Think my garlic is ready??
 

Usually I see 3-5 leaves to dry up from the bottom but this year the tops seem to be turning as well.
Garlic lovers.....think they’re ready to go and be hung?

Thanks in advance!

Greg

That's a nice crop. I would probably dig one up and check it. You definitely don't want the cloves to start separating in the head which they will do if they are too mature but if they are still nice and tight you can even wait a bit longer if you want to.

Thanks Rexx. Will do exactly that. I think I may just pull them anyway they're not going to get much bigger than next week or two so why not just do it and get it over with. :)

I was going to say the same thing, pull one and see.

Are they softnecks? With the hardneck there's always counting the weeks from the scapes, which is helpful.

PureHarvest is in NC too.. I don't think he has harvested the hardnecks quite yet but they are close. OTOH our softnecks here were always the earliest, at least a week earlier than any of the hardnecks, which is great when you're antsy to pull em up and admire em! :D

You probably already know this but dig them, do not pull. Pulling puts extra stress on the necks and can actually cause some breakage.

Give them a few more days.

I can see some cut scapes on the photo, so these must be hardnecks. I tried counting the green leaves on the plants and got to six on most of them. I usually pull when there is still five mostly green leaves, so I think that you are not yet in real hurry, unless there is rainy weather coming.

Good looking plants!

Sari

Of course, digging one is the best indicator. Cloves should be visible in the shape of the bulb.
My guess would be they're not ready.

Bower, NC is 6 and a half hours or 400 miles south of me, so we aren’t quite the same zone lol.
But, it confirms my thoughts about leaving my crop in another week at least.

Good luck! I waited an extra week last year and my wrappers started to break down. Watch our for (more) wet weather!

Here's what my garlic looks like as of this morning.
The last pick shows a scape I left on one plant. Notice how green the leaves still are compared to the one where the scapes were taken off.
In Ron England's book, he takes scapes after the coil has fully formed and then starts to straighten out. I might go more towards taking them off when they start to coil. I took mine off right as they were emerging.
Based on what that one plant looks like (being still 90% green), it looks like taking scapes off early speeds up the drying down process.

In other words, waiting longer to take off scapes seems to keep the plant fully green longer. Perhaps this is a good thing for the resulting bulbs as far as size and storage quality/length. This assumes that you still will cut it off a week or so before harvest to not have the bulb size lessened by leaving the scape on through harvest.

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THAT! is a lot of garlic. how do you sell it? by the pound, head, on line, at markets? I can hardly move garlic at my market.

We eat all of it.
Just kidding.
I am planning on sending it to a huge CSA in my area. They send out over 400 boxes per week. I'm calling them today.
There is also a broker 30 minutes away that I am calling too.
Last year I sold to about 5 produce stands, but only had a fraction of what I do this year.
I broke the cardinal rule of having a market before you grow a crop, but that is how I roll sometimes. I wanted to try garlic on a somewhat large scale to see if it was doable with my schedule etc, with the faith that if it worked I would find a way to move it all.
Consider too that I will keep 25% of what is there for planting stock this fall.
Shied away from online because of the website, payments, handling, shipping etc. I don't have the time.
Last year I sold by the pound and buyers could wrap their head around the price per pound or how to mark that up and sell by the pound. They always want to know how many bulbs per pound.
This year I will offer them by the each price. .65 for medium, .95 for large.
This works out to about $5.50/lb.

Those are not ready in my opinion. I wait until there are just four mostly green leaves before harvesting to get the largest bulbs. Mine store very well - in fact I am still eating fresh garlic (Music) stored in my cellar (temperature and humidity @ 65°F) with no sprouting and very little green streaks in the clove centers.

I believe Henry and others also said, if you leave a scape or two on, they show when the rest is ready to harvest - when the scape stands fully upright. I don't think mine have ever got to that point but our weather is always threatening to turn wet and so I tend to err on the early side. Excuses, it's true, I just can't wait to get my hands on em. :)
An advantage of early harvest for a home gardener, it's said to improve keeping quality. I'm still eating porcelain garlic, still good ten months now from the harvest date.
Excuses, more excuses. ;)
Down side is bulbs will be smaller of course, the earlier you harvest.
And somewhere in the middle there's "just right".... :roll:
Posted the same time as you, TomNJ. Sounds like you have the "just right" figured out!

