Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow?

Gina,

How was the steak? I think I'd like to try your marinade recipe.

Well GINA    HOW was the marinade?

Donna and GWN,

Marinade was very good!  1-1/4 pound steak in 4 Tblsp. melted unsalted butter, two crushed garlic cloves and ground pepper, touch of cayenne pepper.   Turn it over once or twice for a half hour.  Then broil.  The uncured garlic was milder than expected but the flavor still came through very nicely!

Gina,

Thanks for the recipe. Always a culinary tinkerer, I'll add some dry red wine to it the next time I have steak.

Oh for goodness sakes, Yes, I forgot I put that in too!

How can I tell if my scapes are ready to cut?  And, where exactly do I cut them?

I am so excited.  This is my first time planting garlic and I'm viewing the scapes as a good possibility that there will actually be garlic under the soil.  (Didn't have a lot of luck last year, which was my first.) Not all of my scapes are as tall or as thick as those posted.

The reading I have done says that you should cut the scapes when they start to curl. Many sources say that it improves the development of the garlic, cutting the scape off. I know that the point is controversial

just found the start of our scapes :drunken:

happy gardening
rose

Great news ROSE
one thing I found is that apparently they keep for 3 weeks refrigerated .... So I have a few bags of them in my crisper.
Just in case you cannot keep up with them

GWN wrote:The reading I have done says that you should cut the scapes when they start to curl. Many sources say that it improves the development of the garlic, cutting the scape off.  I know that the point is controversial

I guess it is time then as they have curled. Thanks. I thought they may have to be a certain height or thickness.

It makes sense that cutting scapes puts energy into bulb formation. But there is more confusion as one garlic farmer/book author (Engeland) said some farmers don't cut scapes at all and treat scape cutting as a non issue. He also mentioned if the scape is not cut close enough, 3/4 inch from the bottom, near the top leaf, that it can stimulate the plant to grow another scape. He also suggested the when and how of cutting scapes may be dependent on the variety that is grown. How's that for confusion. The easiest thing is to cut and wait then pull a few plants to see how they look.

I pulled some of mine based on size of bulbs, but I think I could've waited even longer for more defined looking cloves. I'm going to watch the rest closely and take notes to see what works well in my little garden.

I agree. For the new gardener just beginning to grow garlic, or anything else, my sense is to keep it simple. When the scapes start to curl, cut them off. Physiologically, the plant is hardwired to put more energy into survival, the bulb.
The more the novice gardener will read and learn from experience, the more that person may be willing to tinker with the plants. Until then, better safe than sorry.

Garlic, Shallots, Onions.

I read on this forum that I should plant my garlic in October.  I went to the local plant nursery and they said no, we plant them in the spring here in Georgia.  Well bnoles planted in the fall and he got a pretty good harvest so I don't think the plant nursery knew what they were talking about.

03/09/13 - planted garlic, elephant garlic, shallots, onions
06/14/13 - My Italian Purple Garlic tops died (about 90 days) and I harvested the bulbs.  They were only about 1/2 to 3/4 inch diameter.  Not so good.
06/22/13 - one of my elephant garlic tops died so I harvested that (90 days) .  The bulb was about 2" in diameter.  I have never grown this or seen it in the stores.  It is just one big garlic bulb with no cloves.  I planted 1 bulb and harvested 1 bulb.  Is that what is supposed to happen.
06/22/13 - on one group of shallots, the tops died back (90 days).  Except in the following picture the tops don't look to dead so maybe I harvested too early.  But after I pulled it there were only a few tiny roots.  I gave it a little tug and it came out of the ground easily.  It had sort of split (like the picture Camprn showed).  The shallots are tiny.  I guess I will save them and replant them this fall.  Do you also plant shallots in the fall.

My onion tops are still green so maybe they are getting big bulbs under there somewhere.  I still have a few more elephant garlic and shallots growing but the tops are starting to turn brown.  I also have 5 squares of California Softneck Garlic, and 3 squares of Unknown White Garlic from HD.  The tops are turning partially yellow so they will have to be harvested soon.

Here is a picture of my puny harvest.

I'm a newbie but I planted garlic cloves from my kitchen March 20. What do I know? I hope I get something this fall or whenever the stalks dry.

Are you sure the elephant garlic doesn't have cloves? After you dry it for a few days, maybe you can feel the cloves??

Plant and learn.

OH NO. I have found a few of my garlic have turned yellow and so have started to pull some of them (LIFT) and several of them are split like this, they are HUGE, but splitting, It has been VERY wet here lately, I am thinking perhaps I should be harvesting them all....THOUGHTS?

GWN wrote:OH NO. I have found a few of my garlic have turned yellow and so have started to pull some of them (LIFT) and several of them are split like this, they are HUGE, but splitting, It has been VERY wet here lately, I am thinking perhaps I should be harvesting them all....THOUGHTS?

We've had very, very wet weather here for over a week. I am afraid after reading your post.

The bottom leaves are not yellowed or dying yet so I don't think mine are ready. What do you experts think?

cpl I am not too far from you. I planted my garlic at Halloween and they are not ready yet. They are really liking the weather, all this rain is making them happy as they continue to grow. A few of the bottom leaves are getting yellowish, but I wont harvest until there are only 4 leaves of green at the top and the foliage is laying down.

