Any Garlic Growers?

Good looking stuff!! 8 bulbs is cutting her close!!

I've never heard of leaving a scape on to tell the harvest date, I normally just go by the dying lower leaves. Do you cut the scapes or try to pull as much as you can out?

Nice Thumper, ever grow green garlic on top of regular bulbs? The farm I was working at last year grew it, partly because he hadn't righted out how to properly dry/cure his garlic to last a full year.

I threw a cluster of old bulbs, don't remember what kind, from the kitchen in the corner of my yard a few years ago. Noticed a bunch growing last year, idk if there were any there the year before. I cleared around them and kept it weeded, but never did anything else to them. This year there's a larger cluster, maybe a 1.5ft dia area with what looks like a couple dozen+ plants. Not exactly sure about when I'm supposed to harvest them. Is it as simple as cut the flowers as I see them, then when the outer few leaves die off, I can dig them up? I'm in southern New England so it looks like they'll be ready during July. Is the fact they flowered last year and grew in clusters going to affect how well they grew?

WeedFreak78 said:

I threw a cluster of old bulbs, don't remember what kind, from the kitchen in the corner of my yard a few years ago. Noticed a bunch growing last year, idk if there were any there the year before. I cleared around them and kept it weeded, but never did anything else to them. This year there's a larger cluster, maybe a 1.5ft dia area with what looks like a couple dozen+ plants. Not exactly sure about when I'm supposed to harvest them. Is it as simple as cut the flowers as I see them, then when the outer few leaves die off, I can dig them up? I'm in southern New England so it looks like they'll be ready during July. Is the fact they flowered last year and grew in clusters going to affect how well they grew?

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Cut the scapes off before they flower and eat them. They're delicious. Removing them also helps with bulb development as that energy isn't used to produce flowers.

WeedFreak78 said:

I threw a cluster of old bulbs, don't remember what kind, from the kitchen in the corner of my yard a few years ago. Noticed a bunch growing last year, idk if there were any there the year before. I cleared around them and kept it weeded, but never did anything else to them. This year there's a larger cluster, maybe a 1.5ft dia area with what looks like a couple dozen+ plants. Not exactly sure about when I'm supposed to harvest them. Is it as simple as cut the flowers as I see them, then when the outer few leaves die off, I can dig them up? I'm in southern New England so it looks like they'll be ready during July. Is the fact they flowered last year and grew in clusters going to affect how well they grew?

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Sorry, somehow I managed to miss your post. Like Xtsho said when you see the flowers forming you want to cut them before they open, generally once they've curled all the way around once or earlier. Great in omelets or sauteed with some butter & soy sauce.

Once the bottom 3-5 leaves have died it's time to harvest. Each leaf corresponds with a layer around the bulb, if you leave it too late there isn't much holding the bulbs together & they don't store as long. The earlier you harvest the smaller the bulbs, so it's a balance between the two.

For harvesting I just pull them out, shake off loose soil & hand in a cool, dark place with good airflow to dry. Kinda like our favourite flowers. Once they've fully dried down I clean the outer wrapper off so there isn't dirt everywhere, trim the roots if I'm clipping the leaves off or leave them whole if I'm braiding them. I never trim the roots until it's fully dry, seems to make them last longer.

When they flowered last year they produced bulbils, vegetative clones of the bulbs. You won't get as big of bulbs with them packed tight together but it's not like most veges or plants where they'll seriously be impacted. Save the biggest bulbs to split & replant the cloves every 5-8", I'd also replant the biggest bulbils. The bulbils will just form rounds the first year or two, undivided cloves basically. Then they'll start dividing into cloves & a lot of growers find they end up bigger then just growing from cloves. Also creates a higher chance of finding mutants & who doesn't love a mutant.

Somatek said:

I've never heard of leaving a scape on to tell the harvest date, I normally just go by the dying lower leaves. Do you cut the scapes or try to pull as much as you can out?

Nice Thumper, ever grow green garlic on top of regular bulbs? The farm I was working at last year grew it, partly because he hadn't righted out how to properly dry/cure his garlic to last a full year.

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I cut the scapes an stir fry them, that also makes for bigger bulbs

WeedFreak78 said:

I threw a cluster of old bulbs, don't remember what kind, from the kitchen in the corner of my yard a few years ago. Noticed a bunch growing last year, idk if there were any there the year before. I cleared around them and kept it weeded, but never did anything else to them. This year there's a larger cluster, maybe a 1.5ft dia area with what looks like a couple dozen+ plants. Not exactly sure about when I'm supposed to harvest them. Is it as simple as cut the flowers as I see them, then when the outer few leaves die off, I can dig them up? I'm in southern New England so it looks like they'll be ready during July. Is the fact they flowered last year and grew in clusters going to affect how well they grew?