Yeah I agree Tom.
There seems to be too much green still on mine.
I was thinking next weekend as a starting point.
The tricky thing is I have plants like gssgarden where the leaves don't uniformly brown from the bottom up. All the leaves are showing signs of brown. None of them will have solid 4-5 green leaves at the top.
Tom, what stage do you remove scapes?

[QUOTE=PureHarvest;704162]
Tom, what stage do you remove scapes?[/QUOTE]

I pick my scapes when still in the curl and about 12-15" long. At this stage they are quite tender and excellent for grilling. Picking here takes place in the first two weeks of June.

My bulbs last year averaged 2.5" with some Music up to 3.3".

I have never heard of waiting for the scapes to stand straight up before. I just waited until they got a curl or when they got large. Will try it next year.

I grilled pork chops and laid a 3 inch piece on top, and put it back when flipped. DEFINETLY tasted the flavor from it. A nice bonus to the garlic itself!

Greg

Here are some shots of my garlic I just took. While the tips are dying back the plants are still primarily green. I usually start harvest at the very end of June or about two weeks from now.

My onions have recovered nicely from their fungal funk last month. I only lost about 10% of the crop, but the remaining 400 should be enough to last the year.

I pulled them. One, because I'm impatient. And two, because u wouldn't be able to do it for well over a week. I think they did Well!
First pic is Romanian Red

Second is Georgian Fire

Hanging in garage for a couple weeks. Have grown Georgian Fire for a while now and love it. First time growing Romanian Red. I like my garlic hot and spicy so I hope she lives up to her reputation!

Thanks guys!

Greg

Greg, nice looking heads!



And Tom, a great looking garden, as usual!

Sweet! :)
Tom, your garlic look great too, and best of all, the onions are looking fantastic! :D

Impressive Tom!!

Greg

Great pics Tom.

[QUOTE=PureHarvest;704142]
Last year I sold by the pound and buyers could wrap their head around the price per pound or how to mark that up and sell by the pound. They always want to know how many bulbs per pound.
This year I will offer them by the each price. .65 for medium, .95 for large.
This works out to about $5.50/lb.[/QUOTE]

I have never sold at market, but a farmer friend who does farmer's markets told me he sold more at a higher price by leaving the dried stems attached to both onions and garlic. Apparently the customers, mostly city folk, were fascinated seeing how the plants looked, and it set his garlic apart from the bins of cleaned bulbs everyone else was selling.

[QUOTE=TomNJ;704263]I have never sold at market, but a farmer friend who does farmer's markets told me he sold more at a higher price by leaving the dried stems attached to both onions and garlic. Apparently the customers, mostly city folk, were fascinated seeing how the plants looked, and it set his garlic apart from the bins of cleaned bulbs everyone else was selling.[/QUOTE]

So true and same with Brussel sprouts, carrots, etc even though it isn't the best for the
fruit/veg. I do like the big leek tops for stock, and the long artichoke stems are tasty if
peeled...

Great looking garlic tom and gss. I need to increase my amount this fall and took note of
your GeorgianFire and RRed. I ran out last month so I know now about what we need.

My Garlic To Date
 

Beginners luck at this location. At the country garden the garlic is turning out very well (in virgin soil - fertilized but not amended). I had it heavily mulched with straw, and that helped tremendously with the high heat and moisture retention. Here is a photo from earlier this week. I haven't pulled scapes, and it will rain on and off most of this week. Should I wait?

I would for sure!

Absolutely wait.

What a beautiful garden Tom - I have garlic and garden envy. It was minus 4 Celsius overnight and snow to 400m down here in NZ. My garlic is tucked in under a mulch of wood chips and will be a few months before they emerge.