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Harvest time Garlic?

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Brown Thumb

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When do you yank yours?
I have been using the, When the 5th down leaf is brown and dead it time to harvest method.
I think I should be seeing more bulbs bulging out of the sack. Some are round like onions almost.
There not to big but I read they won't be the first yr.
 

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deluxestogie

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They look good. Mine vary in size within a single harvest, and vary a lot from year to year. Of the 30 or so Czech Broadleaf garlic I grew this year, I had 5 or 6 photo-worthy heads. The rest were mostly average, like yours, and a few were tiny, onion-like bulbs. I fertilized with 10-10-10 when I planted in the fall. I harvested when a few of the 30 plants flopped over.

I have a small basket hanging on the kitchen wall. In that basket I dump the puny garlics, for use when nobody is looking. This includes the funny ones with a hard stalk and a tiny, second, aerial set of cloves. They are just as good as the pretty ones.

When to dig them (the 'y' word makes me nervous) is kind of a guessing game. Too soon, and they're not as big; too late and the heads are falling apart. I think you've done good.

After they've dried enough to peel off the dirt, they still need to rest for another month or so, before the cloves become easier to to separate and peel. The really fresh ones also have a different taste.

Bob

EDIT: Be sure to set aside the largest couple of head for planting this fall.
 

deluxestogie

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With a large planting, there's a lot a variation in the maturity. A couple will be way ahead of the rest, so when they flop over, like an onion when the onion bulb is ready to dig, then most of the rest of the garlics will be in that happy window. Some will still be immature. The flopped over ones are not dead, but they just can get it up any longer.

Bob
 

Brown Thumb

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I read that is the wrong way to do it since there not onions.
Before I yank it straight up I clean down to the bulb and around carefully with my fingers.
 

mwaller

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Can one of you guys fill me in - when do you plant garlic, and what do plant? Individual cloves?
 

deluxestogie

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Garlic is usually planted in the late fall. I plant during the first week of November.

Separate a head of garlic (grocery store garlic, or a specific variety purchased from a seed vendor) into individual cloves, leaving on the protective skin. Plant individual cloves ~2-3" deep, at least 6" apart. Make sure the blunt, root end is down. Cover with heavy mulch, then ignore all winter long. In mid June to mid July, when the tops begin to die, dig the garlic. Each clove will have formed a new head of garlic. Don't wash them. Allow to dry for a week or three, then peel off the outer layer to remove the dirt.

Garlic comes as either hard neck or soft neck. The hard neck garlic varieties (woody stem in the center) will form a curly flower shaft, called a scape, a week or more before they are ready to dig. Cut off the scapes and eat or pickle them. Soft neck garlic usually does not form a scape. Save the largest head for planting the following autumn. Garlic can store in a dry place for a year or more.

In digging them, I usually dig around them entirely, then use a tool to lift them out of the ground from below. If you try to pull them like onions, without freeing them from the dirt, they sometimes tear apart.

Bob
 

deluxestogie

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I read that is the wrong way to do it since there not onions.
Before I yank it straight up I clean down to the bulb and around carefully with my fingers.
When only a couple of garlics out of 30 or so have fallen over, most of the others are showing 5 or 6 dead leaves.

Bob

EDIT: Hard neck garlics won't fall over until it's way too late for harvesting. Because...wait for it...they have hard necks! My approach to waiting for the fastest few percent to topple applies to soft-neck garlic. Sorry for the confusion. My confusion. I'm old.

Bob
 
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mwaller

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You guys inspired me - I will be planting 4-5 varieties of garlic this fall. I like the idea of a crop that has a long shelf life after harvest.
What do you guys like to do with all that garlic? Are there any tasty ways to consume it without causing my colleagues to run for cover the next day?!
 
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