First, garlic usually doesn't grow from seeds*. But the little bulbils on top of the scape sure do. If you manage to find them all, you're a better gardener than I! And I always manage to miss a few bulbs at harvest, or leave a broken off clove about, so there are always a few garlic plants where last year's grew.
But to get round to your question, garlic greens are just fine in stir-frys, chopped up in eggs, or whatever suits your fancy. I know a commercial grower who has a nice secondary marked in garlic greens... he just throws the leftover cloves that were too small to plant willy-nilly in a bed to produce greens, usually several cuttings before they run out of energy. A nearby Asian market is happy to get them!
Those scapes make nice pesto; I freeze a bunch in plastic ice cube trays, then bag the frozen cubes for future use.
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G
I didn't know that. I always grow my garlic from gloves. The ones I saved from before, or more from any random source. I thought that farmers would do seed because I thought it would be cheaper. After seeing your post I put "garlic seeds" though google and now I don't know what to think.
Garlic gave up sex long ago, and doesn't produce true seeds, so what you're doing in planting cloves is how garlic reproduces. Hardneck garlic puts up scapes with a bunch of "bulbils" on top, usually at some cost to the main bulb, which is why we cut them off. You can let the scapes go and plant the little bulbils, but it will take more than a season to get full-sized garlic bulbs. Growers sometimes to this to avoid soil-borne diseases if this is an issue with the original stock. There has been a lot of research the past few years, and garlic can be persuaded to produce true seeds... more of interest for producing hybrids and other genetic tinkering; I don't know (or especially care to) the details. Shameless plug: google "garlic seed foundation." They're good folks.
Oh yeah: Asian cooks are often happy to get garlic scapes for cooking. Cut them before they start to curl to keep as much energy as possible in the main bulb, as well as to have nice tender stems to stir fry or make pesto.
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G
Ooh, I'm going for dim-sum for lunch later today. I always get some garlic green dumplings to take home to reheat for later. Have to pack them separately from anything else I take home, and it's best to bring an air-tight container from home to keep them from reeking into the car interior. (The waitress laughed when we first brought out our container, but agreed that, "Yes, they stink, but are SO GOOD."
Is it normal for some of the outer, oldest leaves to be turning yellowish? This spring is cooler than normal. It was planted at the right time, mulched, compost applied this spring and fertilized with fish fert and remulched. Plenty of moisture, actually lots of rain. Am I missing some nutrient? Or underfertilized?
I read about the garlic scallions and did just that with the leftover small bulbs. Everyone is loving them in stir-fry and salads.
Maybe too much water? I had trouble with my germination trays. Once I got my seedlings sprouted, I'd put them out sidein the sunshine. Problem is that the tray I had inside the house on the heating pad and under the lights, didn't have drain holes.That's good for inside but not that great for outside. I figured I could always tip out the excess water but I kept having standing water in the trays and leaves would start turning yellow, then brown, and then I would have a dead, withered seedling. Grrrr
Took my knife and made appropriate drain holes and left two trays for in-door germination.
The overly wet and stunted plants respond quickly when I re-pot them into six packs and potting soil. That was the other thing, the sphagnum moss in the germinating soil really holds the water, which exacerbated my wet tray problem. I have more transfers to do today. I lost some borage due to my negligence.
We be getting sunshine and temps in the high 60's and low 70's and a steady 10 to 15 mph wind, mornings and evenings. The garden is responding a little bit. The cabbage has survived the slugs and snails but it is in a border area that doesn't get much direct Sun. Putting in some hyssop today, hoping that will help somehow. Eight tomato plants are in (3 cherry) but even under the plastic the soil is barely 70F. The squash looks good but not much growth from it yet.
I've got two small (8'X4' & 5'X4') partial Sun areas that I'm developing and a couple of small spots where I'm just shoehorning things into. I'm trimming the time, and number of emitters on my drip irrigation because we are headed for another summer of water restrictions. I'm putting in at least one crop of sweet corn and hoping for several more. I'm also putting in a stand of dent corn as well, for it's ornamental value as much as for the carbs.
