Saving garlic

[womble]

Has anyone saved their garlic year after year and kept growing what would in effect be their own strain?

Last year I went to a Chinese supermarket and bought some of their lovely big garlic bulbs, I planted 7 cloves up and they have come out to be really lovely big strong plants.
They have lasted through the cold of this winter outside in a big pot and look fine.

So what I'd like to do is to save a couple of the bulbs for planting next year, how do I do this?
Do I dig them up at the same time as the others and put them in a cold place? (difficult to find here in the summer)

Or something else? Any tips would be great.

I know someone will say you should buy clean seed every year, but garlic has been grown for 100's of years, I bet in 1824 they didn't buy it from the Isle of Wright seed merchants, they must have saved their own.

[grower]

i saved mine from last year, just hung it up to dry with the rest in the kitchen and planted them in january, they are now about 6" tall so it does work

:O

[Alice]

Off course you can replant your own Womble. Lift your crop in June / July and hang them up to dry. Come November choose the ones you want to plant and do in the usual way.

[SarzWix]

I planted some saved ones last year, they did really well. All I did was keep back a couple of bulbs from the plait that I made when I harvested them. Mine were autumn/spring planting variety Cristo so I planted one bulb worth in the autumn and one in early spring. The autumn planted ones did much better, much bigger. I did intend to do the same thing again but I missed the autumn planting 'window', and then we ate them D'oh!
I would recommend starting off with proper 'seed' garlic though, to be sure you're not starting with any diseases etc., then save the best ones that you harvested, and plant them out at the same times as you did the first time. (ie an autumn planted variety should always be planted in the autumn for best results)

[womble]

Thanks everyone, you have confirmed what I was hoping.

I'm going to carry on with these sarz, they are way better plants than the seed garlic I bought last year, I will continue to grow them in pots next year though, one to a bigish pot and put them in the unheated GH when it is really frozen. (I haven't done that this year, but they are in a much bigger pot (an old drawer of a massive desk (wombling at its best )))

[djhs196]

I saved over garlic bulbs at the end of last year's harvest (harvested in exactly the same way - even into plaits) and they went back in at the end of October.

I'm aiming for my own garden strain - it's been suggested elsewhere that as garlic very quickly adapts to local conditions (within a few generations) that the home saved garlic can lead to stronger plants and bigger bulbs over time.

Comparing my current home saved garlic vs. the shop bought is bearing this out so far - planted at the same time, the home saved garlic plants are stronger, thicker stemmed and have more vegetative growth on them.

The bulblets within the scape can also be replanted (if only i had room) and in the first year go on to form a single bulb in and year two, before a full bulb with multiple cloves. One to try if you're patient and have room. You get over a dozen bulblets in a scape, assuming you haven't eaten these as well!

The garlic itself will be just fine in frozen weather and a good freeze is supposed to help the bulb split into cloves cleanly later in the year

[zazen999]

I found my home grown garlic last year produced smaller bulbs...but they were stronger than shop bought. I use a clove a day and they haven't run out yet. I separated the lot when I harvested them and took the larger ones out for transplanting. They went straight in the ground - no hanging about.

This year, I decided to try several varieties, and have a good mix now of shop bought for eating, shop bought for planting, home grown from last year, donated by Finedon Dandy, some found growing in the compost heap, and those grown from cloves that for some reason didn't grow last year. I'll harvest the lot around July, and take it from there. The best ones will be replanted out and eventually, I'll end up with a strain from home.

[maytreefrannie]

The bulblets within the scape can also be replanted (if only i had room) and in the first year go on to form a single bulb in and year two, before a full bulb with multiple cloves. One to try if you're patient and have room. You get over a dozen bulblets in a scape, assuming you haven't eaten these as well!

The garlic itself will be just fine in frozen weather and a good freeze is supposed to help the bulb split into cloves cleanly later in the year

Sorry I don't understand what you mean by "bulblets within the scape." Whatever that is, I'd love to try it, if you don't mind explaining.

I've some from last year which only produced a few little cloves, I'd meant to replant them last autumn to see how they'd do but I forgot about them, even though I planted some new ones, and they're still there, just lying about.

[womble]

I've found in the past that it is really only worth planting the bigger cloves, the smaller ones don't do that well.

The scape is the stalk and the bulblets the things that grow at the end of it. But I've never used it for anything.

[Alice]

Oh Womble, you should eat the scapes, they have a lovely, mild garlic flavour. Posh restaurants charge a fortune for them.

[womble]

Really? I must have another look at them then. Never even thought about it tbh.
Thanks!