Garlics making cloves (?) in stems--why?

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Hello:

This year some of our garlics made extra cloves in the stems above ground. I harvested my garlic yesterday. The garlics with the cloves in the above-ground stems were smaller below ground. Anyone had this happen before and know what the cause is? We've had strange weather this summer...very hot, humid, dry, then occasional major dumps of rainfall. I watered the garlics by hand but never overwatered--I've read that they don't need lots of water.

thanks.

-- Cathy in MN (logholm@rangenet.com), July 20, 2001

Answers

are you sure its not a seed cluster? My garlic makes a seed head the second year. All parts are edible, so its no big deal

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), July 21, 2001.

the rocomole tye garlics make a head with small bulbletts they should be clipped of as they form to increase size of the cloves . some of the soft neck garlics will make a bulblett too just use the bulbletts for replanting.

-- george darby (windwillow@fuse.net), July 21, 2001.

I would guess that you are dealing with hard-necked garlic, rather than soft-necked. Hardnecked will produce a "seed-head" that "should" be removed when it appears. If it gains size, you can pick it and have some "bulblets" that you can use as garlic, or even plant if they are large enough. Soft-necked garlic does not produce these stems. According to conventional wisdom, you remove the top of hardnecks to direct growth to the underground bulb. But I usually let some of them develop, and then cut them off (the somewhat developed tops) to use as "summer garlic. The plants where I do that do not quite reach the size of those that I have not "circumsized", but they are reasonably large. (My God, let's don't go there!). Anyway, it's pretty hard to fail entirely. Good luck, fellow garlic lover!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), July 23, 2001.

Hi Cathy Mine did the same thing - maybe its a Minnesoooto thing! ;) Cynthia

-- Cynthia (farmsteader@gvtel.com), July 26, 2001.

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