Northern Hemisphere Garlic Ranchers/2025 Crop

[greenthumbomaha]

I don't know what prompted me to check for scapes today, but I saw three starting just below first curl stage. The garlic is much taller than usual so I am wondering if I was off with the various fertilizers I used. I was also late in doing a good job of clearing away the heavy leaf mulch from the weed fabric, but it has been mostly off at least 6-8 weeks. I was going to do a final feed today before the showers moved in but decided to skip. Did I make the right call? I usually harvest early July. It has been a strange year, everything is ahead and growing wildly.

- Lisa

[TomNJ]

It's a bit late to be fertilizing garlic - I stop in mid April using slow release organic bloodmeal, but you can stop in early May if using inorganic fertilizer. I leave my grass clipping/chopped leaves mulch on throughout the growing season to retain water and suppress weeds, and my garlic bulbs are huge. I already picked my scapes, and expect to begin harvesting bulbs in mid/late June when five mostly green leaves remain. Here is a typical crop:

TS2_7164bs6.jpg

[bower]

@TomNJ I think I may have fertilized too late last year and got some large but split bulbs as a result. Or I may have watered too much as well.
Got a gadget ordered so I can monitor soil moisture and temperature this season, and try to understand the conditions better.

I'm leaving my mulch on this year too, although it is pretty scanty I also thought it might help to retain moisture.

Our garlic harvest is much later than yours, although it's been record early the past couple of warm summers. Record early would be the end of July though. Likewise I think svalli has a much later harvest window than you do.
So you are stopping fertilizing about two months before harvest time... this is really helpful to know!
I do have some blood meal so I think I'll try that this time around.

I've been wanting to give my garlic a hit of fertilizer but the weather's been so cold, I decided to wait. Getting into the normal temperatures after a last frost tonight, so this week will be my chance to give them a boost with some decent enough weather to enjoy it.

[GoDawgs]

We've been having some rain, some of it blowy. I got tired of fretting about covering and uncovering the garlic that's on screens under the pole shed.

25.05.23 Garlic starting to cure on screens.JPG

Sure didn't want to just leave the plastic over the bulbs and invite mold! On Monday I went ahead and got the roots trimmed, tops cut a bit, bulbs sorted according to size and bundled.

25.05.26 Garlic trimmed, bundled.JPG

Then I hung them from the trusses in the tool shed and set up an oscillating floor fan to run 24/7 on them. It's a big relief to know they're safely "in the barn"!

25.05.26 Garlic hanging in shed to cure.JPG

These are the biggest and best bulbs. They're Lorz Italian and have been marked as seed for replanting in October.

25.05.26 Lorz seed garlic, biggest of all.JPG

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

@GoDawgs; that there's some pretty gosh darn well-tended Garlic!

The Gotch

[GoDawgs]

Thanks, @Cornelius_Gotchberg ! I wasn't sure what they really looked like until they got cleaned up. I knew that there were a few biggies but thought the rest were smaller than I had hoped but most turned out OK. Still, I've never had more than a couple of rounds before. Do you replant yours with the next crop or just use them in the kitchen?

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

I always set aside the best bulbs for next year's crop.

Speaking of bulbs, yers look FAR TOO PURTY to have not been...um...gussied up.

Would it be fair to say that both @GoDawgs and The Gotch exist firmly outside the NO-RINSE Garlic Camp.

I always rinse mine off before beginning the drying/curing phase, with never any adverse affects; you's...others?

The Gotch

[CtGrower]

I do not rinse the heads before curing. I also leave all of the leaves and roots on during curing. I trim the roots and peel off the outer layer after curing. Not sure if it matters or not, but this has worked for me. I might try the old rinse method on a few this year to see how that compares.

I just looked at my garlic and the scapes have just started to come out! It won't be too long for pesto!!

[GoDawgs]

Speaking of bulbs, yers look FAR TOO PURTY to have not been...um...gussied up.
Would it be fair to say that both @GoDawgs and The Gotch exist firmly outside the NO-RINSE Garlic Camp.
I always rinse mine off before beginning the drying/curing phase, with never any adverse affects; you's...others?

