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My second line of garlic was originally a softneck garlic that turned into a hardneck. Softneck garlic has forgotten how to bolt (produce a flowering stalk - which is what the hard neck is in hardneck garlic.) However, it can sometimes be reminded how to bolt with a little bit of stress.
It turns out that I had neglected some garlic for a month or two after I had harvested the rest of it. Living in the desert, I would say that counts as stress.
From this, I saved the bulbils, and planted those two years ago, and this year, they finally all bolted! Something got turned on or off in the original plant, and it passed that on to its offspring.
Bulbils are like mini garlic cloves that grow on the flowering head. See pic related for very developed bulbils. Most people trying to get true seed remove them so that the plant diverts energy to the flowers instead. I did not with this particular plant and a few others just in case I don't get any true seed this year, I can ship those off to collaborators and try again next year.
One thing to notice here is that the flowers haven't shrunk back. That means that the plant has put some energy towards them, but in the next post, you will see some plants where the bulbils were removed.
