My Garlic is ready to harvest.

[Gary350]

I harvested a few garlic today. The rest will be ready to harvest soon. I had 51 heads of garlic last year. This crop looks better than last years crop. I planted my 2013 crop from grocery store garlic. The 2014 crop was planted from about 60 cloves from the 1st years crop. My Arizona garlic crop did many times better than my Tennessee garlic crops every did, I'm not sure why. Maybe is it the mild 70 degree winter temperatures or the sandy soil or the daily irrigation. I put 10 cloves of garlic in Mexican stew it was good. It is interesting how the garlic plants grow about 30" tall and look like Leeks then when the plants starts to turn brown and die they suddenly change from looking like a very large green onion to garlic heads. It takes about 6 weeks for the green to turn completely brown and look dead. I planted this crop in November, they were never given fertilizer and were all planted in a 26" diameter irrigation circle with automatic 2 quarts of water every day. I gave 1 garlic head to a friend.

[Lindsaylew82]

Nice! When did you out the cloves in the ground?

[VeggieGardenGal]

Good Lookin Garlic. Are you going to make a braid?

[6sparkpug6]

Nice! When did you out the cloves in the ground?

Gary350 said November


Do you know what specific type? Would you recommend growing grocery store garlic?

Yours look wonderful! I'm very jealous. I've been having issues...

So you wait until they have totally browned rather than only half the leaves?


Can't wait to hear more!

6sparkpug6

[RogueRose]

Wow! Looking good! You got some excellent cloves in there. I am eager to see what I got this year. I got some from SeedSavers. I always mean to plant some from my previous years' crop but I always want to eat it all!

[applestar]

I think it depends re: when to harvest.

If you wait until foliage is completely brown the bulb starts to open up and the cloves start to pull apart. If moisture gets in in this condition in damp not super draining soil (like Arizona sand, I'm guessing) the garlic won't store well and tend to mold and/or get mushy from inside out.

So most of the time, they say to harvest after bottom 1/3 to 2/3 of the leaves turn yellow.

Also, in my mucky soil (mostly due to abundance of earthworm activity, though clay subsoil adds to the moisture holding), if I wait too long, the stalk softens and rots so that if I try to pull, the garlic bulb will remain buried while I get a handful of foliage. Sometimes the stalk will have fallen over and accidentally moved aside while weeding, etc so that I LOSE the buried garlic.

Some of my garlic are starting to have yellow leaves. There is one that I definitely can harvest after the ground dries from the bit of rain we had. I just have to remember to do that before watering that bed.

I always dig a little away from the stalk with my garden fork to loosen the soil before attempting to pull due to aforementioned reasons.

[Gary350]

Arizona soil is dry as dust on the surface, about 3 to 4 inches deep and moist below that. My irrigation squirts water and makes a wet spot about 5" diameter. The surface soil is dry almost all the time but is moist several inches below the surface. When my garlic starts to turn yellow, then brown it still looks like a large LEEK with no garlic cloves. Even when the plant looks about 50% yellow and brown the plants still look like LEEKs. Sometime between this point and totally dry and dead they turn to garlic heads with cloves. I learned from experience not to harvest garlic until it is completely dried up and dead. Nothing grows here without water so I don't have to fight weeds. When I harvest my garlic it is very dry and the cloves are easy to pull apart. The stems can not be used to braid.

[SOB]

Great looking garlic!

The tips of my garlic leaves just started turning yellow so being curious I pulled one from the ground. I plant almost 300 heads so pulling one early wasn't that big of a deal. Well, little did I know that the head would be so huge! This is the 3rd year I've grown garlic and it keeps getting better each year. I really think selecting the biggest cloves from the previous year and planting those make a world of difference.

Once question - until now I had always dug them out of the ground. I was always afraid that pulling them would leave me with a stem and no garlic but pulling up this "test" head it turned out pretty good. Digging them out I was always left with a big ball of mud (mostly clay around here) stuck to the head but when I pulled this one it came out nice and clean.

How do you all typically do it...carefully pull them or dig? I saw a couple responses above that make it sound like some pull them. If so I think I might give it a try this year.

[rainbowgardener]

My heavy ground, pulling them tends to leave the bulb in the ground, so I dig.

[Lindsaylew82]

I've not grown garlic in the bed I have now, but I have grown onions and they have to be partially dug out. Otherwise, I'll get stem and no onion. I have to break the clay suction to get the onions out. This was BEFORE I change to raised rows, also. They have better drainage and may not hold as much suction. Idk. Garlic is definitely going in the ground come October. We'll see next year!

[Gary350]

When I plant my garlic I push the cloves into to the soil just deep enough that the top end of the clove is flush with the soil surface. I don't even cover them up with soil. I spray them with the water hose this washes the soil up against the cloves. Once the cloves take root the plants are permanently anchored in place. As the garlic grows larger they grow themselves out of the ground. When my garlic is finished about 1/2 of the garlic head is above the soil.

