Advice wanted re my garlic please
 

On Monday the 27th, I'm leaving for 2 weeks. As you can see from the picture, the leaves on my Magic garlic are starting to die back. Not quite ready yet, but not sure what's going to happen over the next 2 1/2 weeks. Is it better to pull them a little early, or a little late?
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What's the weather forecast?
If heavy rain is expected, I'd pull now.
If it looks like it's going to be dry, I'd leave them.
Light rain? Less than 50% chance of rain? Judgment call. I'd probably pick some, if any rain is forecast.

I haven't grown garlic for a year or so, but I do grow onions, which should not be watered for a couple weeks before picking. So my recs are based on keeping them dry for a couple weeks just before picking.

If you plan on eating or replanting the garlic within the next 3-4 months, then I would leave them in the ground to size up. Even if you lose the wrappers the cloves will be fine until replanting time, and you can freeze any cloves not eaten by that time. I harvest mine when only three leaves are mostly green. Most have fine wrappers, and any that may split are eaten or frozen first.

TomNJVA

Mine look the same and probably wont pull them until August, or at least until 3-4 leaves are dried up.

The common advice I read is to let 2/3 of the leaves go yellow, and in my climate it does take several weeks for them to dry down once it's started.
If you harvest early they say there will be more wrappers and longer storage life. But when growing up garlic from bulbils the smaller plants also had fewer leaves - I was a bit worried to see just one wrapper over the individual cloves on some of them - but they kept perfectly all winter even so.

I wonder if the amount of wrappers is more important from a commercial standpoint where the garlic is being shipped and stored in variable conditions before it gets to the consumer. :?!?: I picked up a garlic at the store last week when I ran out, and really noticed how much more wrappers they had than my own. Sadly some of the cloves had gone soft anyway!

[QUOTE=TomNJ;571201]If you plan on eating or replanting the garlic within the next 3-4 months, then I would leave them in the ground to size up. Even if you lose the wrappers the cloves will be fine until replanting time, [B]and you can freeze any cloves not eaten by that time[/B]. I harvest mine when only three leaves are mostly green. Most have fine wrappers, and any that may split are eaten or frozen first.

TomNJVA[/QUOTE]


How do you freeze your garlic?

They look fine and probably can stay in the ground for a another two to three weeks. I would pull one of the bulbs and see what it looks like if you are really concerned. If you see the cloves then it's time to harvest, but I suspect they can stay for a while longer. You might want to pull some of the grass and weeds around the plants. The measure I use is that at least the bottom four to six leaves have turned brown before I harvest, but sometimes I will pull them sooner.

I'd leave them in the ground.

They look like they are at least 2 1/2 weeks away from harvest to me too.

They have a lot of green leaves left.

Leave them it is! Thanks to everyone who advised, I was worried.

[QUOTE=GrowingCoastal;571289]How do you freeze your garlic?[/QUOTE]

I peel and chop the garlic and put it into one-quart freezer bags, press it flat to about 1/4" thick, zip and freeze. To use you just break off the amount you need (breaks easily) and re-zip the bag. The texture is softened and the flavor slightly less sharp, but just use more. The softer texture makes it ideal for mixing in sour cream to make a great chip dip!

I freeze at least a hundred bulbs each year and average about six bulbs per bag. Peeling is much easier by shaking about 50 cloves at a time vigorously for 30 seconds inside two large metal bowls, one inverted over the other. Knocks off over 80% of the skins and loosens the rest. Bruising is not important since they will be chopped.

Regarding wrappers, commercial growers need more layers, usually 5 or 6, as they lose some in handling, shipping, and displaying. It is their harvest practices that are most often quoted on the Internet. Home growers only need 2 or 3 wrapper layers for good storage, so three mostly green leaves works for most varieties I've tried.

TomNJVA

I have personally found that the bulbs still will grow a lot after the first leaves are yellow. If it's not diseased, you'd be throwing away a lot of crop harvesting early.

[QUOTE=TomNJ;571395]I peel and chop the garlic and put it into one-quart freezer bags, press it flat to about 1/4" thick, zip and freeze. To use you just break off the amount you need (breaks easily) and re-zip the bag. The texture is softened and the flavor slightly less sharp, but just use more. The softer texture makes it ideal for mixing in sour cream to make a great chip dip!

I freeze at least a hundred bulbs each year and average about six bulbs per bag. Peeling is much easier by shaking about 50 cloves at a time vigorously for 30 seconds inside two large metal bowls, one inverted over the other. Knocks off over 80% of the skins and loosens the rest. Bruising is not important since they will be chopped.

Regarding wrappers, commercial growers need more layers, usually 5 or 6, as they lose some in handling, shipping, and displaying. It is their harvest practices that are most often quoted on the Internet. Home growers only need 2 or 3 wrapper layers for good storage, so three mostly green leaves works for most varieties I've tried.

TomNJVA[/QUOTE]

TomNJ, I really appreciate the information in this post. As I've posted elsewhere I'm growing garlic for the first time this season - about 30 starts were given to me last year of an unknown variety that has been growing and reseeding itself on a Missouri farm here since sometime in the 1800's. About half the leaves are yellow now, so I'll be digging the bulbs up before long.

I'm going to put aside and dry the cloves I'll use for replanting in October, but I'm certainly going to chop, bag, and freeze the garlic we're going to eat according to your method. That sounds REAL handy - thanks!

Okay here is the hands on information I have about this.

I have one crop of garlic I pulled earlier this year because I planted at two different times.
The first crop I left in a little to long and the heads split.
This stuff is stored in the garage and I just tested one of them it had been in there for months.
The clove was fresh and juicy and as crunchy as a nut.

Worth