War and Peace for Garlicheads
Book One, Chapters 1 through 6

#1 Soil prep,planting and spacing
#2 When to plant
#3 What do I plant
#4 Winter protection/Mulching and weeding
#5 Feeding, what and when
#6 Differences between types- softneck ,hardneck and elephant
#7 Dealing with scapes (hardneck only)
#8 Bulbils, seed heads and flowers
#9 Drying down before harvest
#10 Harvesting, when and what to do
#11 Curing, braiding and storing
#12 Problems and diseases
#13 Links to good garlic sites


New items posted here. I will remove them after a while.
4/13, 2008 60/40 rule in Harvesting, by MHG
1/24/2008 great garlic i.d. site. Thank you Jeff for sharing this wealth of info!
http://sev.lternet.edu/%7Ejnekola/Heirloom/garlicA.htm
12/8/2007-Planting dates are very important. Update inside
11/21/2007-Garlic joke of the day! Also the only one I have at the moment. Wink
My lovely wife just handed me a "Close To Home" comic from the paper. It shows a man and a woman driving in his car and it says "Quickly realizing that her blind date was a dork, Amy began chewing on her emergency supply of garlic cloves" Cool Big Grin Eeker



Kudos to our garlic coach MHG for most of the information and inspiration to try this and of course to lisaann for starting these threads and jump starting everybody to grow garlic, some for the first time but most likely not the last.
This should get us started. I wrote these off the top of my head. Let me know what else I am forgetting.If you want, just give me the link or page # when you find one of the tips and I will copy it here. Or go ahead and put it in a post. It might help if we show where it came from so we can keep things in context and give credit where it is due.



10/23 It is time to plant your garlic if you want big bulbs next summer!!!



Chapter 1, Soil prep

oh2fly 7/4/2007 This is one of the most important steps to get right. Compacted, or clay soil is going to hurt your harvest, bulb size and health of the bulbs. The soil needs to be loose, have lots of compost, humus,and organic matter to feed the roots.It needs to drain well so as not to waterlog the roots.

MHG- Sure; basically large garlic requires a fall planting, loose soil


MHG-6/17,2007 Soil requirements -Full sun, Loose, nutrient rich, well draining but moisture retaining. That's optimum, actually garlic isn't a wimpy plant and will grow and produce to some extent just about anywhere under almost any conditions in almost any medium. It's just a matter of optimizing as many factors as you can have an impact on.

oh2fly-7/3/2007 This is what I was talking about re: a good root system. I believe it is critical to get BIG bulbs. Think about what garlic doesn't have going for it, and that is a large leaf system. They just have a dozen or so slender leaves. Even my big ones leaves weren't that impressive. My iris leaves are bigger. So, for them to go crazy, the energy has to come from down below. MHG, my secret manure is aged goat manure with stall shavings. I had a 2-3" layer on top of already good soil amended with shredded leaves, lots of coffee and compost. The red wigglers were active in the manure layer breaking it all down for the micro-herd to feed the roots.I stopped tilling this year, too. I had a mixed cover crop over it all winter that wasn't fun to get out with the garlic growing in it this spring, but couldn't have hurt any.The soil got molasses tea, compost tea or kelp watered in whenever the mood struck me or I remembered.

MHG-7/4/2007 Some thought's on the subject; Extremely deeply loosened and amended soil of the bed surely played a factor. The number of roots will corolate with the planted clove's basal plate size. And as long as the roots were finding the deeply amended nutrients, they were growing to it, as opposed to finding a hard-pan sub-soil level and stopping their lengthening downward. Dave was also very diligent with his watering; they had a, for-the-most-part, consistent watering in adequate amounts to facilitate deep moisture penetration, thus giving the roots a friendly environment to grow in. Now, that being said, he also didn't let his soil get/stay soggy either, which would have drown the roots, which also require oxygen/the ability to "breathe" ( one of the reasons that soil tillage DOES have a purpose in gardening ).

