Silverwhite Silverskin garlic
Photo Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Everything You Want to Know About Garlic:

Garlic Almanac and Phenotypic Plasticity

(How garlic adapts to its locality)

It’s garlic harvest season for many of us and I notice many growers are searching my site for information. Here are quick links.

Garlic signs of maturity from October 2020

Everything You Need to Know About Garlic includes all the links listed below here.

Much about garlic is to be found in my Alliums for the Month Series:

Harvesting Garlic (Alliums for June)
Snip and Sort Garlic (Alliums for July)
Move Stored Garlic (Alliums for September)
Plant Garlic (Alliums for November)
Free Trapped Garlic Shoots (Alliums for December)
Plant garlic scallions from softneck varieties (Alliums for February)
Garlic Scallions (Alliums for March and April)
Garlic Scapes (Alliums for May)
And to sum it all up see My Garlic Slideshow

Garlic harvest.
Photo Twin Oaks Community

Phenotypic Plasticity

Phenotypic plasticity of garlic refers to the changes to a garlic variety grown in a particular location. Genetically identical garlics can grow differently in different environments. Garlic reproduces asexually, the new cloves are all clones of the mother plant, with no new genetic material introduced. And yet, over time, garlic saved and regrown each year in a certain locality will adapt itself to that location, due to the particular soil type, water availability, local temperatures, latitude, altitude and cultural practices. For example, studies have shown that varieties grown in drought-prone areas can, over years, develop more drought-tolerance. Commercial cultivars can have the highest bulb yield under well-watered conditions, but drought will show up the adapted strains in a comparison trial.

Garlic Plants
Photo credit Kathryn Simmons

We have been growing our own strain of hardneck garlic for over 30 years, and it does really well here. Originally the seed stock was a bag of garlic from the wholesale vegetable market. This is the very thing we are told not to do, as it may introduce pests and diseases. Indeed, it may, but our original folly is now deep in the past, and we have fortunately seen no problem.

I was reminded about phenotypic plasticity, when a friend and neighboring grower reported that the seed garlic we had passed on to her was doing well and was mature a couple of weeks before the variety she normally grows.

From the 2004 work of Gayle Volk et al, Garlic Seed Foundation analyzing 211 garlic accessions, we have learned that there are many fewer genetically distinct varieties of garlic than there are named varieties. Of the 211 accessions in that trial, only 43 had unique genotypes. But garlic shows high biodiversity and ability to adapt to its environment. The same garlic genotypes in different environmental conditions can show different phenotypes. This demonstrates the high phenotypic plasticity of garlic, probably linked to its complicated genetics, which somehow compensate for lack of sexual reproduction.

Work done in 2009 by Gayle Volk and David Stern, Phenotypic Characteristics of Ten Garlic Cultivars Grown at Different North American Locations addressed the observation that garlic varieties grown under diverse conditions have highly plastic environmental responses, particularly in skin color and yield. This is a very readable paper for non-academic readers. Ten garlic varieties were grown at twelve locations in the United States and Canada for two consecutive years to identify phenotypic traits of garlic that respond to environmental conditions. The purpose of the study was to determine which phenotypic traits are stable and which vary with location.

Inchelium Red softneck garlic – note the small cloves in the center.
Photo Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Clove number, weight and arrangement, clove skin coloration, clove skin tightness and topset number, size and color stay true to variety independent of location.
Mostly, varieties classified as hardneck types produced scapes and those classified as softnecks did not, but there were some exceptions.
Bulb size, bulb wrapper color and bulb elemental composition (flavor) are related to location, (the influence of the local environment, such as the weather in that production year and the soil mineral content), rather than variety. The intensity of the skin patterns is highly dependent on the location. Some general trends were noted, but no clear correlation was found. (Read the study for the details).
For good size, predictably colored and flavored garlic, buy seed garlic grown locally that yields well. When garlic is grown in similar conditions to those in which it was produced, yields can remain consistent or improve.
Our softneck garlic in May.
Photo Pam Dawling
Varieties that grow well thousands of miles away are not a guarantee of a good result in your garlic patch. They may not match the bulb size, shape, color and flavor listed in the catalogs.
When grown under the same environmental conditions, the leaf number before bolting, flowering date, the final stem length, the flower/topset ratio, and pollen viability vary from one variety to another.
Studies that compared bulb firmness, pH, soluble solids, moisture content and sugar content with appearance determined that many of these traits are independent of skin color across 14 garlic varieties.
Bulb size was highly dependent on growth location with northern sites producing larger bulbs overall than southern sites for at least half of the trial varieties. Regional differences between varieties with respect to bulb size were noted, but because the project had a limited number of sites, specific variety recommendations for different regions were not provided.
Bulb size and weight were positively correlated with soil potassium levels.
Bulb sulfur and manganese content (flavor) were correlated with soil sulfur and manganese levels.
The famous Music garlic, a hardneck type – see the stem.
Photo Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
The demand for high-quality fresh garlic is increasing as restaurants and consumers seek out local vegetables. Consumers are attracted to colorful, unique garlic varieties for different culinary uses. As variety name recognition in garlic increases, understanding which traits define particular varieties and which traits vary within cultivars, depending on environmental conditions, will be valuable for successful marketing of new garlic types.

