes two years to get a bulb from a bulbil and it's just easier to plant cloves so I don't recommend planting the bulbils.

And it is definitely not time for you to dig your garlic yet. By the looks of the leaves they still have a while to go.

One last thing. It's unusual for softnecks to produce scapes, although it happens, and I've never had bulbils grow in the stem before so that's unusual as well.

Rodney

Thanks for taking time to respond, it is very much appreciated!

I kinda didn't think there would be much I could do on the ones growing in the main stem (at or near ground level). So it's good to know that I can probably do nothing and be okay!

I'm a little hesitant to mess with them if they will probably turn out okay anyway.

This whole idea of planting way back in October, and then waiting until like July to dig them out makes me really, really want them to be successful. (That and I paid like $40 for not a whole lot of seed pieces pound-wise anyway. If they don't make a crop my wife may just not let me live it down! You know, she can buy garlic in the store for not a lot...)

I'm telling her we may never need to buy again!

Thanks again!!

Are your garlic plants perennial?

I'm interested in growing garlic if they can be grown as perennials like strawberries or asparagus.

Please let me know.
Also the $40 you paid seems very pricey.

Hi uscjusto;

No, I'll need to save back the biggest bulbs to use for the next planting. That's what I was referring to with the comment on maybe never having to buy again...

I got mine from The Garlic Store, it's organic I guess, and it was $11.95 a pound, so 3lbs totaled $35.85 plus $7.30 S&H = $43.15.

But..............., at the time when I was trying to locate some to plant - places like Gurney's were like $5 a bulb or more.

So I don't know, I couldn't seem to find it much less expensive at the time, but I know my wife reminds me of how cheap she can buy it at the supermarket. I'm thinking this fresh garlic will be superior!!!!

I have seen bulbils. leave them on till harvest then separate them.

I think , if you plant a bulbil, you will get an ONION GARLIC. it is called og because it will be a round single clove garlic.

Lol about your wife saying that store bought produce is cheaper than growing them on your own. Sounds like my wife.

Do you harvest the garlic you eat and the garlic you re-plant at the same time?
A single clove of planted garlic will produce an entire bulb?

If you check out local farmer's markets you might be able to find garlic that's being sold for eating and it is perfectly fine for planting. It's cheap and it also has the advantage of already being adapted to growing in your climate. Once you make the initial "seed" garlic investment you should be set for life as long as nothing catastrophic happens (like your crop getting wiped out by critters or disease) because you save your biggest cloves to replant (bigger cloves equal bigger bulbs).

I enjoy growing garlic. It's really easy to grow and it takes up little space so it's worth the minimal effort of growing. All it needs is water, compost, and time. I plant mine in October, cut the scapes off the hardnecks in June, harvest and cure it in July, and then replant in October.

uscjusto- Garlic is a perennial but it's not something that you can just plant and forget about. If you leave it in the ground after it dies down in the Summer it will come back in the Fall as a clump and that clump will produce much smaller bulbs and every year the bulbs will continue decreasing in size. I know this because I have some planted in with my perennial flowers (I think it looks interesting). And yes, you harvest the garlic at the same time and you save some to replant. One clove produces one bulb.

Rodney

Sounds good!

I'll try to get a good clove for seeding when October comes around.

1 more question:

The garlic harvested and cured in July can be saved for re-planting in October?
How do you store the cloves to be re-planted so they don't go bad and do they are optimized for re-planting?

Just thought I'd share a couple of pics to demonstrate the point I made in my previous comment.

This is a hardneck variety called Carpathian. As you can see garlic will grow in a clump of undersized plants that will have tiny unusable bulbs when left to do it's own thing:
{{gwi:75817}}

And this is a softneck variety called Transylvanian that has been harvested and replanted like normal. It's sizing up nicely but still has 2 or 3 weeks yet to go:
{{gwi:75818}}
That's a quarter in the pics for size reference. Both hardnecks and softnecks grow equally well for me so the difference in size is related only to the growing conditions.

uscjusto- Yes, the garlic harvested and cured in July will last to October and beyond. If it's cured properly and kept in a cool (not cold! cold initiates root growth and sprouts), dry, dark place garlic will last at least until April. Softnecks will store longer than hardnecks though so eat the hardnecks first. You store both the bulbs you plan to eat and the bulbs you plan to replant the same way. It's best to save your biggest bulbs with the biggest cloves to replant and don't break the bulbs apart until it's time to plant. And to replant them you just pop the individual cloves into the ground, don't peel them.

Rodney

Great info Rodney!

My only dilemma now is to figure out which varieties I want to grow. I'm in zone 9 and looked up a couple that grow well here: California Early, artichoke, and marbled purple stripe.

Who knew there were sooooo many varieties!! I only see 1 type usually in the grocery store.

Wow, that's really nice Rodney!!!

I went out and clipped the bulbils off a couple that were near the tops, and while I was at it I pulled back some soil to see how one of my bigger ones was doing... it doesn't look HALF as big as your last picture.

I can't recall the characteristics of the two kinds I have, but maybe they will never get that big. (Or maybe over time, as I keep amending the soil and selecting bigger bulbs - maybe they will grow bigger after all)

That local farmers market idea sounds like the plan though, if I decide to try my hand at some others, like Hardneck.....

Jerry

uscjusto- The white garlic you find in the supermarket is rather bland. It's amazing how much more flavor and aroma homegrown garlic has. Obviously different varieties have different flavors, some mellow out when you cook them and some keep their punch. As you found out, there are a ton of different garlic varieties.

Jerry- Thanks. It appears that my garlic is a week or two ahead of yours as the leaves of my softnecks are beginning to yellow already whereas yours still look dark green. About a week and a half ago I checked the size of my bulbs and they were maybe half the size they are now. Your garlic just needs time to size up.

I grow Inchelium Red (never had it grow scapes though) and it produces bulbs around the same size as Transylvanian. I poked around in the soil to check and sure enough, they are the same size. So just do as you said, amend the soil and select the biggest bulbs to replant and you'll have nice big bulbs of flavorful garlic.

Rodney