Several field trails have shown a 30 to 40% productivity gain from planting large cloves vs. small ones. I don't sell garlic and grow several varieties, some large and some small. My main reason for wanting robust bulbs from all of them is that this my planting stock, and you gotta have standards.

I'm not sure how the productivity gain is calculated. But in terms of the weight, I do not think this is true, but just the opposite.

I believe one pound of smaller bulbs, of the same variety, should produce more (in terms of weight) garlic than those grown from large cloves. There is diminishing return. Or the marginal return is smaller and smaller for large cloves.

In terms of field space used, I think smaller cloves may use less space for the same weight. But clearly large bulbs command price premium for the same unit weight.

Also, if I grow garlic from bulbils, after 4-5 years, even the tiny bulbils should produce regular sized bulbs. So smaller cloves can certainly grow into regular even large size...

Average is best. Growing garlic is all about finding the best average size range of a variety once it is acclimated to local growing conditions. Once that average size range is found it will dictate ideal plant and row spacing. The average bulb size range combined with the ideal plant and row spacing will yield the best volume or weight of garlic that can be produced per square foot, in a given local situation under average growing conditions. Once acclimated and properly sized up, consistently selecting the best cloves of the bulbs in the variety's average size range will yield the best garlic by volume or weight regarding efficiency of land use, flavor, storability, marketability, etc.

I note that in my experiences, observations, and discussions with other growers/sellers, garlic varieties that have a small average size (less than 1.5 inches diameter) generally do not sell well simply because of the Larger Size=Quality bias built into the minds of the American consumer. Oversized bulbs (anything over 3 inches diameter) do not sell well either because of the Larger Quantity=Value bias built into the minds of the American consumer (larger bulbs equals smaller bulb quantity by weight giving the appearance, incorrectly, of lesser overall value). Another factor that comes into play is the Consistency of Size=Quality bias. Inconsistently sized bulbs (or the grower not taking the time to properly sort and grade) equates with poor quality (probably rightfully so). A balance has to be found between these biases in order to achieve maximum sales, not that this has anything to do with the topic of the thread creator. My point is that going for oversized bulbs is a bad strategy for many reasons including yield by volume or weight per square foot. Work with the average...

I plant varieties that, once acclimated, grow in the average size range of 2 to 2.50 inches. For planting stock, small bulbs are rejected, oversize bulbs are rejected. I only use the largest cloves from bulbs that are in the average size range. Seems to be the best strategy for maximum production, best garlic quality, best storage qualities, and best overall crop health, in my experience.

Got to get out and do some more garlic planting...
Have a good day!
-Tom

Interesting topic.
I do agree that on some varieties planting the largest cloves isn't always the best idea. I sell garlic by the pound whether it be for seed stock or for eating, so this is coming from a value to the grower perspective.

My best selling porcelain garlic makes huge heads with huge cloves. If I plant the largest cloves they make huge heads but there's a limit to the size a head can be. If I plant a clove that's large but not huge, the head still comes out about the same size as the first. In this case, i'm better selling (or eating) the huge clove, and saving the large clove for planting. I think Redsun pointed this out as "diminishing returns".

With most of my other varieties, I still think i'm better off saving the largest for seed. There is also the time factor it would take to pick only the perfect size seed pieces when i'm breaking up 350 lbs of garlic seed.

-Mark

When I was planting, from the same variety, I had cloves as large as an inch, or very tiny (inside the bulbs). So I was thinking, a 1" clove can grow no more than a 3" buls (large). But the small cloves probably grow up to 5-6 times of its size. So I'd better just eat the huge cloves.

But I do not want to throw away the small cloves. So I still drop them there in the soil.

Yes, I think medium-large cloves is a good idea. You get a decent yield, good size (2" to 2.5") for good price. But I still grow a lot of bulbils. Some of the large ones can produce 1" to 1.5" bulbs the first year.