When I lived in TN my garlic was never larger than a ping pong ball. The soil was hard as cement when it was dry and I was planting the cloves too deep. I think a bag of child play sand mixed with 10% soil would be perfect for growing garlic and onions.

[rainbowgardener]

interesting ... I bury my cloves an inch or a little more deep. By the time of harvest, it seems like the bulb is considerably deeper than that, like somehow in growing it pulled/ pushed itself deeper.

[SOB]

That is interesting...Gary you almost grow your garlic like onions!

I plant mine a good 1.5-2". Probably too deep but the little tool I made for planting (makes 8 staggered holes at a time) puts them in that deep. Maybe I should shorten it up?

When I did pull the head out the other day I made extra sure to wiggle the stem back and forth a number of times to make sure I would get it as loose as possible. Just when I thought the stem might come of...POP...out came the garlic!

[RogueRose]

This is what mine is looking like now. I wish the stalks looked thicker...they definitely look like they're going to yield small cloves. I'm thinking of harvesting in about July 4th, which would be 20 days after scapes were cut

[RogueRose]

When I plant my garlic I push the cloves into to the soil just deep enough that the top end of the clove is flush with the soil surface. I don't even cover them up with soil. I spray them with the water hose this washes the soil up against the cloves. Once the cloves take root the plants are permanently anchored in place. As the garlic grows larger they grow themselves out of the ground. When my garlic is finished about 1/2 of the garlic head is above the soil.

When I lived in TN my garlic was never larger than a ping pong ball. The soil was hard as cement when it was dry and I was planting the cloves too deep. I think a bag of child play sand mixed with 10% soil would be perfect for growing garlic and onions.

Very interesting...I wonder if this can be done in colder climates where there's lots of freeze and snow? I usually plant my garlic in October/November and I would think that planting it like that would kill the clove before it has a chance to grow

[Gary350]

When I plant my garlic I push the cloves into to the soil just deep enough that the top end of the clove is flush with the soil surface. I don't even cover them up with soil. I spray them with the water hose this washes the soil up against the cloves. Once the cloves take root the plants are permanently anchored in place. As the garlic grows larger they grow themselves out of the ground. When my garlic is finished about 1/2 of the garlic head is above the soil.

When I lived in TN my garlic was never larger than a ping pong ball. The soil was hard as cement when it was dry and I was planting the cloves too deep. I think a bag of child play sand mixed with 10% soil would be perfect for growing garlic and onions.

Very interesting...I wonder if this can be done in colder climates where there's lots of freeze and snow? I usually plant my garlic in October/November and I would think that planting it like that would kill the clove before it has a chance to grow

I use to buy fish aquariums very cheap at yard sales. I use to plant all types of seeds under a fish aquarium then turn the fish aquarium upside down over the seeds. It was very strange to look out side in the middle of winter with 6" of snow on the ground and the fish aquariums were green with plants. Onions, garlic, beets, carrots, lettuce, herbs, Spanish, peas, turnip greens, etc. Even when the temperature got down to 15 degrees many of the plants were fine. During the day the aquariums were mini green houses. I use to lift one end of the aquarium, tip it back and harvest a few things for dinner. Then put the aquarium back down again. That was about 1980 when I was still young and had lots of energy.

[RogueRose]

I use to buy fish aquariums very cheap at yard sales. I use to plant all types of seeds under a fish aquarium then turn the fish aquarium upside down over the seeds. It was very strange to look out side in the middle of winter with 6" of snow on the ground and the fish aquariums were green with plants. Onions, garlic, beets, carrots, lettuce, herbs, Spanish, peas, turnip greens, etc. Even when the temperature got down to 15 degrees many of the plants were fine. During the day the aquariums were mini green houses. I use to lift one end of the aquarium, tip it back and harvest a few things for dinner. Then put the aquarium back down again. That was about 1980 when I was still young and had lots of energy.

Hey good idea! I used to keep snakes and lizards and I think I still have some large aquariums. I am going to have to check.

[rainbowgardener]

Be very careful, an unvented glass box like that can quickly fry your plants on a sunny day.

[Ohio Tiller]

Great looking garlic!

The tips of my garlic leaves just started turning yellow so being curious I pulled one from the ground. I plant almost 300 heads so pulling one early wasn't that big of a deal. Well, little did I know that the head would be so huge! This is the 3rd year I've grown garlic and it keeps getting better each year. I really think selecting the biggest cloves from the previous year and planting those make a world of difference.

Once question - until now I had always dug them out of the ground. I was always afraid that pulling them would leave me with a stem and no garlic but pulling up this "test" head it turned out pretty good. Digging them out I was always left with a big ball of mud (mostly clay around here) stuck to the head but when I pulled this one it came out nice and clean.

How do you all typically do it...carefully pull them or dig? I saw a couple responses above that make it sound like some pull them. If so I think I might give it a try this year.

I use a potato fork to just break up the soil around them and just left them out by the stem. Never had one break off yet.

[Ohio Tiller]

Mine turned out just about what it did last year some are a bit smaller I am blaming the very harsh winter and cold spring we had.