lifting / pulling up your garlic ?

It's been a real long cold wet spring this year the start of summer was slow … at least three weeks behind the state of things in the beds over the last 10 years or more . 

This has left me a bit puzzled , for all of my garlic has taken on the red rust leaf disease & the leaves also started to turn yellow not like dried long grass but a light buttery yellow , which is  not a problem in itself as they bulbs will /should  still be OK to store . It's all Stiff Neck garlic including some Elephant garlic .

 I poked a finger down round a few  bulbs a week ago and found them quite small , seeing as the stems of the garlic are strong and now showing signs of new green growth I think that there may still be some growing days left for the garlic .

I normally don't harvest it till mid to late July , rather than set about pulling up the whole bed of it I'm thinking of letting it grow as it likes till 14 July onwards .

Any comments or thoughts folks ?

Hi Plantoid, Here in 6A, Ct. It is always the first week in July about three weeks after scapes. I grow German Porcelain, here we call them hard necks as opposed to the soft necks you can find at the supermarket. I grew soft necks one year and they did well but I have gotten use to the size of the cloves of the hard necks plus they are more garlicky. I have found you can almost set your watch by the garlic because planted in mid-October here they are always a day or two within the first week of July. When in doubt use a garden fork and pop one out and take a look at it. I never pull on garlic always lifted with a fork, stores better.

Thanks Dan , I only use Mel's mix for my 36 inch deep veg beds no mother earth whatsoever . I can push my hand down , straight fingered in a bed that's been undisturbed for a year to about three inches past the good luck rings on my wrist , so as a result I've always been pulling my alliums .(and all my long root crops  including 12 inch long carrots with ease ) 

I never gave it a thought about poor storage either as the last lot were almost 10 months old when the last one was eaten .

This year it might be different for I have twelve bulbs per square foot growing & I've given them two drizzle feeds of fish blood & bone as a top dressing the roots may be a lot more profuse .

 So far there hasn't been any scapes at all , but my red onions all took offence and I doubt there is one that didn't produce a flower  ( I pulled them all off as soon as they were discovered ).

It's the  same with my shallot onions but thankfully only one plant per cluster of baby onions produced flowers and size wise they have a long way to grow before they are a decent useable three inch long shallot

Well I bit the bullet and pulled all the garlic in the bed it was starting to lay over . 

 I was quite surprised ,  there were five per sq ft not 12 as I think I said earlier , most were a decent size . Now they are laid out of a 1/2" mesh chicken wire drying rack .,   I should have enough for a while .

Next year I'll do two beds and go for 60 of the giant elephant bulbs at harvest time .

I'm glad your garlic turned out to be okay.  I had to pull mine early this year because the bottom of the bed fell out.  I transplanted half but even those were under-sized.  I'm finding that many are turning soft so the good cloves will become garlic powder.

I was told that when the bottom 3-4 leaves die that’s when the bulb is ready...mid-July for me here.  I plant mine after Halloween.  I do 5/square, but have done 9/square with no deleterious effects....I also grow hardneck variety. Love the scapes!

The Garlic Farm here from whom I hope to get my garlic to plant this fall will open next weekend, so they will begin harvesting this week. The last couple of years got busy learning and my gardening suffered. I didn't plant any cloves for two years but this year I will fill my raised beds with garlic cloves and also show my daughter how to plant some at her house, she has developed an interest in gardening. I have missed the scapes and the strength of fresh garlic. I will have to plan what to follow the garlic with because I had a horrible experience trying bush beans, never again.