I also plant bulbils every year, but only varieties that produce pea size or larger bulbils. The rounds or largest cloves from the small bulbs, whichever are produced, are then replanted separate from the main crop until they fully size up. In my experience these varieties will fully size up to the average varietal range in three years. They are then added into the main planting stock. I believe this strategy helps to keep the stock healthier as opposed to just harvesting and replanting cloves.

Another reason to be wary of replanting the largest cloves is that many varieties (I believe mostly rocamboles but I have seen it occur in purple stripes as well) will produce double and triple cloves, which are two or three separate or conjoined cloves wrapped in one clove skin. These cloves will deceptively appear to be the largest cloves produced on a bulb. Plant those cloves whole and a person will get two or three plants growing in that location, which will produce two or three separate bulbs that will be misshapen because they grew right next to each other. Unsightly for marketing but still good for home food use. Physically separating the double and triple cloves prior to planting will either damage and kill the conjoined cloves, or in the case of non-conjoined cloves it will force the cloves to be skinless on one side or even be completely skinless (but they may still grow).

Those issues are not the main problem, though. The main problem is that by saving and replanting those "largest" cloves the grower is perpetuating the genetics that is producing double and triple cloving, which is not considered to be a desirable attribute. The result is the continually increasing incidence of double and triple cloving in the crop.

I did a multi-year experiment where I had been saving and replanting double and triple cloves both whole and separated from the German Brown rocambole. I ended up with oversize bulbs ranging from 3 to 4 inches diameter. This large size sounds great but the bulbs ended up with multiple double and triple cloves per bulb, which was highly undesirable. Those bulbs also consistently stored very poorly which I suspect was due to the fact that each clove did not have its own skin to act as a protective shell to seal better against moisture loss. Anyway, I learned to reject double and triple cloves for seed stock. They get used for dried food product instead.

Point: Make sure that if the largest cloves are being saved for replanting that they are not actually double or triple cloves.

As for sorting large quantities of seed cloves for planting, if a person uses a gauge consisting of two holes indicating the acceptable min and max bulb size range then the bulbs can easily be accepted or rejected. Then simply pop the cloves of the accepted bulbs and plant the largest.

The main problem I have with my systems and methods is that I am only accepting around 25% of the cloves for seed stock. That means it takes a lot of garlic bulbs to get the seed I need. All those extra cloves are not wasted but are turned into dried food product, but it still sucks. The benefits of my system are crop health and the consistency of bulb size produced. 90 to 95 percent of my bulbs produced are market quality, very few are rejected for being too small. I also average only around one unhealthy plant per 800 (each which I pull, inspect, and burn). Seed clove over-wintering mortality is around one per 1000. It is a very stable crop.

Good stuff. The double cloves should be avoided, by all means.

I do not discard the small cloves. I group them by size and plant them just like large bulbils.

Very few bulbils are larger than pea size. So I grow bulbils of all sizes, from the large Asiastic and Rocamboles, to the tiny Porcelain bulbils. Some of them I grow for a couple of years.

I think for commercial growing, it is best to plant medium-large cloves of similar size. Then the bulbs will be average to large size and marketable. And you do not have spend much time in sorting the sizes of the bulbs.

I like large cloves just for convenient peeling. I've been upping the number of the German White garlics grown. Even though they don't appear to produce as big bulbs as German Red, or Polish White, they seem to produce the largest cloves meaning I can grow them closer together given that they seem to never produce more than 6 cloves per bulb.

Species definitely matters in growing garlic.

Music normally grows to 4 cloves. From all I've seen locally.

I have at times planted the largest cloves to the smallest in the row to see if the smallest are apparent at harvest. The result? A woeful lack of record keeping! No info as of yet. I don't think extra large garlic bulbs would be hard to sell at market but I have not really tried since I save all the biggest for planting. I did have problems this year with too many of too big of onions and I still haven't sold all the Big Daddy. Then there are those customers who hear onions soak up toxins and must be used all at once. roll eyes