Can I grow garlic from seed?

United Kingdom

This is the first year of having an allotment and the first time ever growing garlic. The garlic grown (Cristo) was originally from cultivated stock, 3 plants were left to flower and produced miniture bulbs at the flower head. What I would like to know is can I plant and grow these to make a crop?

26 Sep, 2009

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Answers

Moon_grower

Yes you can plant them though it is more usual to plant individual garlic cloves. November is a good time to plant garlic.

26 Sep, 2009

Weatherwise

garlic is actually a perennial but its normally cultivated the next year from cloves planted in the autumn. If you grow from the seeds on a flower head it will be 2-3 years before you can harvest the garlic - it will come up next year but you'll need to leave it to come back up again for a couple more before the bulbs are reasonable size.

26 Sep, 2009

$fractal$

Fractal

Sound like bulbils were produced (familiar with Leeks doing this in their flower heads and the ornamental, Allium giganteum too) so should be fine to propagate using them. Maybe have a year in advance on the seed then but still take at least one more year than a clove.

26 Sep, 2009

Moon_grower

Agree Fractal

26 Sep, 2009

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