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Garlic - A Great Way to Start "Seed" Saving

© Marie Iannotti

Garlic may be haute cuisine today, but it took awhile to establish itself as a staple seasoning. Most of today's "boomers" rarely encountered garlic while growing up. If they did, it was probably garlic salt or powder from a jar that sat in the cabinet for years. Times have changed and garlic has become respectable, even medicinal.

Garlic is a member of the allium family, originally believed to be from the mountains of Central Asia. It has been around for centuries as evidenced by pictures of it on the ancient pyramids. Most garlic is planted from bulbs and therefore an heirloom of sorts. Because garlic does not cross pollinate and rarely even sets seed, it is a very easy vegetable to start "seed" saving. Of course, you needn't save seed at all, since you will be growing from cloves. The hardest part will be convincing yourself to save the largest, finest bulbs to replant.

There are basically two types of garlic: hardneck and softneck. Hardneck garlics (Allium sativum var ophioscordon ) produce a stiff flower stalk topped with small bulbils or mini garlic bulbs. This flower stalk is called a scape and should be removed to encourage the underground bulb to grow. Hardneck garlic produces a bulb with one layer of large cloves. The removed scapes are perfectly edible and full of garlic flavor. They will become somewhat tough and woody if left to mature, so it is best to harvest them as soon as a curl or loop starts to form. The hardnecks varieties you are likely to come across are: Purple Stripe, Porcelain and Rocambole.

Softneck garlics (Allium sativum var sativum) are a cultivated and more widely adapted variety, although less hardy. They no longer produce scapes and the tops stay pliable. These are the varieties that you will see braided for storage. The bulbs themselves generally have more cloves than the hardneck varieties, although smaller in size. However they make up for their lack of size with greater productivity and more layers of cloves than the hardnecks. Softneck sub-varieties fall generally fall under the two varieties: Artichoke and Silverskin.

The garlic varieties available to most of us in supermarkets pretty much all looks the same. But there are over 600 cultivated varieties of garlic in the world. Growing and taste testing varieties is your best chance at sampling the subtle differences and finding one that grows and keeps well in your area. Seed catalog are beginning to offer more and more varieties