Certified Organic Duganski Garlic — Grown from Rounds
At Greenbrier Farms, we grow our garlic using certified organic production practices, and we're proud to offer Duganski seed garlic grown from rounds.
Most seed garlic is propagated by planting cloves from mature bulbs. Our Duganski takes a different path: bulbil → round → mature bulb.
For growers who are interested in building strong, long-term planting stock, that difference is worth understanding.
What is a garlic round?
Duganski is a hardneck garlic. Hardneck garlic produces a tall central stalk called a scape, and if that scape is allowed to mature, it can produce a cluster of tiny aerial bulbs called bulbils.
When bulbils are planted, they generally produce a small, single-cloved bulb during their first growing season. This undivided bulb is commonly called a round.
The round can then be planted again. With appropriate growing conditions and sufficient time, it develops into a mature garlic bulb containing multiple cloves.
So when we say our Duganski is grown from rounds, we're describing a deliberate propagation process:
Bulbil → Round → Mature Garlic Bulb
Rather than simply dividing mature garlic into cloves and replanting those cloves, we're using the aerial bulbil stage as part of the process of developing our planting stock.
Why does growing from rounds matter?
Garlic is primarily propagated vegetatively. In other words, growers generally reproduce garlic by planting cloves or, in hardneck varieties, aerial bulbils rather than true botanical seed.
This allows desirable characteristics of a garlic variety to be maintained from generation to generation. But there is also a downside: pathogens, including viruses, can be carried forward in vegetatively propagated planting material.
Over successive generations, viruses can accumulate in garlic and may contribute to reduced plant vigour, bulb development and yield.
That's one reason healthy planting material matters so much to serious garlic growers.
The role of bulbils and rounds
Bulbils develop above the ground on the garlic scape. Using them as a starting point gives growers another way to multiply garlic without relying exclusively on mature underground bulbs.
Because bulbils develop aerially, they avoid direct exposure to many of the soil-borne problems that can affect cloves and mature bulbs before they are planted.
This makes bulbil propagation a useful tool for developing planting stock and for maintaining garlic varieties over time.
However, there's an important distinction:
Garlic grown from bulbils is not automatically disease-free or virus-free.
Some garlic viruses can be present in the mother plant and may also occur in bulbils. Producing verified virus-free garlic requires additional testing and specialized propagation techniques.
For that reason, we don't make an absolute claim that growing from rounds eliminates disease. Instead, we see round propagation as a valuable way to develop and maintain high-quality planting stock through a different propagation pathway.
Why growers choose garlic grown from rounds
There are several reasons growers may be interested in round-grown garlic:
A fresh propagation pathway
Starting with bulbils and growing through rounds provides an alternative to continually dividing and replanting cloves from mature bulbs.
Reduced exposure during the bulbil stage
Bulbils develop above ground, reducing their direct contact with soil-borne pathogens and pests during that initial stage of propagation.
Efficient multiplication
A mature hardneck scape can produce numerous bulbils. This gives growers a way to multiply planting material without using an entire mature bulb for every new plant.
Long-term seed-stock development
Rounds can be replanted and grown into larger, cloved bulbs. Those bulbs can then provide planting stock for future seasons.
Maintaining a favourite variety
For growers who want to maintain a particular garlic variety over many seasons, growing from bulbils and rounds provides another useful propagation method.
It takes patience
Growing garlic from bulbils is not a shortcut.
Bulbils need to be planted and grown into rounds. Those rounds can then be replanted and allowed to develop into larger, multi-cloved bulbs.
The time required varies depending on the variety, the size of the bulbils and the growing conditions.
But that's also part of what makes round-grown garlic special. The planting stock you're receiving represents a multi-stage, multi-season propagation process.
Can you eat garlic grown from rounds?
Absolutely.
A mature garlic bulb grown from a round is perfectly good eating garlic. Once it develops into a full cloved bulb, you can cook with it just as you would with garlic grown from a clove.
But when you plant it, you're getting something more: the opportunity to continue the growing cycle and produce your own planting stock.
Certified Organic Duganski from Greenbrier Farms
At Greenbrier Farms, we're committed to organic production. Our farm is certified under the Canada Organic Regime through Seeds Canada dba Centre for Systems Integration (CSI), a CFIA-accredited organic certification body.
Our Duganski seed garlic grown from rounds represents that commitment to careful, thoughtful seed-stock production.
You're not simply buying a bulb and separating it into cloves.
You're buying garlic that has been developed through a deliberate propagation process:
Bulbils → Rounds → Mature Bulbs → Planting Stock
For gardeners, homesteaders and commercial growers alike, round-grown Duganski offers an opportunity to start with planting material produced through a unique, multi-season approach.
Plant it. Grow it. Save your best bulbs. Grow it again.
That's the beauty of garlic—and that's what makes growing your own planting stock so rewarding.
Greenbrier Farms — Certified Organic Duganski Garlic, grown from rounds.
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