Hi, I think it is worth paying extra for the larger heads only if you are wanting to grow large garlic bulbs. The larger the garlic cloves you plant the larger bulbs you will harvest.
I have had very good results in the past buying seed garlic from Three Oaks Farm as the are cheaper than most places I have looked at and have a very good selection of varieties to choose from.
I am growing 33 varieties of garlic this year with about a third of them coming from Three Oaks Farm.
Just my 2 cents!
Gary

We are working towards being seed sellers our selves and do sell some seed but mostly local now. I think most of the smaller farms do sell for less and sometimes you get big seed. But being small they are limited on the amount of premium seed they have. At some of the larger companies you usually will get larger seed and they are usually inspected and certified (not all states do this I know mine doesn't ). I usually go for a bigger company but of course I am getting a better price because of bulk rate.

If you could find a smaller company in you area (northeast) you might get slightly smaller seed for a better price and it would already be adjusted to your climate and soil.

When I buy from a west coast company the first years harvest is decient size but I have to wait 2 more years to get it back to the original size. Something to think about.
gl

G&H garlic Farm
Location
148 Brickyard Road
Littleton, NH 03561

Contact Information
James Gunderson
603-444-5805

for other farms in your area
http://www.localharvest.org/
then type in state and (product) garlic

If I start one bed with smaller heads/cloves, would they eventually catch up after several years with a similar bed planted with larger cloves of the same variety? Or will the bed that started with smaller garlic always be condemmed to producing smaller garlic?

The answer is yes, if you select the largest cloves only, you get the larger heads. Generally it's stated that 3 seasons will acclimate garlic to your area unless its not correct at all for your climate.

here is my experience.
a few years ago i had some unidentified garlic growing behind the compost pile growing in the tall grass. they were small bulbs with tiny cloves. after 3 years of growing, and selecting for size i had full size bulbs of what turned out to be carpathian. same thing with garlic bulblets. if you give them what they need, they will become full size bulbs. it just takes longer. if you are growing garlic for sale, waiting an extra year or two may not be feasible. when deciding what company to buy seed stock from, quality of their product is what is important to me. price is secondary. price doesn't always reflect quality of the product.

keith in calumet

>price is secondary. price doesn't always reflect quality of the product. Besides which, after the second year, the price per bulb is virtually zero.

I worked out the cost per bulb when this question came up once before. Using $15/pound as the average price, and, for the sake of discussion, assuming 100% germination and harvest.

As I recall (I'm not doing all that math again), after the second year it cost something like .003 cents per bulb to produce your own garlic.

>Is it worth the extra $2 to get the largest heads possible? For me it would be, Uncle John. Especially as I'm rebuilding my alliums garden almost from scratch this year.

If cash is an issue, however, just trade time for money. That is, start with a half-pound of the variety you want. Plant all of it this fall. Next year reserve the largest cloves you get for planting, and do that. Just keep repeating that process.

Here's how it will work out. On average, there are 60 cloves/pound for hardneck varieites. So you'll be planting 30 cloves. Assume 100% harvest. Each of those bulbs should give you at least two usable cloves. So, next fall, you'll have 60 cloves for planting, but will have enjoyed eating the balance of the first 30 bulbs. After that, your garlic crop will be determined by how big you want it to be.

And if you really want to expand "on the cheap", let a few hardnecks develop their bulbils. If they are those like Music with many small bulbils, you can start with 2 bulbs and have several thousand bulbs after 3 or 4 years!

Martin