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jal_ut
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Re: When to harvest garlic

Plant garlic in the fall. By July you can begin to harvest. If you leave it in the ground too long the outer covering of the bulb tends to deteriorate then when you dig them you get a bunch of individual cloves. Have fun.

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jal_ut
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Sorry, since Photobucket dumped us on our heads, my pics don't show up anymore. Time to look for a new photo server?

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MariaDigsGardening
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A friend of mine who is really into garlic told me to harvest garlic when half of the leaves have turned brown. Harvest too early, and the plants might not be as big. But if you harvest too late, the bulbs can outgrow their papery coverings and that reduces your ability to store them.

It's garlic planting this time of year where I live. I wrote this post on 6 Steps to Growing Amazing Garlic recently and share it here in case it is helpful: https://lifeplusnature.com/2018/09/24/h ... ow-garlic/

Toxic1979
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First year trying to grow Garlic. Purchase garlic bulbs from Vesseys in Canada. For those interested, I live in Labrador City, NL, Canada.

Plant late September in 2017.

Winter is usually heavy frost, with massive amounts of snow. A typical Spring thaw starts in mid April and lasts until mid May.

Once the ground thawed in May, we started to see growth from the garlic. All 72 sprouted up within that week. We had a fairly late start to summer this year, and even had a few light snowfalls and frosts in June.

Started harvesting some garlic around August, just to see how it was doing. 3-4 bulbs. Roughly Medium sized.

Its October, and I just removed the remaining bulbs. No new bulbs, but their sizes did increase. Harvested the scapes back in early mid August.

Questions:

1. Can I leave the garlic in the ground, for another winter and expect to see it start growing again in the Spring of 2019?

2. Garlic was the only thing in my garden that absolutely no pest bothered... no insects, birds, slugs, ... nothing. Does it have any known pests? Can planting heavy amontnts of it around the garden deter other insects from bothering other vegetables?

3. I'm are pumped that we got 3-4 cloves on each garlic. Over the moon impressed. It was like Christmas in our garden when we started pulling them up... lol. Is there any way to ensure that next years crop produces even more bulbs per plant?

4. Is it true that you can acclimate your bulbs by re-planting them each year?

I'm trying 13 different varieties of garlic for next year. We have it all planted already. I'm basically taking some advice of members on this post, and trying to find out which ones do best in our area. Also trying a variety of suppliers.

Thanks in Advance.

Vanisle_BC
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Hey, Toxic; it's great that you had such success with your garlic - congratulations. It's the one thing I grow that's practically guaranteed. A word about terminology - 'bulb' usually means the whole underground cluster. The individual segments - the bits you cook with - are called cloves.
Toxic1979 wrote:
1. Can I leave the garlic in the ground, for another winter and expect to see it start growing again in the Spring of 2019?

2. Garlic was the only thing in my garden that absolutely no pest bothered... no insects, birds, slugs, ... nothing. Does it have any known pests? Can planting heavy amontnts of it around the garden deter other insects from bothering other vegetables?

3. I'm are pumped that we got 3-4 cloves on each garlic. Over the moon impressed. It was like Christmas in our garden when we started pulling them up... lol. Is there any way to ensure that next years crop produces even more bulbs per plant?

4. Is it true that you can acclimate your bulbs by re-planting them each year?
1. I'm trying this (leaving in the ground) for the first time, just as an experiment. I cut the scapes as usual, but didn't harvest the bulbs. When the leaves died down I cut the stalk (hardneck) down close to ground level. Green shoots are now showing around the stumps. In the past I've also planted whole 4-clove bulbs spaced about 6". It saves space because each clove becomes a bulb - you get more bulbs in about the same space; but as far as I recall they tended to be smaller. Maybe got more lb total per square foot though.

2. I believe garlic can be hit by a disease - a blight? - and like with potatoes it can't be grown again in that ground for a number of years. I haven't seen insects bother with it, but I've had the growing leaves chewed by - cats? It didn't set the plant back much.

