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22 Oct 08 warren (Australia - temperate climate)

I have planted italian red garlic and is looking great but it has shoots coming up through the centre which are actually each clove shooting from the bulb .Is this normal? I have friends growing it on commercial scale and theirs are doing the same .( My russian garlic is not doing this and is now pushing up its seed head already.) If this is not normal what do you do to get the bulb to stop shooting?

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30 Dec 10 Dennis (Australia - temperate climate)

Too much nitrogen causes the wiskas growing between the leaf / stem in soft necked varieties. Once started it cannot be stopped, at best hope it is not to bad and then you can detach the "side shoot" (small bub consisting quite a few small cloves) that devalopes from the main bulb leaving it only a little deformed. When the nitrogen is realy excessive the whole bulb distorts and breaks up and is not only ugly but also difficult to find good seed cloves for next years planting. They say that if you have a very small amount of side shooting then your nitrogen application was very accurate

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