The Gotch

Nope, no rinse. I peeled the first layer off. It was a tip I got a long time ago on Tomatoville from a guy who grew a lot of garlic. Can't remember his name but I think it started with an H and think he was from Delaware. He grew so much garlic that he made the decision to grow even more and sell it to wholesalers. He said he always grabs the bottom leaf and pulls it back right after the garlic has been pulled and that first layer is still pliable. All the soil comes off with it. He said that if he waits until the first layer is dried it's hell to get it off and a ton of time is lost cleaning the garlic for sale.

I will say that getting that first layer off can get fussy. It doesn't come off all in one swoop so I'd take the point of my pocket knife and carefully lift the remaining layer back up if it tore so I'd have enough to grab and pull off m ore of it.

I do not rinse the heads before curing. I also leave all of the leaves and roots on during curing. I trim the roots and peel off the outer layer after curing. Not sure if it matters or not, but this has worked for me. I might try the old rinse method on a few this year to see how that compares.

I usually leave the leaves and roots intact during the first week or two of curing on the screen and then trim back both before bundling and hanging. However with the recent rains I couldn't leave them outside and get rain blown on them so that expedited the move to hanging in the shed. The tops had to be cut so the bundles wouldn't be long and banging heads of anyone going into the shed for something.

In my file of copied articles are six or seven about growing garlic. Everybody has their own tweaks to the drying process. One said that roots can absorb moisture if they're curing outside and that it's no problem to cut them off right away. Some folks cut roots halfway through the process while others leave them on until the end. Whatever works!

Here's an interesting article written by Barbara Pleasant who has also written for Mother Earth.

https://www.growveg.com/guides/how-to-h ... re-garlic/

I like her description of what garlic foliage looks like when it's ready. She also cures hers by sitting the bulbs on a rack with the stem hanging through it. The Delaware guy did this too. Nice if you have a rack like that and/or the room for it, something I don't have.

[bower]

I also strip mine down to a clean wrapper on the day of harvest. Then hang them in bundles for about a week, until the tops yellow. Then I trim off the greens leaving about 4- 5 inches of stem, and the roots as well, and put them stem down in racks to cure for several weeks. I don't trim them any further for long term storage, just put them in a cardboard box.

I think rinsing can work well if you have a dry environment for curing. And some people trim immediately, if their environment is very moist. So I think different methods work best for specific situations. For my environment, I've never had a garlic that missed having the extra wrapper that was stripped off, they still store very well without a lot of extra wrappers.

Stripping right away while they are moist is way easier than waiting to clean off the dry wrapper, IMO, and the added benefit that you can see right away which bulbs are damaged in any way, and separate them from the others for earliest consumption.

[CtGrower]

@GoDawgs @bower I haven't had a big issue with stripping the outer layer after it cures, but can see that stripping it right away would allow better inspection of the bulb for damage. I will give this a try this year.

Thanks for the article!

[TomNJ]

So you are stopping fertilizing about two months before harvest time... this is really helpful to know!

Yes - bloodmeal provides a slow release of nitrogen over about a five week period, but if using a fast release inorganic nitrogen source I would fertilize later, perhaps stopping about six weeks before harvest starts. Also depends on how big a dose of nitrogen you feed. My last April feeding is at a rate of 75 lbs elemental N/acre, which translates to 0.70 lbs of bloodmeal per 50' row.

I also strip down the last green leaf at harvest, giving beautiful clean bulbs. This causes a nice purple streak coloration within days that then fades during curing. Since I harvest plant-at-a-time when they have five mostly green leaves, there are still plenty of wrapper layers left for storage. I trim leaves and roots after fully cured, usually six+ weeks on a covered porch.

[TomNJ]

Here's an interesting article written by Barbara Pleasant who has also written for Mother Earth.

Barbara Pleasant lives nearby and I know her well. I usually tour her garden every year with our Wild Gardener's Club. She is a wealth of knowledge!

Here is an article I wrote on growing garlic. I live in Virginia, latitude 37°, so things may be somewhat different for those living further south or north.

