…… Organic garlic bulbs meant for planting...

dioptase

Veteran Member
....are they safe to EAT?

Last fall I bought some organic garlic bulbs to try growing. I have limited kitchen garden space, so the smallest order (2 bulbs) gives way more cloves than I am going to plant. In fact, I would be surprised if I used up all the cloves from the smaller of the two bulbs.

I suggested to DH that he could have the leftover bulb to do whatever he likes with, but he is afraid to use it. "What if it has X?" (Not sure what he thinks X might be... anti-sprouting chemical, fungicide, whatever.) I pointed out that these are organic bulbs, and that that the normal grocery store non-organic potatoes are treated with anti-sprouting whatever (but he has no problem eating those), but he is still dug in.

I put in a request to seedsavers.org (where I got them from) as to whether or not they are safe to eat, but they are some weeks behind on orders (not to mention they'd have to contact the garlic growers once they finally get around to my question). I thought I'd see what folks here think - safe to eat, or not?
 

dioptase

Veteran Member
Thanks for your quick responses. *I* think they are safe, but DH takes some convincing. We'll see what he says... (I'm predicting he is going to hold out until we hear from the source, if ever.)
 

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
The only reason "seed" products wouldn't be safe is if they were treated with some sort of pesticide (such as the fungicides used on some corn seeds). But ANY treated seed is *required* to be dyed a bright color and be clearly labeled "TREATED! DO NOT CONSUME OR FEED TO LIVESTOCK!"

It's safe.

Summerthyme
 

dioptase

Veteran Member
I forwarded that last bit to him, and he feels better about it now. We'll see if he actually uses them. (He's the main cook, not me.) He complained that they looked "small", LOL!
 

twobarkingdogs

Veteran Member
I used to split and plant the sections of garlic and got decent results. But once I started growing my own garlic and then had plenty I shifted over to how you see in the picture below

I basically place the whole bulb onto a container of water with just the bottom and roots touching. The bulb swells up and the sections which are capable of growing will sprout. These in the picture have only been in the water less then a week so you can see they really take off.

I will note that I normally start garlic in 2 batches. One around the beginning of november and one around mid january. This is the mid january ones and they are sitting on heat mats since I have them turned on to start the seedlings with you can kind of see on the edges of the photo. When I start the ones in november I just stick them in water. In about another week about 6 to 8 sections of each bulb will have sprouted. I expect to get around 50 garlic plants from these 8 bulbs

Naturally you can not eat the leftovers using this method

These are a vietnamese garlic I bought off of ebay a number of years ago. I've also grown the ones you can buy at walmart and had good success getting them to sprout. But I found that the walmart variety did not hold up as well in storage as these vietnamese garlics do. Thus I only grow this type now unless someone ask me to grow a bunch of garlic for them. Last year someone from church did ask me to grow a bunch, which I did, but none of them lasted in storage until now so I couldn't keep the line going without buying replacement.

IMO from a gardening standpoint garlic is one of the easier things to grow. Just remember that they are heavy feeders and keep them watered

tbd

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