.....but possibly the biggest impact on the amount of root mass that Dave's garlic has to show for his labor of love could be the fact that he, with a steady, well aimed trowel/shovel, DUG his babies, thus bringing the root mass up with the garlic, as opposed to the more uncouth method of ripping it from the soil and leaving the anchored root mass behind.......
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planting/spacing
oh2fly 1/27,2008 I go for an inch of soil above the top of the clove.Some northern growers recommend 2-3" of soil above the clove to help against frost heaving the garlic up and out. If only planted an inch deep, then several inches of mulch is a good idea. I think 8" apart is a good spacing for a large bulbed variety. If you are short on room,plant them a little closer. Some use 5-6" spacing. A lot depends on whether you are using rows or blocks of garlic.If you have the room, don't crowd them. Bulb size will be better if they have enough space between each other.

MHG-7/2/2007 To get them up to any real size they need the room; #1- crowding restricts bulb swelling ( no place to go is no place to go ), and size is also restricted in such a scenario due to nutrient depletion within the root's feeding zone
4/1/2007 wasrabbity asked-Investigation of garlic beds and they look terrific. All green. Some are too close together. Should I thin them? If so, when, Now or when it is time to pick them?

MHG replied-Depends.... if it's eating stock, then thin, and anytime they get big enough for you to get a hold of... if it's volunteer seed, let it go, the bulbs ("rounds" actually) won't get big enough for crowding to bother it.

**A "round" is a garlic that hasn't got enough growing seasons under it's belt to have achieved sufficient size to divide into cloves. These are often considered a chef's delight in their larger stage as they are one big chunk of garlic.



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Chapter 2, When do I plant

Fall planting for bulbs the next summer
oh2fly 12/8/2007-I did find out that the timing of planting is critical for early growth. My early Oct. plantings are 6" to a foot tall. My late Oct. plantings where the soil temp dropped from 60 to 50 degrees are barely poking through the mulch,if showing at all . This is true for several beds and at least 8 varieties both hard and softneck. So, barring any nasty freezing weather some of mine will have an advantage over the rest of my crop, come spring. I am convinced this had a lot to do with last year's excellent root systems on my Rocambole variety and the subsequent large bulb size.This can't be done safely in areas that has the ground freeze hard in December and stay frozen until spring.Your leaves will suffer and you may even lose your crop to frost.This growing method is suggested for NW coastal climates.
MHG-10/3/2007-you want to start thinking about hard-freeze dates. That is what they need to be concerned with, as that is when the cloves will go dormant for the winter. They need to understand that they are planting in the fall to get the root growth established before the hard freeze so that as soon as the ground temps allow next spring, the garlic will already be established even though the weather and wet spring soil doesn't allow them to be out playing in the dirt. It's why fall planting promotes a larger harvested bulb. Garlic is primarily a cool-weather crop and doesn't mind the light over-night frosts that these folks are being concerned with. The ground temps are more important to consider at planting time . They are used to thinking about the killing frosts that end their general gardening year, which is of no real concern for their garlics.

oh2fy-7/4/2007- Here in zone 8 we put our cloves in the ground on Columbus Day, around Oct. 10th

MHG-3/25/2007-True, too much top growth can be a bad thing. Key here is that when we talk about planting garlic, we talk about Hard Freeze Date as opposed to First Frost Date. And this goes back to what I have said back a couple of posts about your cloves having approx. 30 days ( after green is seen ) of life support in them to get the plant started feeding on its own. The longer the clove has been in the ground the less cell structure integrity ( It gets soft )it has to fight the freezing and heaving of winter soil. And something most folks aren't factoring in yet is that with the current global weather patterns that we have at this point in time, El Nino and global warming, the dates need to be moved back a couple weeks. Search out a current up to date report on these dates for your area. They ain't what they used to be. ( that's a quote from my wife, but she was talking more about me than my garlic....hahaha !!! ) Tip for the day - mulch After your hard freeze. Winter mulching is about soil erosion and ground heaving as opposed to summer mulching which is about weed control and moisture retention.

Liz1 wrote 4/9/2007-Haven't seen hide nor hair of my garlic ... yet. However, just for the record, I went to a talk tonight by a woman who runs an herb farm a couple hours from here. She says put garlic out in mid-September around here. So I think I planted mine a wee bit too late. Will try again next fall. September, zone 3/4 N. Dakota

MHG replied 4/9/2007-Liz - as you're that much farther north than I am, mid-Sept. is a good target date, but try to keep an eye on the projected weather forecasts at that time. Perfect timing would be 3-4 weeks before your ground freezes hard.
And you might not be seeing your garlic yet simply because it's a late-emerging variety. All my varieties were planted one right after the other, basically over a two week period late last Oct., but they emerged at diff. times this spring, so you will see quite a variation in the amount of top-growth I have out there right now.

