On Sunday I dug a first garlic head to see if they are ripe yet. They plants have turned yellow and brown, but are still standing. The head was bigger than I've ever grown and beautiful creamy white skin. 6 or 8 nice cloves. But the skin had many wrappers and wasn't dry - the inner wrappers were thick and leathery still. So it wasn't ready for harvest. I'll wait a few more weeks to dig any more of them.
Garlic is ready for harvest when the leaf tops begin to dry and bend toward the ground. The presence of three to five wrapper leaves is another indication of maturity. ... Irrigation should be discontinued approximately two weeks
prior to harvest. Univ Kentucky Garlic Fact Sheet
I was disappointed to find many brown spots inside the cloves, even with the perfect skins. I suppose this is mite damage. :( Hopefully the rest don't have the same. Maybe a bad choice to grow garlic where I grew onions last year. Of course, all the irrigation probably hasn't helped either.
garlic (Allium sativum)
Wow! That is cool, and appreciate the info you are sharing! I plan to grow garlic starting this fall, and I am really excited about it. (I know, doesn't take much!) Can you recommend a particular type?
ReplyDeleteSelecting a type of garlic is not only dizzying (they all sound so good in print!) but a highly personal choice.
ReplyDeleteI've always been perplexed by this was happy to recently order my fall garlic from Gourmet Garlic Farms. I cannot attest to their quality of product or service, but I was very happy to see their assortments were divided up in a way that made a lot of sense to me: mild, medium, strong. And then within your strength choice, they will select varieties for your area of the country if you ask them to.
I wish other companies would present things this way. http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/assorts.htm for that assortment page. - Debbie
Thanks for that resource, Debbie -- sounds great!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a "hardneck", right Cathy? If so, the stalk will never bend over. And, the wrappers will dry when you pull them and place them in a warm, dry, airy and dark place. I use the garage. Finally, we have found that the best place to keep garlic is in a crisper drawer of the fridge. Cool, dry and, importantly, dark.
ReplyDeleteNice clove.
Hi there, well our Garlic has been rubbish! My sister read an article that said "just plant cloves from the Supermarket"! I wasn't completely convinced but as we share (and she has more time to do weeding!!) I agreed. Not next year, the whole lot just went yellow and rotted. I don't think they could withstand the March snow and cold as well as those that are recommended from seed companies. So - no garlic sob.
ReplyDeleteMarian(LondonUK)
marian, My supermarket softnecks did very well in my garden. They came through the winter fine, but the cloves were a bit small. These hardnecks I have now are bigger. They are from our Farmer's Market.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great info pjkobulnicky and Debbie!!