Growing Garlic.docx

[TomNJ]

We've been having some rain, some of it blowy. I got tired of fretting about covering and uncovering the garlic that's on screens under the pole shed.


25.05.23 Garlic starting to cure on screens.JPG

Nice crop!

[GoDawgs]

We've been having some rain, some of it blowy. I got tired of fretting about covering and uncovering the garlic that's on screens under the pole shed.


25.05.23 Garlic starting to cure on screens.JPG

Nice crop!

Thanks, Tom. And thank you for posting that great article. I've added it to my collection of gardening articles for future reference.

I really like Barbara's articles and have for years. She's usually right on the money about things.

[CtGrower]

Here is an article I wrote on growing garlic. I live in Virginia, latitude 37°, so things may be somewhat different for those living further south or north.


Growing Garlic.docx

Good article, thanks! I've saved it for future reference. I personally haven't fertilized my garlic, but will in the future using this reference.
I do chop up the garlic and freeze it if it starts to sprout in storage. This has worked well during the time I'm waiting for the next crop.

[Frosti]

My own crop of hardnecks is coming along nicely. I expect I'll be harvesting garlic scapes by the end of next week.

IMG_9220.jpeg

This year I'm also growing elephant garlic for the first time. The plants do look different from my hardnecks. The leaves are broader, a bit darker, and they took about 2 weeks longer to emerge from the mulch in spring. The stems are a bit thicker, but not to the extent I'd have expected given the eventual difference in yield per plant. Their height is also only marginally more than the height of my hardnecks.

IMG_9221.jpeg

Has anyone grown elephant garlic before and can give me some advice?

[GoDawgs]

Good article, thanks! I've saved it for future reference. I personally haven't fertilized my garlic, but will in the future using this reference.
I do chop up the garlic and freeze it if it starts to sprout in storage. This has worked well during the time I'm waiting for the next crop.

I'll have to remember about the chop and freeze thing! I slice some into thin chips, dehydrate them and keep in the freezer for whizzing up garlic powder when my jar runs out. Homemade is so much better than store bought! The only drawback is that I have to keep that jar of powder in the freezer since there's no additive in it to keep it from clumping. Oh well, it's still worth it.

This is the garlic slicer I bought online. It makes nice thin slices:

18.08.16 Zyliss garlic slicer.jpeg

Dehydrating the garlic:

18.08.16 Ginger and garlic.jpeg

[TomNJ]

I'll have to remember about the chop and freeze thing! I slice some into thin chips, dehydrate them and keep in the freezer for whizzing up garlic powder when my jar runs out. Homemade is so much better than store bought! The only drawback is that I have to keep that jar of powder in the freezer since there's no additive in it to keep it from clumping. Oh well, it's still worth it.

When making garlic powder you can also just chop the garlic in a food processor, then dehydrate, then grind in a spice (coffee) grinder and sift through a strainer. If you add a desiccant pack (those little packages found in medicine and vitamin bottles) to the jar the powder does not clump and can be stored at room temperature.

[greenthumbomaha]

Nerd question. Is there a particular reason to initially cure garlic in a warm shed before trimming and storing inside in a cool dry place, or is it a space issue? We use this method to cure sweet potatoes to let the sugar develop in a shed for two weeks before storing in the kitchen. What is curing mechanism does garlic through besides drying out? The color changes, so something is happening chemically.

Quick update, a lot of scapes have came out in this short time so I'll stop fertilizing and save some time and money. I usually pull garlic around July 4 thru the next week, but I sometimes think I could have waited a few more days. Soon this will be my earliest harvest I do one or two beds per day to carve the bulbs out of clay soil. I really enjoy the process but age is setting in.

My bulbs get placed in cardboard strawberry boxes from costco, and wwhen I have time I knock any loose soil off the bulbs and roots and let them sit for a few weeks on my growing shelf in the air conditioned dining room. I skip the step most people take of initially drying in a warm shed. Maybe I'll do half in a minimally air conditioned room with a fan to see if there is a difference unless someone tells me I missed the magic sauce all these years.