pod's blog: Garlic ~ Heirloom searching for an ID

The thread "Heirloom Garlic ~ single clove" in Plant ID forum

pod said:This start of garlic was shared with me by an older man in this area. I have grown it for almost 30 years now. He had grown it for years and told me that in earlier days it used to be grown as a cash crop here. (I would guess in the 1940s). He told me about areas where it grows wild in the ditches. I am still aware of one of those spots. The bulbs volunteer each fall and grow through winter before the mowing crews cut the foliage back in June.

I was relocating my garlic bed so this is on my mind. I keep it in a permanent bed. New growth starts in October or November, usually correlating with a slow soaking rain. It will grow through winter putting blooms on in the spring. Then dying back in May. I leave it in ground and dig as needed.

With no exceptions, it is a single clove or bulb. The garlic is spicy (almost hot).
These are some of the bulbs and bulbils that I relocated.







The front half of this bed is the new growth on the replanted garlic.




I have read about single clove garlic being in use in other countries but wonder if anyone here has ever run across it as a growing crop in the US. Does anyone have any thoughts on this garlic?

pod said:

Leftwood said:Very cool! I am always looking for garlic strains that grow with a small number of large cloves. Sometimes if I start with a small clove, it doesn't divide that season, but then it never gets that big! And I've never heard of a garlic that never produces multiple cloves. At least in my eyes, I think it is something special, and I am envious. I see it is a hardneck type which are hardy here in Minnesota.

So if it never divides, then you have to raise new plants from the sets on the flower stalk?

pod said:Thanks for your interest. It actually sends out little bulbs underground. I've never seen it develop bulbils on the flowers and honestly don't recall seeing seed either.

When I dig them, I find large bulbs as well as medium and small sized. Then there are tiny bulbs (?) which I don't currently have a photo. They are odd looking with a flat side on them and don't resemble the garlic bulb.

Your comment about it being a hardneck type is interesting to me. If I recall, that is indicative of the bloom?

I confuse myself with all the articles I've read but I believe this would normally be considered a garlic suited for the north. I am not sure it would endure your hard freezing winter ground though. Do you leave garlic in ground in winter?

Leftwood said:Your description makes me wonder if you really have a true garlic, the type that is normally eaten. (But not that yours isn't edible!) Garlics grown for consumption don't produce offsets, or send out roots/stolons/short stems underground to make new bulbs. The mother bulbs "divides" into a mass of individually wrapped cloves within one large wrapped bulb like you see in the grocery store. The number of cloves per bulb usually ranges from 3 to 30. Cultivated garlic does not produce seed, or actual flowers with petals, but goes straight to producing tiny bulbs in the head where the flowers and seed would be. Growers usually remove the flowering stem before maturity. Do you have a pic of the flowers? I wonder if it could be a wild form, perhaps native to your area? We have two species of wild onion here in Minnesota and one wild garlic. All are Allium species.

Hardneck refers to the stiff flowering stem that this type of garlic has. Yes, it is much more cold hardy, and most of them do well in Minnesota. We plant them in the fall, and they grow roots, but usually wait until spring to grow above ground. Softneck garlics produce stems that are not very stiff. They are the ones that can be braided together. Can't do that with hardneck garlic.

pod said:Thanks, that is interesting information. I am going to have to do some digging for a photo of the bloom on this plant. If I can find it, I will post. If not, it may have to wait till next May. Thanks again for taking the time to explain the process to me.

pod said:I found some of the small bulbs I mentioned earlier. These are corms and as I have read, it is similar to the way elephant garlic reproduces.



I am searching my external hard drive for a photo of this garlic bloom as well. Will post if I find it.

pod said:This weekend, I dug this bulb with the next generation of garlic bulbs still attached to the roots.




When I locate a photo of the bloom, I will attach it.

pod said:Never was able to locate a photo. They have now bloomed. The foliage is now dying down for the summer.
If anyone has a thought on this ID, I would appreciate it.

Deebie said:I'm curious as to an ID. I think I have that same allium, as a passalong plant. My friend who gave them to me, says it's a garlic and eats them. I don't. I treat mine as an ornamental allium.

pod said:@Deebie ~ how interesting! Is your very tall? Have you ever sampled them?

I was hoping someone had some hands on experience with the garlics from Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. They have a single clove garlic called Solo. I would love to compare them.

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