MHG-5/4/2007-Fall planting is best because of the time frame required to grow garlic up to it's full potential, Mother N. divides and plants in the fall, fall planting allows you to have garlic growing instead of waiting for your ground to be workable in the spring. Actually most things can be seeded in the late fall /early winter just before your ground freezes. It's just riskier when your stomach depends on it.

MHG-6/4/2007 Mornin' to our new Maple Leaf GarlicHeads !

I think what you are going to find is you'll have a late emergence. You've got a shorter season up north there, so a spring planted crop is just not gonna have the time to get up to it's full bulb-swelling potential, another reason to do fall planting.

MHG-6/20/2007 As we look forward to fall planting - did the area drain well, did we have it mulched heavy enough to let the cloves survive the freezing temp.s of winter, did we plant 5-7 weeks before the ground froze so that we had root growth started before the garlic started it's winter slumber but not much, if any, top growth, did we plant deep enough so that the cloves didn't heave up out of the ground during the freeze/thaw cycles, did we have any conflicts between companion plants ( watering issues at harvest time ), did we remember to mark/label the planting so that we know exactly where and what varieties we planted.....Smiler
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Spring/ summer planting for pest deterrents

MHG-3/23/2007-Here's a tip for ya.....if you are using your garlic as a bug deterrent ( altho I'm living proof that they like garlic as much as anything else does ) spread the seeds. Garlic seed takes four or more years to size up to a worthy cooking size so you will accomplish what you were after as a deterrent AND not waste garden space getting it up to food stock size. Just remember that seed takes a week or two longer and a lot more moisture to sprout than cloves do to root

MHG-5/4/2007-Basically, it comes down to human behavior and marketing.
Human behavior because by the time you've sweated and toiled in your dirt all summer, most people are tired of their garden ( present company excluded of course Wink ). Producing our own food is no longer a necessity in our lifetime like our forefathers, thus regulating it down to a "past-time" for many. The holidays start taking up our time. And money. It isn't until we've been cooped up all winter, starting to hunger for the taste of something fresh, that our thoughts turn to how much we enjoyed (insert selective memory here - hahaha !! ) all the hours we spent outside playing with green plants in the warm sun. Now comes in the marketing; You'll notice your catalogs start showing up about the same time, and since garlic can be spring planted to produce a viable bulb that is capable of replicating itself, it's treated as just another seed stock.

No, I'm not aware of any garlics that are "spring specific".

I'm not a big fan of "catalog" garlic. Too many are marketing "overseas" stock. And not all garlics are best suited for every area, so you're always better off to search out a regional source. Not to mention I'm a tad biased towards supporting a small farmer making a living growing and marketing a quality product.

pepperhead212 wrote 5/7/2007-There are some garlic varieties that don't need overwintering, and this is the way they grow them in areas with very long growing seasons. However, they are those softnecks, and I don't know about you, but I am a die hard hardneck grower, partly for the fact that I don't have to peel 20 or 30 tiny cloves from one head, but also that the only time I did try softnecks I lost some out there! It was a summer of bad weather for garlic, and the rain rotted the tops so fast I couldn't pull them, and couldn't even tell where many were. The hardnecks still had that stalk sticking up, so they were easy to find and pull, even if there was no green left on them.

As it turned out, the flavor of those softnecks didn't live up to the hype, either. The porcelains were still the most intense.

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Chapter 3, What do I plant

MHG-4/8/2007 German Extra Hardy, Porcelain hardneck, good choice for our zone, over-winters well, long roots to help prevent winter heaving, good storage keeper, large cloved bulbs. Farmer's Mkt. favorite.

MHG 4/10/2007-Another thing to maybe to be looking at is that if anyone lives in the northern zones, and you don't think your plants are standing up well under the stresses of this "late" cold snap, look for cold-hardy varieties to plant in the Rocambole or Continental families. Not all garlics perform well in every zone, if you can, look for your seed stock from a grower who lives in your zone AND region. When I started out, I sourced mine with a criteria of upper midwest, thus guaranteeing that I got varieties that were optimum for my area. A now defunct company by the name of Dakota Garlic was my best source at that time. Unfortunately a nasty soybean mold hit them hard two years ago and put them out of the garlic business. I guess what I'm saying in a nutshell is that store bought garlic isn't a guarantee that it's a garlic that likes your weather/soil climates and will perform well for you.

