Søren of In the Toads Garden and I have recently been discussing the idea of freezing garlic planting stock.
This is something I’ve been thinking about for a few years now, and I’ve done some research on the subject, but I haven’t come across anything useful. In particular, I haven’t found anything to say ‘yes it’s possible’ or ‘no it’s not possible’. There must be seed banks out there tasked with this issue, and there must be some information somewhere, but I haven’t been able to find it.
I’m aware freezing it for eating doesn’t work well, and there is a big decrease in quality. It must however be possible to freeze it for planting stock, because in many climates it freezes in the ground while it’s growing.
Issues Discussed So Far
How long to expect it to last frozen, and how many years should we plan to test?
Will it keep more that a year or two? Ten years? What is a good amount of garlic to freeze now?
What sort of container should we freeze it in?
When I freeze seeds, I use a glass jar with a rubber seal. This is because no other storage container is truly airtight. Is this a good idea with garlic? When storing garlic for eating it is best kept in an open airy place, this is because it is still ‘alive’ and needs to breath. Will it need to breath in the freezer? Is it better to freeze it in a piece of paper or will it then dry out or get snowy?
Fall or spring planting?
Most garlics do better when fall planted and experience a period of cold weather. Will freezing garlic mean we can spring plant instead of fall plant, or even make it better to spring plant?
Bulbils, cloves or bulbs?
Some garlic types form bulbils. Is it better to freeze these rather than cloves? Is it better to freeze whole cloves, or is freezing the seporate cloves enough?
Different garlic types
As I’ve posted about before, there are 10 different garlic types or sub-types. Will these react differently to freezing? In what way do we need to test combinations of all of the above mentioned variables together with the different types?
Do you have any opinions or ideas on all of this? Do you have any suggestions of more variables we should test for or consider than what’s mentioned here? Please leave a comment and let us know!
Comments on this post are closed to prevent two separate discussions from taking place. Please follow the link on the top of this page and leave a comment on the original post on In the Toad’s Garden.