3. My regular practice is to re-plant individual cloves about 5 inches apart in September-October. All things being equal (are they ever?) next summer they produce a crop just as good as the one they came from. I'm also starting to grow from 'bulbils' but that's a whole other topic. Bulbils are mini-cloves that form on top if the plant is allowed to flower.

4. It's often said that plants improve by adapting to local conditions if seed is saved and re-planted year after year. I've not observed this with garlic - or convincingly with anything else; but that's just me.

A last observation (after I cut my finger in the kitchen): If you want to do roast garlic in the oven - where you cut the tops off the cluster of cloves & drizzle with oil - hardneck garlic is downright dangerous. That neck is HARD. I may go back to planting some softneck for that reason.

Glad you're having fun there. Do you grow tomatoes? I saw a clip on TV about a chap in Newfoundland who'd just discovered he could grow the Latah variety there, having tried & failed with several other tomatoes. I grow that one here and it's usually the first to fruit.
Last edited by Vanisle_BC on Mon Oct 01, 2018 10:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

imafan26
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I checked my garlic bulbs in the refrigerator and I guess I got them too early. Most of them have already shriveled. I don't usually get a great harvest anyway unless I plant it in the herb garden where it is very low in nitrogen. It is too late to chill another batch.

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applestar
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You do always want to dig up, separate cloves, then replant them individually with 5-6 inches of spacing. Otherwise, the whole bulbs will sprout the cloves and they will try try to grow in competition. This also gives you the opportunity to select the biggest cloves from the bulb to re-plant.

There are some garlic pests in the north. Most notably slugs and onion flies. I have had young rabbits at least try the garlic shoots in spring while in “try everything once” phase.

13 different varieties! That should be fun, but take it from me — be sure to use a sturdy marker that will stand up to your winter and through the next growing season. It’s a good idea to also draw up a map of your planting, even if just as a reminder of which row is which.

Toxic1979
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So I'm growing mostly in raised beds. Were spacing 6 inch apart. I've placed the "cloves" (thanks for that) a little deeper to help with stand our heavy frosts. I also use the garden planner.org site to help me plan the garden and get a good overall visual of what I can grow. Great thing is I have 64 garlic cloves, of each type in 1 raised bed. Did this with 7 varieties at our local community garden. So each raised bed is a specific variety. I'll plant the other 6 varieties in my back yard raised beds, again in bunches of 64. If all grows well, I usually just donate a large portion it to our local community garden, for them to sell at the local farmers market (once a season... not what folks on here are used to). The money they raise helps pay for some of the maintenance costsat the community gardens, and the rest gets donated back to our community... usually to the local food bank, soI don't mind dumping off a plethora of veggies for them to sell.

I was really wondering about slugs... I was blown away that they did not touch my garlic. I was hoping it was their kryptonite... sigh.... lol.

So if left in the ground, without digging them up, the 4 cloves that may be in that bulb will all try to grow another bulb each?

Vanisie... The majority of the varieties that I'm trying this year are actually from BC. I ordered from Rasa Creek Farm. Service was fantastic. All the Bulbs were in good shape as well.

As for Tomatoes... I have grown them, with great success, in the greenhouse only. I tried outdoors, and had way more toms growing but they all stayed green. I also had to cover the raised beds every night around 10:00-11:00 pm when the sun went down, in order to keep some heat around them. If I had to grow them outside I would need much warmer evenings. I'm actually situated in Labrador, which quite a bit further north of the the island of Newfoundland. But still the same province. The island typically gets good summers, and much warmer weather, for longer periods.... and the final effects of all the hurricanes on the east sea board.

As well, the bulbils kind of interested me. I'm going to nail down the clove planting first though. I have to say, I had fun planting the garlic and harvesting it. SoFar, the best ones I grew last year were the Porcelain Music, and the Italian Hardneck, both from West Coast Seeds. As for the hardback... being hard.... found that out quick also. Hahaha... Had to use a serrated blade to make it a bit easier.

I'm a bit jealous of your summers out west... wish we could get that here!

Thanks again!