MHG-6/2/2007 *NOTE* - SAVE YOUR LARGEST BULBS FOR REPLANTING. The single most important factor regulating the size of your garlic is the size of the planted clove. Eat the little ones, plant the big ones.

MHG MHG-6/3/2007, please don't buy store garlic for your seed crop. You don't know what it is, where it was grown, how it was cured, does it really meet your standards for what you require as organic, and it will no doubt be bruised just by the very nature of how it's handled for resale, yada yada yada......now is the time to be talking to your LOCAL grower about getting some of his largest prime bulbs from this year's crop. He's gonna be holding back his best to replant, you want some of what he hoards.

MHG-6/17/2007 I gotta recommend it; if you saved any bulbils, sow a small bed this fall; you'll never look at full sized hardneck scapes for cooking the same way again. These little nymphs are gonna be the cat's meow for cooking with. The aroma of my hamburger sizzling on my grill with them diced into it is good enough to convert a vegetarian back to running with the pack..... Wink

MHG-6/19/2007 Diane- I know you're watchin', so I'll answer you here - yes, if you are going to place an order for this coming fall's planting, place your order as soon as you can. Whoever you order from will be filling your order in the sequence that they received it, those first to order receive the primest bulbs.
You'll likely receive your order well in advance of your ideal planting dates; just put it away in an appropriate cool/dry storage until you're ready to pop n' plant.....Do Not break up your bulbs until planting time as it promotes dehydration.

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Chapter 4, Winter protection/Mulching and weeding

MHG-3/28/2007-go ahead and spread your bone meal, and I think I'd wait on the mulch until I had a stronger top growth showing so that I didn't bury any so much that they couldn't push thru. Had you mulched earlier, they would have "spiked" thru the mulch before unfurling the first leaves. If you don't have too much area to keep on top of your weeds, and you can monitor your soil moisture close enough to not fear of letting it get too dry, you don't have to mulch. Just be sure to keep your dirt up around the necks so that the tops of the bulbs aren't cooking in the sun

oh2fly-5/11/2007-Hey, I have a real garlic question. Is there a consensus amongst the growers about how deep to plant the cloves? I know mine are a ways down after I get done piling on all the goodies for 6 months. They don't poke out of the soil like onions do, right? Mine never have. I am guessing mine are now 4" down to the top of the cloves, or so.

MHG-5/11/2007-You should shoot for a planting depth that gives you a minimum of 1 inch of soil covering the planted clove. Depth is mostly relative to your zone. For me, in my zone, with the freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw; I push them in knuckle deep, about 3-4 inches. Winter mulching is highly recommended.
But more importantly, you don't want the tops of your bulbs being exposed to the sun during your growing season. Dirt, compost, grass clippin's, I don't care what ya use.....just cover them up.


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Chapter 5, Feeding, what and when

MHG-3/24/2007-First, when feeding your garlic, high nitrogen feeding will give you robust looking garlic, but it usually won't store worth crap.
Keep your foliar feeding on the weak side, as it's a repeated process. I prefer the slower method of side dressing with compost. Bone meal is cheap and works well also. Don't forget that if you are feeding them, you have to make sure they are getting enough water also to wash it down with.
When - anytime after the first three to five inches of growth have emerged in the spring. Basically after about 30 days of top growth the plant has used up the planted clove and is looking for a new source of nutrients.
For How Long - If you aren't growing new leaves anymore, it's time to quit feeding. If you keep feeding them past this point, you actually decrease your finished bulb size.

MHG, same thread 3/24/2007-And my tip for tonite ( pun intended ) - Yellow leaf tips are very common and nothing to panic about......yellow spreading down the whole leaf on the other hand is always going to be your first indication that your garlic isn't feeling well and needs you to take a closer look at it.

MHG-4/4/2007-Just remember folks, you need to QUIT feeding your garlic when it isn't making more leaves. After that it's into the "bulb swelling" stage, and the application of nitrogen will push the garlic towards making more green growth as opposed to what you want, making bigger bulbs. If your not happy with the size and vigor of your garlics in the past, you might select next years planting location now and spend the summer building up the quality of the soil, in both tilth and nutrient value. A lot of the success in growing blue ribbon garlic is in the planning ahead.

