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Last spring, when I harvested my garlic, I discovered small, hard structures on the base of the normal cloves. Some of these remained in the soil when I pulled the garlic. Will these things produce garlic?

Last Updated: December 18, 2007

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The structures you describe will produce garlic cloves, but the process will take two years. If you plant these structures, normal-looking garlic plants will be produced, but the bulbs harvested next spring will not be segmented into cloves. Because of this, many gardeners think that they have produced an onion from a garlic section. If this onionlike garlic is planted the next October, it will form a regular, segmented garlic the following spring. The "volunteer" garlic, which comes up in everyone's garden after harvest has occurred, is a result of these "satellites."

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