hello,
About 25% of my garlic have a strange swelling on the stem just above soil
level that I have never seen before
It appears to be a cluster of individual cloves-about 6 in total.
I have taken some off and cut them through.
They have a green, spotted centre.
The main bulb underground is normal as far as I can tell at the moment.
Does anyone know what these "cloves" are and more important are they edible.
If so it would be a bonus
Many thanks.
Norman

"Norman Kaye" wrote:

About 25% of my garlic have a strange swelling on the stem just above soil
level that I have never seen before
It appears to be a cluster of individual cloves-about 6 in total.

This is called "side bolting." It's usually a reaction to stress, and
softneck garlics that don't usually produce scapes and topset bulblets
occasionally do it; I had a few this year (I'm just now harvesting garlic
in the Northeastern U.S.).
They're edible though small, and you could probably plant these little
bulbils, though it may take a couple of seasons to get to a full-sized
garlic bulb.

Hope this helps,


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

"Gary Woods" wrote in message
...
"Norman Kaye" wrote:

About 25% of my garlic have a strange swelling on the stem just above soil
level that I have never seen before
It appears to be a cluster of individual cloves-about 6 in total.

This is called "side bolting." It's usually a reaction to stress, and
softneck garlics that don't usually produce scapes and topset bulblets
occasionally do it; I had a few this year (I'm just now harvesting garlic
in the Northeastern U.S.).
They're edible though small, and you could probably plant these little
bulbils, though it may take a couple of seasons to get to a full-sized
garlic bulb.

Hope this helps,


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at
home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G


Thanks Gary

Norman