How to Save Garlic Seed
Many amazing dishes from various cultures have something in common: garlic. Perhaps garlic's best attribute, however, is the fact that it is inexpensive to grow perfect garlic bulbs in a home garden. Garlic is essentially its own seed. This means that once you find a variety you like, you can simply replant the cloves and enjoy the savory ingredient for years to come, free of charge.
Garlic seeds are available from a variety of sources, such as seed catalogs, seed exchanges and farmer's markets; even friends and family members can be sources of garlic that is ideal for planting.
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Things You'll Need
- Garlic head(s), broken into cloves
- Trowel
- Ruler or tape measure
- Knife or scissors
- Shovel
- Twine
Instructions
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Plant individual garlic cloves with the root end down in well-drained soil four to six weeks before the projected date of the last hard frost. Cloves' root end has a round, hard patch. Place the cloves about 3 inches deep and spaced 6 inches apart.
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Watch for long, tubular green shoots known as scapes to develop if you planted a hardneck variety of garlic. Once the scapes start to curl, cut them off at the base. This will keep the plants from flowering. Although the flowering end produces bulbils, which can be saved and planted just like garlic cloves, replanting cloves results in larger heads of garlic. Heads grown from bulbils take a few years of replanting to reach maturity. Cutting off the scapes also encourages the growth of large, full heads for the current crop.
Cut scapes do not need to be discarded; they have a garlicky flavor and can be prepared in much the same way as green onions.
If you plant a softneck variety of garlic, no scapes should develop.
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Harvest heads of garlic by grabbing the base of the leaves and pulling the whole plant from the soil. This can be when the leaves begin to yellow. Loosening the soil around the heads of garlic with a shovel makes harvesting easier. You may partially unearth one or two heads of garlic to check for maturity before harvesting the whole bunch.
Tie harvested garlic by the stems with twine, and hang them in a dry place to cure, or dry, for two weeks. During curing, air should be able to reach all parts of each head of garlic.
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Select heads that are healthy to be used for seed. Choosing heads with cloves that appear to be well developed and free of fungus or disease helps to ensure an increase in the quality of next year's crop.
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Store intact heads of garlic to be used as seed in a cool, dry place. Do not refrigerate them.
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Tips & Warnings
Garlic sold at supermarkets is often chemically treated to prevent the growth of roots and shoots. Therefore, it is not an ideal choice for replanting in home gardens.
References
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