Clipped garlic bulbs ready for sorting and storing. Credit Wren Vile — Clipped garlic bulbs ready for sorting and storing.
Credit Wren Vile

Here’s what we’re doing these hot, rainy afternoons (and a couple of rainy mornings) – taking our cured garlic out of the netting lining the barn walls, and preparing it for storage. It’s been curing (drying down) for about four weeks. In the process we are selecting which bulbs to keep to replant his fall. Calvin figured we’ve grown enough garlic for each person to eat one whole bulb a week. i thought that was a lot, so I recalculated in the cool of the office. To my surprise the answer is closer to two whole bulbs each per week!

We have checklists for the people trimming garlic, so i thought I’d share those with you, so you can be a fly on our barn wall, or in case you grow garlic too,and wonder how other growers deal with the bounty.

A pleasant sit-down, social task. Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange — A pleasant sit-down, social task.
Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Setting up

Handle the bulbs gently so as not to bruise them. We need long storage, which means no damage.
Test for dryness by rolling the garlic neck between finger and thumb. If many bulbs are slippery, slidey, or damp in any way, cancel the shift, try again in a few days.
If 90% seem dry enough, proceed, working in the direction they were hung up.
Gently remove plants from the netting into a bucket. Do not cut plants off the netting leaving the foliage to drop down the back into Recycling on the floor below.
Set up a comfortable place to work, with a bucket of garlic, a compost bucket, a pair of scissors, a ruler and easy access to a green net bag and a red net bag.
Some people like to mark off 2”and 2 ½” on the arm of the chair, a nearby wood structure, or their knee. This saves handling the ruler repeatedly.
Some people like to move the box fans for more or less fan action while working. Those that do this need to remember to reset the fans to blow on the garlic when they leave.

Snipping and sorting

Cut the roots off the garlic into a compost bucket. Cut as close as possible in one or two snips.
Cut the tops off the garlic, leaving a ¼ – ½” stub. Cutting too close reduces the storage life.
Do not remove any skin. We want long storage not pretty-pretty.
Decide if the bulb is dry. Feel the cut neck. The remains of the stem may have a Styrofoam texture. Should not be damp.
If damp at all, put the trimmed bulb on a rack to dry further.
If more than 10% are damp, cancel the shift or selectively pull dry bulbs from the netting.
If not damp, decide if it’s storeable.
If damaged, sprung apart or mushy anywhere, put it on the Use First rack.
If storeable, decide if it’s seed size and quality. If it could be between 2 and 2 ½”, measure it. If smaller or larger, put in a red bag. It’s for eating.
If between 2 and 2 ½” and in good shape (not obviously more than 10 cloves), put it in a green net bag. Green for Growing
When a bag if full enough (we’re not all Amazons), tie the neck closed and lay the bag down on the floor away from the windows, which let rain in.
At the end of the shift, return all scissors and rulers to the jar, take all compost material out, consider doing a Compost Run. Lay down any bags that are more than 1/3 full, as the weight of garlic in a vertical bag can damage the bulbs at the bottom. Leave no garlic in buckets. If necessary, gently set garlic on the floor boards, rather than leave it in a sweaty plastic bucket. Make sure no garlic will get rained on if rain blows in the window. Reset fans as needed. Unplug any no longer needed. Remove all hats, water bottles, spare clothing.
Periodically weigh the tied off green bags, make neck tags from masking tape, saying “Hardneck Garlic” and the weight. Use the bathroom scales. Weigh a person with and without a bag of garlic.
When we have enough seed garlic, stop using green bags, stop measuring. Simply snip, sort and bag. We need 140 pounds of hardneck seed (2013)
When all the hardneck garlic is dealt with, and not a moment before, record in the log book all the weights of the bags of garlic as you take them downstairs.

Storing

Take the green bags to the Garden Shed. Lay them on the top central shelf.
Take the red bags to the basement and lay them on the shelves in the cage there. Use one side of the cage only, unless you need more space.
Weigh the Use First hardneck garlic, record the amount in the log, take the Use First garlic to the kitchen. It does not need to be refrigerated now. 55-70°F is good.

More Snipping and sorting

When all the hardneck garlic is finished, and removed from the barn, start on the soft neck garlic, if it is dry enough.
Do the same as with the hardneck garlic. If possible use purple (eating) and orange (seed) bags, rather than green and red.
We need 40 lbs seed. Once we have that, stop measuring.
When all is done, weigh, label, record and store the garlic; clean up the mess, return the lawn chairs.
Ah, another successful garlic harvest!

Storing through the winter

When temperatures seem likely to drop to below 55°F in the basement, clear the top left shelves in the walk-in and move the eating garlic there. The low shelves near the compressor do not work well. Use the high and dry shelves. 32-39°F is also a good temperature range. Avoid 40-55°F, or the cloves will start to sprout.

Polish White - our softneck garlic variety. Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange — Polish White – our softneck garlic variety.
Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Tag: sorting garlic