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I pull mine end of july here in maine

Thanks for the info. So, it's been 2 weeks since I posted, and I've noticed a few outter leaves are dying off here and there, but no flowers yet. After some reading it seems like garlic needs a good amount of N. Where I've never done any fertilizing, and they've been there a few years, I'm wondering if it's just die off due to deficiency? I'm not going to do anything but keep watching and see what they do.

Somatek said:

I've never heard of leaving a scape on to tell the harvest date, I normally just go by the dying lower leaves. Do you cut the scapes or try to pull as much as you can out?

Nice Thumper, ever grow green garlic on top of regular bulbs? The farm I was working at last year grew it, partly because he hadn't righted out how to properly dry/cure his garlic to last a full year.

Click to expand...

I have 5 garlic patches with around 100 plants in each patch. When the scapes curl all the way around and are pointing straight up, I cut off all but 2 from the patch. Those 2 are my indicators for that patch. Cutting off the scapes will help produce larger bulbs.

When the indicators have unwound and are once again pointing straight up, the garlic is ready to harvest.

I used to harvest when the lower half of the leaves had dried out. A lady that runs a garlic farm near by told me about the indicator method. Works well for me.

Was out in the garden yesterday and the scapes are on their way!!!

WeedFreak78 said:

Thanks for the info. So, it's been 2 weeks since I posted, and I've noticed a few outter leaves are dying off here and there, but no flowers yet. After some reading it seems like garlic needs a good amount of N. Where I've never done any fertilizing, and they've been there a few years, I'm wondering if it's just die off due to deficiency? I'm not going to do anything but keep watching and see what they do.

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Yellowing leaves are also a sign of fungal/viral infection, which are very common in garlic (by some reports over 50% of commercial production). Luckily pathogens don't have a huge impact other then on bulb size.

In my experience it's more likely that over a N issue. There's no harm in top dressing with some manure but don't be surprised if it doesn't go away.

Speaking of ferts, any ever tried adding sulfur to their g

kkt3 said:

I have 5 garlic patches with around 100 plants in each patch. When the scapes curl all the way around and are pointing straight up, I cut off all but 2 from the patch. Those 2 are my indicators for that patch. Cutting off the scapes will help produce larger bulbs.

When the indicators have unwound and are once again pointing straight up, the garlic is ready to harvest.

I used to harvest when the lower half of the leaves had dried out. A lady that runs a garlic farm near by told me about the indicator method. Works well for me.

Was out in the garden yesterday and the scapes are on their way!!!

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Thanks for the tip, I'll give that a try next year when I have actual numbers instead of just enough bulbs to keep the strain. I had bulbils growing for half my varieties which sadly where abandoned. If I leave a couple as indicators then I could also harvest bulbils & replenish my stock. There's always more to learn.

Another nice scape recipe I discovered last year was making scape pesto, quick & simple but adds a nice garlic bite to dishes

I highly recommend a great little book called, Growing great garlic, by Ron L Engeland.
It has all the info anyone needs to do just what the title states.
Cheers

I like to pick and eat the scapes right off the plant. I do the same with onions but with onions once they start to flower you should harvest them.

Great info in this thread, makes me wanna grow a lot of garlic now. Thanks.

xtsho said:

I like to pick and eat the scapes right off the plant. I do the same with onions but with onions once they start to flower you should harvest them.

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Some varieties I'll do that with, especially if I pull a really long scape off as the light green inner part is so succulent

yum yum stir fry tonight!!

Are there forums dedicated to garlic growers? I'd like to put some in the ground this fall but not sure where to source/start. I could do a google but it'd be nice to hear from experienced growers.

Mary's Confidant said:

Are there forums dedicated to garlic growers? I'd like to put some in the ground this fall but not sure where to source/start. I could do a google but it'd be nice to hear from experienced growers.

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I don't know if there's any forums, I've learned a lot from a couple FB groups that I'm part of.

Garlic is pretty easy to grow, the biggest thing is keeping it weed free as they really don't like competition and buy seed as close to where ya live. It really does better if it's acclimatised to the local environment, otherwise you'll get smaller bulbs for the first couple years.

I can recommend some companies in Ontario that I've dealt with.

The creoles are already done. First pic is the Burgundy's which are pretty small with the largest being the same size as the seed garlic I bought last year. A bunch have corms growing on the bulbs which was new to me. I'll plant them next year & see how long it takes for them to grow full bulbs.

The second pic is the Rose de Lautrec which was also new last year. They did better, the biggest bulbs look about 1/2" bigger then then seed bulbs which were around an inch. Which surprised me as the Burgundy never produced scapes whereas the Rose de Lautrec did.

We fried a bulb that got damaged during harvest & despite the tiny bulbs they're worth it. Very mild heat but a really nice sweet/nutty/buttery taste.

Mary's Confidant said:

Are there forums dedicated to garlic growers? I'd like to put some in the ground this fall but not sure where to source/start. I could do a google but it'd be nice to hear from experienced growers.

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most important part find local grown bulbs where ever u live, not store bought