Garlic harvest 2015

[Noreaster]

Holy Schlamolie !!!!

Am ready to plant garlic for first time, and your super photographs will serve as
inspiration over the next NINE MONTHS.

And if my effort fails......will hate you forever !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KC.Sun]

My garlic bulbs just arrived from Filaree Farms in Washington and the flavor profiles seemed so amazing when I was ordering, I had problems limiting my order. I'm now anxiously looking forward to harvest now and the cooking/flavor profiles. I stuck with hardneck varieties. I also never knew you could braid hardnecks. Thanks for the post about braiding hardnecks.

[Salsacharley]

Three years ago I sowed a couple of garlic seeds I got from some school project my wife was involved in. I have no idea what the variety is. I just transplanted the sprouts into my garden like I do tomato seedlings. I have never harvested or done any cultivating on the garlic, but now I have dozens of flowering garlic stems and they drop seeds like crazy. I have them with leeks, chives and some oregano and I just let them all go crazy. The bees love them when the flowers are blooming.

Now I am wishing I had harvested some but I guess they have bolted since the flowers are dry and dropping seeds....right? The plants' leaves are still quite green. Does anybody know what the bulbs would be like if I dug some up at this late stage?

Thanks
Charley

[KC.Sun]

I could be wrong on this, but I've heard that as long as the leaves are still green you should be able to harvest the garlic bulb. I've seen people post that the best time to harvest is when the leaves turn a slight yellow which indicates that it is ready to harvest.

Maybe it's a giant garlic bulb as you haven't harvested it in 3 years.

[Noreaster]

Originally Posted by KC.Sun

My garlic bulbs just arrived from Filagree Farms in Oregon and the flavor profiles seemed so amazing when I was ordering, I had problems limiting my order. I'm now anxiously looking forward to harvest now and the cooking/flavor profiles. I stuck with hardneck varieties. I also never knew you could braid hardnecks. Thanks for the post about braiding hardnecks.

Did you mean Filaree Farms in Washington State ? Looked them up, and they
are interesting. And different in that the standard order is 1/4 pound vs
1/2 pound.....which could help in sampling growth of more varieties !

[PhilaGardener]

If you wait until all the leaves die back, you will lose the wrappers around the head and the cloves will be exposed to the soil and don't store well. I harvest mine when about a third of the leaves have died back and get nice heads.

[KC.Sun]

Originally Posted by Noreaster

Did you mean Filaree Farms in Washington State ? Looked them up, and they
are interesting. And different in that the standard order is 1/4 pound vs
1/2 pound.....which could help in sampling growth of more varieties !

Yes, that's the farm I'm referring to. Sorry for the miscommunication, I was thinking about my trip to Oregon while posting.

They do pack their garlic very nicely. If I can figure out how to post pictures via my iPad, I'll post it.

Varieties are very interesting in my opinion.

[Ricky Shaw]

Sounds like good picking advice, I'm going to pick my garlic earlier next year and see if it keeps a little better.

I'd been instructed to bend the shafts over when half the leaves have browned, stop watering, pull in a week.

[svalli]

I am planning to go plant garlic tomorrow. It is a bit later than last year since after a crappy summer we had warmer than normal fall until this week, when got first frosts, which were actually really hard frosts.

I am going to plant mainly hardnecks now, since in our climate the softnecks do that partial bolting thing. I spent quite much money to get new hardneck varieties and elephant garlic. I did not find any elephant garlic vendors in Finland so, I ordered the seed cloves from The Garlic Farm, which is on the Isle of Wight in UK. I will also plant some of my own hardneck harvest and maybe one softneck which did not bolt so much. I may leave Spanish Morado, which is a hardneck, for spring planting, because it seemed to produce bigger and more even quality heads when planted during spring.

That stem bending thing before harvest is recommended for softneck garlic. Harnecks may be difficult to bend. I harvested my garlic when half of the leaves or about 5-6 of them are still green. Number of green leaves indicate number of intact bulb wrappers.

Usually only some of the wild garlic varieties produce viable true seed, so I wonder, if Charlie's garlic is a true garlic or are the seeds the bulbils, which grow in the flowering stalk?

Sari

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by svalli

That stem bending thing before harvest is recommended for softneck garlic. Harnecks may be difficult to bend. I harvested my garlic when half of the leaves or about 5-6 of them are still green. Number of green leaves indicate number of intact bulb wrappers.
Sari

This is exactly what I was told -- for hardnecks wait until only 5-6 green leaves remain then pull. I've only heard of the stem bending for onions, but then I've never grown softnecks.

As for Charlie's seeds, if he's growing hardnecks, I'm guessing they are bulbils. If they are, I believe they can be planted the first year and will produce a larger "round" which can be planted again the second year and it will separate into cloves. I've never tried this as I always harvest my scapes before they straighten out and actually bloom.

[Salsacharley]

I'm confused about the difference between garlic seeds vs bulbils. The flowers on my garlic are beautiful and put out hard black seeds inside little pod thingys. I have never seen a bulbil. I am deducing from this that I have softneck garlic.

