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bakerhardwoods

Music Bulbils

11 years ago

Last year I left 5 or 6 scapes on my small number of music garlic plants and planted them last fall. I've read a lot of what everyone has written about this, but honestly I didn't think those tiny grains would grow. But they came up this spring. I am a little disappointed in their modest growth, whereas the rest of my garlic is growing great.

Here is a picture with the size of round I have so far from the music bulbils (accidentally pulled when weeding)


The music bulbils have not grown very big:

The rest of my garlic looks pretty good and I don't have any scapes yet that I've noticed (zone 5b):


Comments (12)

  • 11 years ago

    I've never grown from bulbils but I think what you got from the small Music porcelain bulbils looks pretty good to me and should give you a nice bulb in another year. Your main planting looks really good and I bet if you look close you will see some tiny scapes forming soon if not already on the early types like Music. Here in 6a KC area mine started popping out about 2 weeks ago and I harvested some on Sunday.

  • 11 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    It takes longer for garlic bulbils to grow to full size... Out of curiosity, I planted some tiny bulbils last fall that wont be ready until next year... I've read the main reasons for growing bulbils is to grow "clean" refeshed stock or to increase your garlic stock..

    They look good though..

  • 11 years ago

    agree with lonejack and mav72 that your bulbils have grown well for their first season. This blog ought to help reassure you https://goingtoseed.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/garlic-bulbil-harvest/

  • 11 years ago

    Thank you all for the comments and the link. I have clearly visible scapes now on a couple of the varieties.
    Tim


  • 11 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Music bulbils are tiny compared to some other types, some of which have bulbils the size of the music rounds you produce. If the rest of the Music rounds turn out like in the picture, you will have done very well. It also looks like your rounds should be ready to harvest soon, since so many of them seem to be going down. Don't wait until the tops completely dry out or you will have a difficult time finding the rounds beneath them. I will be willing to bet that you miss a few anyway that will come up as volunteers next spring.

  • 11 years ago

    I grew out some bulbils from Spanish Roja and they did about what yours have done. I decided not to repeat the experiment, too much weeding, but it was educational.

  • 11 years ago

    OldDutch was certainly correct about harvest. It took quite a while to harvest the little rounds:


    I let them dry some and then cleaned and bagged them. I counted 448 rounds. I would guess there must be hundreds that I missed when harvesting. A couple of observations. I think they might have grown better if I had used less mulch. Also, the half that I sewed on top of the ground did better than the half I planted an inch or so in the soil (too deep, especially with mulch still 2-3" deep at harvest).

    My intention is to let the sweet potatoes take over the area from which I harvested the Music rounds. I don't know how this will affect the garlic volunteers I get next spring, but I may try to let them come next spring although it kind of messes up the rotation.


  • 11 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    You will certainly have some garlic volunteers in that bed next spring. They will be much easier to handle next year, too, much larger. They can be dug and reset to better spacing in other areas, if you do it early. Or grow them on where they come up for garlic scallions, which are also very good.

    Make sure the rounds were well cured and dried before you bagged them up or you will likely get mold that will destroy many of them. Don't be too quick with the bagging, an additional week or two on the drying rack shouldn't harm the rounds at all.

    BTW the few times I planted bulbils I planted them in wide rows rather than broadcast. That makes it a whole lot easier to find and harvest the rounds they produce.

  • 11 years ago

    The last few seasons I've been sowing the entire umbels which makes it much easier to harvest the rounds. Here's the article where I first read about this http://www.snakeroot.net/farm/PlantingBulbilsByCluster.shtml

  • 11 years ago

    Those look better than my "Ajo Rojo" rounds that I pulled two days ago... The leaves on my few "Sanoran" rounds are still mostly green, so I haven't pulled them yet..

    I've been trying to pace myself with harvesting and curing my alliums. They can be confused with each other when dry. My elephant garlic rounds look like my round onions and my garlic rounds look like a small type of shallot that I grow. It can be confusing...

  • 11 years ago

    I cure my different onions and garlics each in its own windrow, each windrow separated by a spacer like a 2x2 board and each labeled with the name of its variety on a piece of cardboard. I then make a "map" in Paint on my computer showing which varieties are where. You can also make a simple table in Word. Else I definitely tend to forget which is which. I also make a graphic map of planted beds or by harvest I would also have them all confused. I find that more dependable than putting markers in the rows.

  • 11 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    A quick word about volunteers. They have proven to be locally adapted or they would not have come back. Whether or not they produce a decent crop is another matter that only time can tell.

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