Last summer I successfully grew true garlic seed. I was thrilled.
In the middle of the winter I followed Ted Jordan Meredith and Avram Drucker’s advice and soaked the garlic seeds in a 1% solution of household bleach. I then rinsed the seeds and placed them on moist paper towels in a ziplock bag in the fridge for 4 weeks.
Afterwards, I planted them in trays in our greenhouse amidst our vegetable seedlings and waited. And waited. And waited.
By mid-summer, none of the garlic seeds had germinated and the potting soil had begun to crust over. I tossed the trays with a deep sigh of disappointment.
Of course, I haven’t given up. Currently I am waiting on a couple dozen garlic scapes to to set seed in our kitchen. At present, they have swollen green ovaries. With a bit of luck, I might have more seed by the end of November!
Earlier this week, there was an exciting post on the Seed Savers Exchange True Garlic Seed forum thread. Dr. Ivan Buddenhagen, a UC Davis professor who has been working with garlic from true seed for 14 years, is currently offering bulbs of 10 varieties he has selected from seed producing garlic cultivars. He also has limited quantities of true seed for sale at $25 per 100 seeds. His website is http://ivansnewgarlics.com/Home.html.
I’ve heard of another farmer doing this too. Fascinating stuff.
Is the other farmer in the Ottawa area? I’d be curious to hear how he’s done.
Sadly no. They live in Utah if I’m remembering correctly.
the gardener in Utah is Joseph and he has been posting progress reports on the SSE true garlic seed thread. good luck with your tgs this year – look forward to hearing whether your scapes produce see for you again.
I’ve actually been following Joseph’s Mother House News columns and he’s commented a few times on some of my garlic posts!
your post on growing garlic bulbils inspired me when I first started growing garlic and has been bookmarked and referred to often:) I also own Ted Meredith’s garlic book and have some of Dr Buddenhagen’s seed which I hope to be able to germinate – fingers crossed. This season will be the first time that I’ll be removing the bulbils from my garlic in an attempt to get TGS. I’ll have to go back and re-read your garlic posts, hadn’t noticed Joseph’s comments.