Hi,

My garlic plants are beginning to flower. I seem to recall reading
somewhere that this does not matter. Do I need to remove the flowers
or do I leave them on the plants?

Cheers,
Compo.

Compo wrote:

My garlic plants are beginning to flower. I seem to recall reading
somewhere that this does not matter. Do I need to remove the flowers
or do I leave them on the plants?

Probably garlic bulbils.

Eat them, make new plants with them, ignore them, or chop them off.

Chopping them off might in theory mean more resource expenditure
on the rest of the plant - but I don't know if anyone bothers.
--
__________
|im |yler http://timtyler.org/ Remove lock to reply.

Compo wrote:
Hi,

My garlic plants are beginning to flower. I seem to recall reading
somewhere that this does not matter. Do I need to remove the flowers
or do I leave them on the plants?

Cheers,
Compo.
Hi Comp

We have grown garlic for over 30 years. And yes you do need to remove the
flowers before they bloom. We call this popping tops. If you leave the
flowers they will suck all of the garlic juices. If you pop the tops before
they open all of the juices go to the bulb and therefore you make a bigger
and better tasting garlic bulb. What kind of garlic do you plant?

Love to hear from you.
pebblesrockred

Tim Tyler wrote:

Chopping them off might in theory mean more resource expenditure
on the rest of the plant - but I don't know if anyone bothers.

Depends on soil fertility, moisture, the phase of the moon...

At my location, not cutting off scapes makes the bulbs 30% smaller. I've
checked.

Your mileage may vary, but...


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

On 14 Jun, 16:51, "pebblesrockred" u35071@uwe wrote:
Compo wrote:
Hi,

My garlic plants are beginning to flower. I seem to recall reading
somewhere that this does not matter. Do I need to remove the flowers
or do I leave them on the plants?

Cheers,
Compo.

Hi Comp

\snip\ What kind of garlic do you plant?

Love to hear from you.
pebblesrockred

Thanks for all the replies. I have used my own stock plants for many
years now. I plant some outside and some in a tunnel. I cannot
remember the original source of my plants but some are white and some
red. It is the plants in the tunnel that are showing signs of
flowering. This year I planted all my garlic, including those in the
tunnel in Autumn, whereas I usually plant the tunnel ones in Spring.


Cheers,
Compo in Caithness.

Compo what is planting in a tunnel? Where are you located? We plant
elephant garlic which is a cross b/w a garlic and an onion. Very mild
garlic and very large. Makes only about 4 or 5 toes. We have grown Italian
garlic which has many toes and is very strong. It is a little purplish mixed
in with the white.

Compo wrote:
Hi,

[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]

Hi Comp

\snip\ What kind of garlic do you plant?

Love to hear from you.
pebblesrockred

Thanks for all the replies. I have used my own stock plants for many
years now. I plant some outside and some in a tunnel. I cannot
remember the original source of my plants but some are white and some
red. It is the plants in the tunnel that are showing signs of
flowering. This year I planted all my garlic, including those in the
tunnel in Autumn, whereas I usually plant the tunnel ones in Spring.

Cheers,
Compo in Caithness.

--
Message posted via HomeKB.com
http://www.homekb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/gardens/200706/1

Well Tim,

We do bother breaking off the tops (that is before it actually blooms into a
flower). It really makes a bigger bulb.

Tim Tyler wrote:
My garlic plants are beginning to flower. I seem to recall reading
somewhere that this does not matter. Do I need to remove the flowers
or do I leave them on the plants?

Probably garlic bulbils.

Eat them, make new plants with them, ignore them, or chop them off.

Chopping them off might in theory mean more resource expenditure
on the rest of the plant - but I don't know if anyone bothers.

--
Message posted via HomeKB.com
http://www.homekb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/gardens/200706/1

On 16 Jun, 03:18, "pebblesrockred via HomeKB.com" u35071@uwe wrote:
Well Tim,

We do bother breaking off the tops (that is before it actually blooms into a
flower). It really makes a bigger bulb.


I have now removed the tops from half of the plants. The other half I
shall allow to go to seed and see if I can raise my own strain of
Garlic bulb. This will also allow a trial of flower Vs no flower for
bulb size.

Thanks for the replies.

Cheers,
Compo.

Compo wrote:

The other half I
shall allow to go to seed and see if I can raise my own strain of
Garlic bulb.

What you will get is bulbils, not seeds (except under _very_ special
circumstances), so a clone of the original bulb. It is a good way to make
rapid increase of a good variety though.


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

Hey,

To make new seeds we usually dig all of the round heads and plant those. The
next year these round heads make a whole new bulb with 4 or 5 toes.

Compo wrote:
Well Tim,

We do bother breaking off the tops (that is before it actually blooms into a
flower). It really makes a bigger bulb.

I have now removed the tops from half of the plants. The other half I
shall allow to go to seed and see if I can raise my own strain of
Garlic bulb. This will also allow a trial of flower Vs no flower for
bulb size.

Thanks for the replies.

Cheers,
Compo.

--
Message posted via http://www.homekb.com