[grendel]

When I went to the plot this morning, I noticed several of my garlic plants have formed a seed 'bulb' at the top of the stem, similar  to my leeks that I have left for seed, yet when I pulled one there is a moderate sized garlic bulb at the bottom, the outer leaves of some of the plants are starting to die off, so obviously the garlic should nearly be ready, but what should I do with the ones going to seed, I guess I will let at least one carry on and then see if I can plant the seed to get garlic somewhere along the line.
Grendel

[Yorkie]

Chop the seed head and stalk off - it's called a scape.  Perfectly normal and leave the rest of the garlic to grow on.  The scape can be eaten.

[grendel]

OK thanks.
heres what it looks like.
Grendel

[Yorkie]

Yep, that's a scape.  See here for cookery ideas 

[tosca100]

Yum....I'll have 'em if you don't want them.

[Grandpappy]

What about planting the individual seeds and getting full galics next summer?
How to store & how to plant and when and then what do you end up with? If you plant an onion seed you get an onion(boom-boom) but if you plant a garlic seed ,do you get a bulb full of cloves or one BIG garlic?
This is my first venture down this road since I planted 38 cloves last November(2012) and they ALL went to seed! Guess where I bought them?
Discuss!

[Nikkithefoot]

What about planting the individual seeds and getting full galics next summer?
How to store & how to plant and when and then what do you end up with? If you plant an onion seed you get an onion(boom-boom) but if you plant a garlic seed ,do you get a bulb full of cloves or one BIG garlic?
This is my first venture down this road since I planted 38 cloves last November(2012) and they ALL went to seed! Guess where I bought them?
Discuss!

What variety did you grow? Hardneck garlic such as Music will almost always produce scapes. It is normal and part of their growing. The scapes, as has already been said, can be used for eating in stir fries etc. Even soft neck garlic will 'seed' you just cut them off it is nothing to do with who produces the seed cloves.

Crops going to seed unexpectedly (or even when you expect them to) can often be put down to stressful growing conditions ie the plant is programmed to reproduce. So if the weather for example is too much for the plant (too dry, too hot etc) or it is poorly tended then it will do its level best to reproduce before dying.

[DAVEAGENT]

Slightly different topic

I harvested some of my Garlic and put it in a clip lock lunchbox, with the lid on.


I forgot about this particular Garlic and when i went back it was covered in white fur?

Its like a mould.

Any ideas?

Ive approx 50 heads of Garlic now, im keeping the best for seed, but whats the best way to store the rest?

I have a dry shed at my allotment

[JayG]

Any plant material kept warm and humid will be attacked sooner or later by mould and fungal spores unless kept in a completely sterile atmosphere.

Cool and dry is the best place to store garlic long term - I'm not a big eater of fresh garlic and still have some left from last year's crop (some cloves have shrivelled a little but they are mostly OK.)

Mine are stored in a dark storeroom-cum-glory-hole built into the side of the house, so it's dry, frost-free, and the temperature doesn't vary too much - a dry shed is not ideal but either that or a garage is probably where most folk store theirs.

[gavinjconway]

What about planting the individual seeds and getting full galics next summer?
How to store & how to plant and when and then what do you end up with? If you plant an onion seed you get an onion(boom-boom) but if you plant a garlic seed ,do you get a bulb full of cloves or one BIG garlic?
This is my first venture down this road since I planted 38 cloves last November(2012) and they ALL went to seed! Guess where I bought them?
Discuss!

Hi GP.. Seeds from the seed heads (Scapes) are called bulbils.. You can plant them no problem.. But you will get small round bulbs for the first year - then plant them and you get round bulbs again but a bit bigger. In the third and fourth year you should get proper crop.

Dosent matter where you bought them... some types - Hard necks do go to seed and some - soft necks normally dont. So just cut them off and eat them when they have grown about 8" long..

[Trillium]

Wherever you store garlic it shouldn't be too cool as low temps trigger sprouting, which you don't want in storage. Nor anywhere too warm. Find a happy medium where the bulbs get good air circulation.

[Grandpappy]

Many thanks to all who commented. I'm going to cut all the heads off and store them in the airing cupboard ( I've done that with onions before)and see what happens! I haven't even lokked below 'groung-level' yet to see what's going on - must admit I'm looking forward to that .
Anyway,thanks all.

[DAVEAGENT]

Thanks to all who replied to me too.

[diospyros]

My garlic used to have what looked like flower heads, but with tiny bulbils on them.  Never got round to finding out what would happen if I planted them!

[LilacSandy]

I have two heads with tiny bulbils on them and there are about 60 on each.  I have planted them in pots to grow on and will harvest and store the bulbs for the next couple of years.  Not a lot of trouble to get such a large stock of garlic but then we do eat a lot of them.