Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garlic grow?

plants will revert to hardenck, typically if the plant becomes stressed.

thanks camp
I had a few labled as Purple softneck that had hardnecks and I thought I had mislabled them
Here is a poor picture of my poor braiding, you can imagine how it works in my hair  

Curing Garlic:
 I read from a garlic farm site somewhere that it is ready for storage when you pinch a freshly cut stalk an inch or so above the bulb and it is dry, no oozing of juice.  Is this what everyone else does to determine readiness for storage????  Mine have been basement curing in their somewhat dirty wrappers with a fan for over a month ( I think) and things are still a little juicy, even though the stalks look crispy dry almost down to the bulb.  I'm confused and still have so much to learn 

One thing you can do, and this will be for next year, is when you harvest the garlic, take off the outermost layer of paper before curing. This will leave the bulbs nice and clean and white. I consider the garlic ready for braiding when nearly all the foliage had dried, but still pliable, not totally dry. I braid the bulbs together and hang for w few more weeks, then move them into the pantry.

Thanks a bunch Camp.  I was afraid to mess with the outer wrapper at harvest because it looked so delicate I was a scared newbie and afraid of bruising.  I'd like to clean them up today and get a couple layers off.    I also neglected to say these are hard necks I believe you don't braid those.  But what is stopping me is I still have that curing question from the last post...

very good question
I cleaned all of mine yesterday, but cut them at 4 inches (the Hardnecks that is... I braided the softnecks.)



as you can see a few of them were still green underneath
so will leave them to dry a bit longer

GWN,

What a spectacular garlic harvest! I thought mine had done pretty well, but yours are magnificent!

Yes, Beautiful garlic!

Those are pretty GWN!

GWN wrote:

plants will revert to hardenck, typically if the plant becomes stressed.

 thanks camp
I had a few labled as Purple softneck that had hardnecks and I thought I had mislabled them
Here is a poor picture of my poor braiding, you can imagine how it works in my hair    

GWN, beautiful garlic! congrats. My garlic braid turned out the same way. I read somewhere to tie the first three garlic/onions whatever you're braiding, together in a clump, then start braiding. I tried it and it worked really well, and I got a really pretty braid!!  Here's a pic of my onions done that way. Congrats again on a beautiful harvest!!

WOW!  I like that!

llama momma wrote:WOW!  I like that!

Thank you It's so cool. When we need onions, we just go out to the back patio and snip one off! We're over 1/2 way through them, these are the best onions I've ever grown and eaten! They're delicious. Definitely gonna grow them again  

Braiding garlic and onions!  I learn something everyday on this Forum.

GWN, Kudos on your garlic-raising expertise!  Beautiful harvest.  Plenty for roasting: crusty bread, roasted garlic spread on with a light drizzle of olive oil--wonderful side to winter's soups.  Enjoy.  Nonna

thank you all for your kind comments. Garlic raising seems to require patience... It is a 9 month crop   hmmmm.
Next year I hope not to be leaving at such I critical time.

Didn't know you could braid onions, will remember for next year.

Onions did really good this year but garlic did horrible. Usually it does really well I think I got them in to late.  I planted in several different boxes 2 -3 rows like I usually do.  They are small and few, I only got about a dozen this year.  So sad, I will have to actually buy garlic this year.  Hopefully next years crop does better.  Going to try something new, read that if you plant garlic & onions under your fruit tree it helps keep bugs away from your fruit and helps the fruit grow better.  I am hoping that is true since we have had a problem with our peaches two years in a row.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Braiding onions in a similar fashion to softneck garlic.



Another method of stringing onions begins at 9:15.



Clearly more fun with friends!

I guess I need to wear a blue dress and a white hat! lol. I wish they'd show the technique on the last video...looks cool!! ty for posting..

southern gardener wrote:I guess I need to wear a blue dress and a white hat!  lol. I wish they'd show the technique on the last video...looks cool!! ty for posting..

The onions the women of Onion Growers Society of Dornava are using some type of flat onion and using a regular braid, but but plait a few rows before adding another onion, which keeps them all in a single line.
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t16417-garlic-and-onions#173053

We pulled our garlic this weekend.  I fell off a hay truck and separated my collar so it was my son who did the actual labor.  A few had started to separate of the Purple Glazier I guess they are just a bit shorter season than the Purple Bavarian.  We had some in chili with new tomatoes tonight.

  BEAUTIFUL!  

Very Nice garlic harvest Turan!  And hope you feel better soon.

Excellent harvest Turan! I hope you enjoy them as much as I have mine.

I've finished  pulling all the garlic & laying it out to dry under the office veranda out of the rain and strong sunlight   as the recent spate of very  wet weather has caused them to mottle darkly on the stems as they turned yellow.

It was a little disappointing to find that not many had given the big bulbs like last year in fact quite a lot must have dried sufficiently before the rains came that they had started to separate into individual cloves especially the hard necks I'd taken the scapes from .

 I have just a few more than those numbers shown  in your picture Turan ,  Of the crop I  harvested beforeour holiday I managed to plait almost all of them, hard necks included .
 The hard neck stems had not got really hard before harvesting them .. these are reasonable sized bulbs as well I must have a plait of 20 inches long or so ( around two pounds of garlic ??? )

I have to laugh. My 6 garlic fit in in the palm of my hand! Took approximately 3 1/2 months from clove to lifting, March-July.

First year, first garlic. I will definitely try more garlic.

As others are experiencing, my garlic also is not as robust this year. Still, I set aside seed cloves and will certainly have enough for the pantry to get through at least March of next year. I plan on planting around 100 cloves of my standard white softneck and would like to try another variety as well.