Had to go get a dozen lettuce plants from the nursery because the wet trays slowed down the new batch of lettuce. That and the lettuce tray was at the base of an oak, where a squirrel played "52 pickup" with it. Not much damage, but it didn't help. The potatoes are up and I'm lacing their soil constantly with sphagnum moss and sulfur powder to drop the pH. They are just next to my anemic looking blue berries, so the soil adjustment is a twofer.
The local CSA that we bought into reminded us of how good fresh leeks could be. We just slow sautee them in a thick bottomed skillet until they are very soft. They don't need any sauce. Anywho, I'm waiting on about 40 leeks to mature a little more before I stick them in the ground, somewhere(?).
Man, all this stuff takes time.
On the bright side, the "Hounds from Hell" have been leaving the garden in peace. The border collie's (Beau) favorite scratching area is the beet garden. I know. I know. The season is young.
If it is too much water, I am SOL. I would have hoped that the raised beds would have taken care of this.
It doesn't take long to eff something up, I have found.
You r temps are what we are experiencing...below normal for us. I didn't realize your NCa temps were this cool.
Which variety? I planted a few Painted Mountain for grins and ornamental also. From what I have learned, one should only save seed from at least a hundred different plants in order to assure good reproduction, I gots nowheres near the room for that now.
I had every intention of planting taters this year, but likely blew it already. Maybe not. I need to check seedsavers and see if I can still get a shipment.
Aren't they absolutely wonderful!! Last fall I sauteed the tops as well. Wonderful. Don't know why we ever discarded them before. Kinda like butchering a hog....ya' use everything but the squeal!
I've about fifty little Musselburghs in a tray....they are slow going. Planted fifty Yellow of Parma and have about a hundred Bianca di Maggio ready to go in......*if* it dries just a bit. I have found that the lasagna style allows getting things in when it is a bit too wet under the old method.
The four Musselburghs I left in ground for seed are looking very good. Should get an ounce or so of seed from them.
It's a hell of an education, ain't it Billy. One of the better things I have studied over the course of my life.
My hound from hell decided to cruise thru the broadcast multi-lettuce-heirloom-radish-oriental greens broadcast bed and left saucer size craters in the bed........GRRRRRRRRRR. Stuff is up and lookin' good....except for the craters.
We have forty to fifty mph NW winds going on right now and down to forty the next couple of nights. I had to bring in all the flats. The asparagus bed is laying sideways as it is about four foot tall now and ferned out, hope it makes it ok. Gaia may have about had it with us, my friend.
I grow both types. My softneck variety is (probably mostly) "Polish Softneck" and my hardneck variety is (probably mostly) "Music."
"Probably mostly" as I have had other varieties before but I am pretty sure these two have been the winners in the long run for producing consistantly large, quality heads. (I'm not quite up to selecting garlic for subtle differences in flavor; as long as it's not wimpy it's OK by me.)
My "seed stock" was originally from Territorial Seeds:
We store our garlic during the winter in the garage (central NY) zone 4 and I wonder which keeps better.
Do you know?
I'm pretty sure we grow hard stem. The wrappings around the outside of the bulb is thin and often split so they are not as nice looking as what the stores sell. Is that typical of hard stem varieties?
That's a result of digging too late; you want to harvest when about half the top has turned brown. I store garlic in a cellar pantry which is fairly cool; some of mine from last year is still OK, though much has withered.
My favorite is German White, a hardneck with only 3-4 cloves per large bulb, and strong flavor.
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G
Yeesh! I was in the process of responding when my news server went down for a couple of days! So anyway, as I was planning to say then...
My softnecks last longer in admittedly less than ideal storage (too warm). The hardnecks are much more likely to shrivel and/or develop brown spots.
So I use the hardnecks first.
As Gary Woods explained, you are not harvesting them at the proper time. There must still be some green leaves when you pull them in order to have nice, tight wrapper layers.
But even knowing that, the softnecks I grow seem to be "better wrapped" and more completely wrapped, without a "neck" sticking out.
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