Garlic seed, what is it? I receive this question often and I think where the confusion lies is that there are two ways to plant garlic
. The first is from true seed, which comes from a flower, which we call a bulbil. And this bulbil is only produced with hardneck varieties of garlic. Interestingly enough the conventional garlic found in local supermarkets is not of a hardneck variety. It is from a softneck. And for a couple reasons the softnecks grow well in warm climates and can be commercially produced. If you notice when you are in the store if you read the tag where your garlic comes from you very well may see product of China While your hardneck varieties thrive on a cold winter and the loving touch of a human hand. They are not mass produced and take more care than the softnecks. There are many varieties of hardneck garlic and the seed that comes from the bulbil varies. The Garlic seed planted from a bulbil will take a minimum of two years to see a bulb and three years to see a decent size bulb. This is why most people who plant garlic dont plant from bulbils but plant from cloves. Cloves are exactly as the name says you get a bulb of garlic that you want to plant break the bulb into the cloves, and plant the cloves. Naturally the healthier and larger cloves are going to produce larger bulbs in the spring. Garlic seed or commonly called seed garlic, is planted in the fall. When spring comes so will the emergence of your garlic with beautiful green foliage then begins the wonderful time of weeding and giving care to your garden.
The advantage of planting from bulbils vs. cloves is that the garlic has more time to adapt to your area. Garlic is very adaptable and the bulbils give it that extra time to adjust and adapt to your environment. Also bulbils give you lots of seed for a very little price. But you have to wait years to see some good size bulbs. Planting seed garlic from cloves gives you wonderful bulbs the following year. And will continually get better as they adapt to your area, but they cost considerably more us much as $4.50/bulb. Depending upon your variety and where you purchase. To simplify if you want great garlic for your summer garden then you need to plant cloves from good seed stock in the fall.