how to salvage garlic harvest

bower · August 12, 2016

I just pulled my main porcelain crop yesterday, finding about a third of them have major damage to the wrappers near the roots - the tulip bulb mite seems to be the culprit as I've been trying to clean up the bad ones I can see the buggers crawling around.

Sooo. I would like to eat as much of this garlic as I can salvage, but not sure what to do next. I want to take quick action to kill the mites.

Hot water would do it, but would the remaining garlic be still fit to eat?
Thought about using some alcohol to kill em. Again not sure how this would affect the undamaged cloves. Run to the store, buy wine, splash on garlic, drink the rest.... might work.
Or some kind of vodka-hot water dip, hoping to shorten the kill time?

Then again, maybe I should just strip all the wrappers off, consign THEM to boiling water for the kill, put all the stripped uncured garlic into the blender with some oil and use as is.
Going to be very garlicky around here for awhile, if this has to be quickly consumed.

Could I possibly remove the afflicted cloves and let the rest of it cure for a bit? Or too much risk that the mites will escape me, and even put my seed garlics at risk.

Also thinking of dusting all the selected seed garlic with DE.
I don't know how easily these mites spread themselves around or how they would travel inside the house here to ruin everything....

August 12, 2016	#1
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,793	how to salvage garlic harvest I just pulled my main porcelain crop yesterday, finding about a third of them have major damage to the wrappers near the roots - the tulip bulb mite seems to be the culprit as I've been trying to clean up the bad ones I can see the buggers crawling around. Sooo. I would like to eat as much of this garlic as I can salvage, but not sure what to do next. I want to take quick action to kill the mites. Hot water would do it, but would the remaining garlic be still fit to eat? Thought about using some alcohol to kill em. Again not sure how this would affect the undamaged cloves. Run to the store, buy wine, splash on garlic, drink the rest.... might work. Or some kind of vodka-hot water dip, hoping to shorten the kill time? Then again, maybe I should just strip all the wrappers off, consign THEM to boiling water for the kill, put all the stripped uncured garlic into the blender with some oil and use as is. Going to be very garlicky around here for awhile, if this has to be quickly consumed. Could I possibly remove the afflicted cloves and let the rest of it cure for a bit? Or too much risk that the mites will escape me, and even put my seed garlics at risk. Also thinking of dusting all the selected seed garlic with DE. I don't know how easily these mites spread themselves around or how they would travel inside the house here to ruin everything....