Everywhere I read recommends harvesting when you still have 6-8 green leaves left on your garlic. These green leaves form the wrapping that protects the garlic during storage. If you wait for all the leaves to die back you’ll be basically killing off the protective covering of your garlic bulbs, making them more susceptible to pests and disease. However you don’t want to harvest too early because your garlic won’t be as strong or flavorful

This is one quote that I have found.
I have read a few things that have differed. My garlic looks great from the top only one set of yellow leaves on some, but I would say of the 70 or so that I have harvested about 10% are splitting, so they will not be able to be stored for very long.  I planted mine the middle of October.  
There has been much more rain than has ever been here though.
Here is a closer picture of the splitting, many of them are either split like this, or rotting on the outside.

camprn wrote:cpl I am not too far from you. I planted my garlic at Halloween and they are not ready yet. They are really liking the weather, all this rain is making them happy as they continue to grow. A few of the bottom leaves are getting yellowish, but I wont harvest until there are only 4 leaves of green at the top and the foliage is laying down.

You're not worried that they're splitting or rotting with all this rain. It is pouring here again today! We have had significant rain here every day for a week. And I thought this is supposed to the the dry time for garlic growing.

cpl100 wrote:

camprn wrote:cpl I am not too far from you. I planted my garlic at Halloween and they are not ready yet. They are really liking the weather, all this rain is making them happy as they continue to grow. A few of the bottom leaves are getting yellowish, but I wont harvest until there are only 4 leaves of green at the top and the foliage is laying down.

You're not worried that they're splitting or rotting with all this rain.  It is pouring here again today!  We have had significant rain here every day for a week.  And I thought this is supposed to the the dry time for garlic growing.

Even if they were splitting or rotting ( which I doubt is happening) there wouldn't be anything I could do about it, so I don't worry. It's unlikely the rain we are having is adversely affecting the garlic in the beds of Mel's mix as it drains readily. The purpose of the withholding water is to allow the roots to loosen to a degree. If it rains, there is nothing going to change that. In the end, the garlic isn't ready for harvest until the foliage has mostly gone dry and yellow and it is beginning to lay down. I think we have a few more weeks until harvest.

A few weeks before harvesting stop watering the garlic. Different growers have different rules of thumb regarding the best time to harvest. The dying back of the leaves is only an approximate indicator.

To determine whether the garlic is ready to harvest inspect a few bulbs in the ground by carefully scraping away the dirt. You can feel the bumps of the cloves through the wrappers of a mature bulb.

Lift the garlic from the ground when the bulb has reached a good size and before the wrappers begin to deteriorate or the bulbs begin to split open. If a bulb is not well-wrapped, and the skins on the cloves are not intact, the garlic will not keep well. Learning exactly when to stop watering and when to harvest is a matter of judgment that comes with experience.

We have a late spring and in our location in the mountains; we begin harvesting our earliest varieties in mid to late July. The main harvest continues into August, with the late varieties and spring planted beds being harvested in late August.

We use a flat, narrow-bladed shovel to loosen the ground beside the garlic - we pierce fewer bulbs with it than we did with a fork - and lift the plants by hand. Be careful as garlic bruises easily.

Garlic can get sunburned and some varieties of garlic change flavour when left in the sun and so we take each load of baskets of garlic into the curing barn as soon as it is harvested.

This is from a garlic producer in midway, which sits on the border between Canada and USA

CAMP   I would disagree with you. I would rather harvest a few early than lose the whole crop, and most of the places I have looked do NOT suggest to wait for the plant to lay down.  They suggest trying one. If the cloves have split, they they will not be storable.

True you cannot do anything about the rain, but you can at least try to save some of your crop.  From what I have read, the only problem with harvesting too soon is that you lose some of the growth, and even amongst professional garlic growers, they seem to balance the two.

I haven't been keeping up with this thread and I really have no idea what I'm doing but this is what I just posted in the NE thread so it's a double post which I know is a no-no  :

"I'm harvesting garlic almost every day.  Some are hung to dry and some get eaten.  The store bought kitchen ones that were planted all winter long to keep out critters this spring only grew to one big bulb each, no sections, but they are easy to peel & so delicious. The store bought that I planted last fall expecting to harvest are about the same as their parents w/ lots of cloves, but a bit stronger in flavor. I haven't harvested the elephant or the Bulgarian Purple yet, but soon."

That being said, I harvested some of the store bought winter planted because they fell over.   The rest I am harvesting when the bottom 3 leaves are dead.  None are split or rotted. It's working for me so I'll just keep doing it.

CC

GWN wrote:
CAMP   I would disagree with you. I would rather harvest a few early than lose the whole crop, and most of the places I have looked do NOT suggest to wait for the plant to lay down.  They suggest trying one. If the cloves have split, they they will not be storable.

OH! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that the whole crop needs to be laying down for the gardener to harvest. As with anything, especially in a small garden vs a large farm crop, harvesting individual plants when they look ready is a process over several days to sometimes a few weeks. If a plant looks done growing I harvest it. If the bulb is split I will use it rather quickly and not put it away for long storage.

CapeCoddess wrote:I haven't been keeping up with this thread and I really have no idea what I'm doing but this is what I just posted in the NE thread so it's a double post which I know is a no-no  :

"I'm harvesting garlic almost every day.  Some are hung to dry and some get eaten.  The store bought kitchen ones that were planted all winter long to keep out critters this spring only grew to one big bulb each, no sections, but they are easy to peel & so delicious. The store bought that I planted last fall expecting to harvest are about the same as their parents w/ lots of cloves, but a bit stronger in flavor. I haven't harvested the elephant or the Bulgarian Purple yet, but soon."

That being said, I harvested some of the store bought winter planted because they fell over.   The rest I am harvesting when the bottom 3 leaves are dead.  None are split or rotted. It's working for me so I'll just keep doing it.

CC

CC, I am surprised your plants are so much farther along than mine. Well, actually, I know your plants get more sun than mine (except in winter and early spring before tree leafing) so maybe it is not that surprising. Was at the Cape last weekend and the weather was lovely. Headed back tonight but I guess the weather is not going to be that lovely.....

I am growing softnecks and generally my calendar runs the same as Hood River.
http://www.hoodrivergarlic.com/garlic-calendar.htm#july