Vanisle_BC
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Toxic: I was chopping with a freshly sharpened cleaver (my favourite kitchen utensil) and it bounced off the stem onto my finger - an Ouch!! but that's not actually what I exclaimed.

I grew Music for the first time this year; very successful with good big bulbs. Susan Delafield, Fishlake and Red Russian all do well for me. Also one for which I've lost the 'provenance'. I just call it Redneck.

The Latah tomato is (?) parthenocarpic, meaning - I think - it will set fruit in cold weather and without having to be fertilized by insects, wind action etc. But it sounds as though your season may be too short/late/cool anyway.

Congratulations for persevering in such a challenging climate.

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jal_ut
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"13 different varieties!"

I was having trouble growing garlic, so I planted a few of every type I could get hands on. Of the lot one excelled, so I have been propagating that one since.

I second what applestar says. :)

Vanisle_BC
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Garlic I'm growing this year (all hardneck):
Susan Delafield
Fishlake 3
Red Russian
Redneck - my own name as I've forgotten the real one.
Music
- And a donated one with no name.
To date Delafield has been the most consistent producer. Recently introduced Music is also looking good.

garlic 2018 005.JPG
IMG_0008.JPG
Bulbils harvested this year are planted in wooden boxes and spaced 1.5 x 1.5". these will make 'year-1' rounds.
IMG_0009.JPG
'Year-2' rounds ready for re-planting. The ones in the picture were grown crowded & neglected in an outdoor container. Note some are already mini-bulbs with 4 cloves. Others of the same 1-year batch, planted in a good bed, made bulbs big enough to use in the kitchen. All were grown from last year's 'year-1' marble-size rounds.
IMG_0007.JPG
Setting out the main bed - cloves will be planted at 5 x 5" spacing to grow bulbs for the kitchen next year.
IMG_0010.JPG
This shows the max difference in size of cloves being planted. I'll grade the cloves from largest to smallest in each row, to check my previous conclusion that the size of clove planted has little influence on the size of bulb that grows. (Apologies for the over-contrasty photo.)

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MariaDigsGardening
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We've had good luck with Susan Delafield here in Upper Michigan as well.

Also, this year I was planting my garlic in a slightly-mounded bed. I have a broadfork that I have not used much and consider selling from time to time, but it seemed like the perfect tool to slightly loosen the soil in preparation for putting the garlic into the ground. An unexpected bonus was that the tines from the fork were the perfect size and depth for planting-- I just put the broad fork in every 6 inches or so to loosen the soil. Then I put a clove a garlic in the hole produced by every other tine to get a 6" x 6" spacing. SUPER EASY!

Toxic1979
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Harvesting a lot of my garlic varieties that I tried last year, real soon!

Will post results and pics soon!

Foodgardenguy
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We have been successfully growing garlic for years. We wait for the outside leaves to turn brown and fall over. The tips of the other leaves will also start to turn brown and yellow as well.

To test, we dig out a couple of sample garlic plants whose leaves are most brown. The bulb should clearly show divided cloves. If they are one whole bulb without the clear vertical or longitudinal indents in them, then they are not ready yet. You can wait another week to test again.

When you have dug up 10 plants in succession and they all show clearly divided cloves on them, then your whole bed is essentially ready. You might get a few though that are not ready, and they will usually have still the most green leaves on them.

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Dissily Mordentroge
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Some very useful information here but I can’t find anything about Russian garlic. I’ve found this can be harvested anywhere from half way to full maturity to the point when flower heads are fully formed. To my taste though it’s not a garlic to use raw in salads but is wonderful in slow cooked sauces and casseroles.

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!potatoes!
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I feel like that’s true of all garlic. the recommendations about harvest timing are about maximizing yield and storability, and from that viewpoint probably also true of russian.

violar
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I grow garlic every year.
The leaves will start to turn brown and it will look like the plant is dying. Wait until 3/4 of the leaves are brown before harvesting. You can also gently remove dirt from around the roots to see how big the head of garlic is. If you notice the head has split it is past time to harvest.
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