I read in 2 books that garlic doesn't set seed - the only way to propagate is
vegitatively. Yet this year I found masses of tiny seedlings in last years
garlic bed - clearly garlic seedlngs. They grew into tiddly cloves. Are the
books wrong?

(Robert cubitt) wrote:

I read in 2 books that garlic doesn't set seed - the only way to propagate is
vegitatively. Yet this year I found masses of tiny seedlings in last years
garlic bed - clearly garlic seedlngs. They grew into tiddly cloves. Are the
books wrong?

The books are wrong, but not terribly:

True garlic seed is possible though not common, and there's a lot of
experimentation going on with it, since it makes hybrids possible.
BUT: Topset garlic produces a large numbers of tiny "bulbils" on a
"flower" stalk. These fall to the ground and can produce the "seedlings"
you saw. That's much more likely what happened.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at www.albany.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1200' elevation. NY WO G

And what happens if I grow these seedlings on.. do they turn into cloves?