1. Research Update Doug Waterer Vegetable Crops Specialist

2. 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

3. ADOPT Project – SVGA and U of S Alternative Strategy … Use bulblets to establish the crop Each plant produces 10- 200 bulblets, depending on cultivar Bulblets are easy to harvest, store well and their round shape makes them easy to machine plant.

4. 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?

5. 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 2012 - covered plot with straw in late fall

6. 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”

8. 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 Red7190111.5710111 Korean Purple545071.43606 Music5956640.22705 Persian Star48452200.05566 Russian Red -15442670.12508 Russian Red -24719500.20496 Salt Spring Select 424532.005110 Spanish Red584481.00526 Yugoslavian6750850.07568 Average5649570.74587 Bulblet production by garlic cultivars along with impact of scape removal on bulb weight.

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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 Hill3238:10.53672:1 German Red8486:10.62237:1 Music8537:10.72231:1 Persian Star4358:10.1220.1 Russian Red5347:10.31.45:1 Yugoslavian10404:10.10.88:1 Avg 6 387:10.4 14 29:1

12. 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 Hill0.5754323 German Red0.6722848 Music0.7151253 Persian Star0.10 Russian Red0.30 Yugoslavian0.10

13. 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

14. 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

16. May 5, 2015

17. 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

18. Buctril/Poast damage to garlic

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

20. Thanks to … University of Saskatchewan Plant Sciences Department Vegetable Crops Research Team - 2015