Bulbils


WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BULBS AND BULBILS?
At the most basic level, bulbs are the underground part of the garlic, which are cloved, and bulbils are
the small, uncloved parts found at the top of the “flower stem”, which is called a scape.
Bulbils can vary in size from the size of a grain of rice to the size of a pea. All, when planted, will produce
and underground bulb – either a small round, a larger round or even a small cloved bulb.
Growing from bulbils has several advantages. First, you can easily multiply your garlic crop without
having to buy a lot of bulbs or use all of your harvest for planting in the fall. The number of bulbils in an
umbel or capsule varies according to the varieties; Porcelains can have up to 200 bulbils while
Rocamboles will have from 5-15 bulbils. So from one garlic bulb, when you save the bulbils, you can start
up to 200 plants as opposed to 4-6 for Porcelains, etc. You get the picture.
Another advantage to growing from bulbils is that the new plants will not have any soil-borne diseases;
this is especially advantageous if you are changing locations for your garden. Bulbs grown up from
bulbils are also more robust and vigorous than those grown from bulbs over several years. Bulbils are an
easy and economical way to increase your crop or to renew it. However, patience is needed! It may take
a few years in some cases to get a large cloved bulb.


GROWING FROM BULBILS
Bulbils are planted at the same time as your cloves of garlic, around mid-October here in the Ottawa
Valley. Make a furrow about an inch deep, with the rows spaced apart about 6 inches. The bulbils can be
sown fairly thickly – they seem to like the crowding in their first year of growth. It also makes it easier to
harvest them if you don’t have to search all over for single plants. Cover the rows and apply mulch
before it snows. Don’t make the mulch too thick, or the little plants may not be able to reach through to
the sun. Another alternative is to pull back the mulch early in the spring.
As the bulbils grow take extra care to keep the rows weed-free. These little plants are easily
overwhelmed by weeds and grass and will not produce a good-sized round for planting again in the fall.
When the bottom half of the leaves have dried, it is time to dig up the bulbils. The easiest way to cure
them is to lay them on a porous surface, perhaps some screen stretched over a frame so that air can get
at them from all sides. Put them in a dry place out of the sun, with good airflow and let them dry until
the tops are completely dry and brittle. At this point, the tops and roots can be removed and the rounds
stored in a paper bag in a cool dry place until it is time to plant them again in the fall.
Depending on the variety of garlic, this process may have to be repeated up to three or four times until
you get a large, cloved bulb to harvest and use.

Check out our garlic varieties that have bulbils for sale here.

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