I just now went out and dug up some plants. I was disappointed because they were clumped together in a big mess...about a dozen stems coming out of a six inch wide clump, and when I dug them up there was no garlic bulb on the bottom...only roots like you have at the bottom of garlic bulbs. One did have a tiny, tiny bulb. I do have a mild garlic odor coming from them. The stems and leaves are still totally green which I find strange for mid-October. The lows at my place have not gone below 50F yet. Perhaps that's why the plants are still all green. I guess I need to space them out and pay more attention to them.
As a side note, I did try to grow carrots and sugar beets in the same location three years ago and they were tiny, too. The soil must be too hard or something.

[Salsacharley]

I just read a garlic planting and growing guide and discovered I'm doing just about everything wrong. In my defense I have never really made a serious attempt to grow garlic, I just let it grow like a weed where I originally planted it. My location is partial shade and the soil is pretty compacted although I did amend it three years ago. I am also growing the garlic in the midst of chives and leeks,and it is in close clumps. The only thing I did right was not have gophers.
Here's what the growing guide says:

Garlic prefers a sandy and loamy soil, make sure your soil is loose
and not compacted. Garlic needs room to size up, make sure to
provide for it.
• Plow or till and amend the areas where you plan to plant the
garlic. It is recommended to do so at least one month prior to
planting.
• Garlic likes a slightly acidic soil pH range 6-7, test your soil and
amend accordingly.
• Garlic much prefers to be grown in full sun, partial shade is
somewhat marginal, full shade won’t work.
• Do not plant in areas where other allium crops (onions, garlic,
chives, scallions, shallots, and leeks) were planted in the last 3 years.
• Make sure the soil drains well or it will get saturated and the garlic
will likely rot.
• Make sure to protect the area from gophers (gopher wire or
baskets), they love garlic.

[KC.Sun]

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

I'm confused about the difference between garlic seeds vs bulbils. The flowers on my garlic are beautiful and put out hard black seeds inside little pod thingys. I have never seen a bulbil. I am deducing from this that I have softneck garlic.

I just now went out and dug up some plants. I was disappointed because they were clumped together in a big mess...about a dozen stems coming out of a six inch wide clump, and when I dug them up there was no garlic bulb on the bottom...only roots like you have at the bottom of garlic bulbs. One did have a tiny, tiny bulb. I do have a mild garlic odor coming from them. The stems and leaves are still totally green which I find strange for mid-October. The lows at my place have not gone below 50F yet. Perhaps that's why the plants are still all green. I guess I need to space them out and pay more attention to them.
As a side note, I did try to grow carrots and sugar beets in the same location three years ago and they were tiny, too. The soil must be too hard or something.

I think your bulbils (giant flower portion) if it did flower dropped seed that automatically sprouted. The seeds are supposed to take years before it can reach the stage of a garlic bulb that you see fully formed in the grocery store.

Many commonly plant the bulb portion of garlic so that they can harvest the next season, which is supposed to be in the spring to summer months if planted in fall. It's normally sold as garlic seed, but isn't really seed. It's just the bulb portion that will allow growers a quick harvest next season.

From the flower globe (bulbils) portion, you can save that portion to grow garlic next season. I've heard it can seed up to hundreds of bulbs. When this portion grows, it's supposed to take 3-4 years before it will reach the full garlic bulb size. It forms either roots or tiny cloves, which have to be planted again and again before it reaches grocery store size (maturity). I've heard seeds are grown over bulbs if one is looking to grow large quantities and have room for it. Growing from seed is supposed to prevent he transfer of soil borne diseases from supplier to grower.

[svalli]

If the seeds are black and hard, those are true seeds. Softneck garlic does not usually bolt at all, so those do not have flowering stems. Hardnecks have flower stems, which grow tiny bulbs called bulbils. Some varieties of hardnecks may also have tiny flowers between the bulbils, but the flowers do rarely produce true seed. Here are couple of good articles about the true seeds of garlic:
https://www.garlicfarm.ca/article-garlic-seeds.htm
http://garlicseed.blogspot.fi/p/grow...true-seed.html

If there is no bulbils and just black hard seeds, Charlie's plants could be some other allium. Ornamental allium bulbs have faint garlic odor.

I have been growing a plant called society garlic (Tulbaghia). It also smells like garlic and has pretty flowers. It grows in clumps like Charlie describes. It is hardy to zone 9, so I have it as potted plant, because it would not survive the winter here.

Sari

[KC.Sun]

Originally Posted by svalli

If the seeds are black and hard, those are true seeds. Softneck garlic does not usually bolt at all, so those do not have flowering stems. Hardnecks have flower stems, which grow tiny bulbs called bulbils. Some varieties of hardnecks may also have tiny flowers between the bulbils, but the flowers do rarely produce true seed. Here are couple of good articles about the true seeds of garlic:
https://www.garlicfarm.ca/article-garlic-seeds.htm
http://garlicseed.blogspot.fi/p/grow...true-seed.html

If there is no bulbils and just black hard seeds, Charlie's plants could be some other allium. Ornamental allium bulbs have faint garlic odor.

I have been growing a plant called society garlic (Tulbaghia). It also smells like garlic and has pretty flowers. It grows in clumps like Charlie describes. It is hardy to zone 9, so I have it as potted plant, because it would not survive the winter here.

Sari

Very interesting. I just learned something new.

Have you found a favorite garlic that you grew this year?