Research Update Doug Waterer Vegetable Crops Specialist

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Alternative Strategies for Establishing Garlic Standard approach is to plant cloves Many cultivars only have a few cloves per bulb Results in v. high seeding costs Difficult to mechanize planting

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Alternative Strategy … Use bulblets to establish the crop Each plant produces bulblets, depending on cultivar Bulblets are easy to harvest, store well and their round shape makes them easy to machine plant.

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Using bulbils to establish garlic … Some questions … - will fall-seeded bulblets overwinter? - how well will the bulblets grow? - what kind of yields can be expected? - what quality can be expected? - will it take 2 years to produce standard size bulbs?

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Using bulbils to establish garlic … Summer 2012 … - harvested bulblets from “Music” garlic - planted (using disk planter) in fall covered plot with straw in late fall

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Using bulbils to establish garlic … 2013 … - 70% of bulblets survived (vs 69% for fall planted cloves) - small plants from bulblets struggled to compete against weeds.. hand weeding required - yield increase when planting … cloves … 6:1 bulbils … 16:1 - crop resulting from bulblets was all “rounds”

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Using bulbils to establish garlic … 2013 … CultivarBulb Weight (g)Bulblets Total Weight (g) Cloves per bulb Scape Removed Scape Intact # per head Avg Wt (g) Bulb+bulblets German Red Korean Purple Music Persian Star Russian Red Russian Red Salt Spring Select Spanish Red Yugoslavian Average Bulblet production by garlic cultivars along with impact of scape removal on bulb weight.

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Using bulbils to establish garlic … Fall 2013 … - establish 6 stiffneck cultivars using either cloves or bulblets - cloves hand planted – while bulblets were planted using a disk seeder - mulched with straw in late fall

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Using bulbils to establish garlic … 2014 … - 100% reliance on herbicides for weed control … Chateau (pre-emerge) followed by multiple applications of Goal

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Using bulblets to establish garlic … 2014 … From ClovesFrom Bulblets Planted (g) Harvested (g) Yield Increase Planted (g) Harvested (g) Yield Increase Arron Hill3238: :1 German Red8486: :1 Music8537: :1 Persian Star4358: Russian Red5347: :1 Yugoslavian10404: :1 Avg 6 387: :1

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Using bulbils to establish garlic … 2014 … Wt of Bulblet planted (g) % forming Cloved Bulbs Bulb wt (g) Bulb wt from cloves (g) Arron Hill German Red Music Persian Star0.10 Russian Red0.30 Yugoslavian0.10

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Alternative Strategies for Establishing Garlic Bulblets are … - far less costly to plant than cloves - better suited to mechanical planting - capable of overwintering - require extra weed control - have a much higher yield multiplier than cloves - some cultivars will produce a small cloved bulb in a single season

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Using bulbils to establish garlic … Fall 2014 … - establish 6 stiffneck cultivars using either cloves or bulblets - cloves hand planted – while bulblets were planted using a disk seeder - mulched with straw in late fall

May 5, 2015

ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Using bulbils to establish garlic … 2015 … - 100% reliance on herbicides for weed control … Chateau (pre-emerge) followed by …… - Buctril for emerged broadleaf weeds - Poast for volunteer grain from straw mulch

Buctril/Poast damage to garlic

Herbicide damage resulted in 100% loss of the 2015 garlic planting

Thanks to … University of Saskatchewan Plant Sciences Department Vegetable Crops Research Team