MHG-4/9/2007-Yeehaw!!! Nite time temps back in the 30's, now we're talkin'.....think I'll do a light foliar feeding today just to give them a boost after weathering this last cold snap. I'll be using a composted manure tea at 1 qt. of tea per 2 gal. of water in a hand-held sprayer. As we have rain moving in again tomorrow, I should get a good leaching action of what is over-sprayed. I've never felt the need to do this in years past, but they are looking a little stressed (and I seem to have a couple more gray hairs over it also) and in need of a little pampering. The frost damage is already done, but this should help them rebound from it. And after the bug disaster of last year, I'm needing this year to be a good crop, if for no other reason than to restore my faith in myself.



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Chapter 6, Differences between types- softneck(sativum) ,hardneck (ophioscorodon) and elephant
MHG-6/6/2007 You are seeing why softnecks are preferred by folks that keep garlic in storage for a long period of time; all variables being equal, they store longer. Downside is that they usually are a smaller bulb, have smaller cloves ( but more per bulb ), they have more wrappers, and the wrappers are tighter ( the reasons behind longer storage life ), thus making them harder to peel.
Garlic growing fanatics will often grow both a soft and a hardneck, eating the hardnecks first while they are fresh, then using the softnecks while they are nurturing a new crop.
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Softnecks

MHG-3/23/2007-Softnecks compensate for the lack of bulbils with a greater number of cloves per bulb. They also will produce corms; you'll see these as "growths" or bumps on the stalk or under the sheaths around the bulb. Corms are seed also, but take a little more effort to use as such.

All of the above are reasons why softnecks were so much more prevalent over the hardnecks until more recently; they withstood the rigors and hardships of long distance immigrant/pioneer travel better than the hardnecks. Plus they withstand harsher growing conditions better. The downside, in retrospect, is that the hardnecks generally have a more robust garlic flavor. In the age of home remedy/herbal medicines, you would have found softnecks in the medicine man's tool kit.

MHG-6/16/2007 Chinese softnecks - hahaha !!! yeah, bet they were.....bought straight from Wal-Mart.....I'm sorry but if it's a softneck, unless very badly handled, is gonna store. Unless it is a Chinese import, in which case it was grown in a marginally reclaimed strip mine, was harvested early, soaked in growth inhibitors for shipping in a hot, damp shipping container across the ocean to the west coast, and tests 3 out of 5 times too contaminated with heavy metals to get into the market legally in this country.....
...sorry - I just hate that crap they pass off as garlic....like buying milk that is just starting to turn sour....
[color:BLACK]MHG-7/1/2007 softnecks are generally first to harvest. And harvest time varies year to year, weather conditions dictating

Hardnecks
oh2fly-Hardnecks are the ones that put up scapes. The cloves grow around a central stalk, which the softnecks do not have. That makes them easy to identify once the stalk has come up to produce the scape.

MHG 6/14/2007 bulbils are the seed heads at the top of the scape, and the beak is the green tip of the bulbil. Popping tops is when I cut the bulbil off so that it won't self-seed my field. I leave the scape to go thru the curl/uncurl so that the plant goes thru as much of a natural hardening off as possible, as it's relative to length of storage time.
You either keep the bulbil for the seed, or you throw it away. ( but never in the patch -)

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Elephant garlic-

MHG-4/1/2007-Elephant corms ( ....little side bulbs...) - soak them in water for 4-5 days, then plant them; you'll get a better sprout rate, they take a lot of moisture to soften the outer shell to "hatch". This is true with your garlic "seed" also. It's why you see seed "green" so much later than clove "green" .

MHG 6/8/2007 Keep in mind; Elephant has the shortest storage life of all garlics, use it while it's fresh for the best culinary results.
oh2fly-6/8/2007 Does elephant finish sooner or later than hardneck, assuming they are both planted at the same time?

MHG-6/8/2007 Dave - this year mine appears to be behind my hardnecks that were planted at the same time. Basically, the elephant is a hardneck anyway. Even though it's closer to a leek than a garlic DNA-wise.

MHG-6/16/2007 Elephants are notorious for having corms; secondary buds on the bulb. These are also seed, single seed encased in a very hard, nut-like shell with a sharp point at the top. They need to be soaked for several days before planting them.

War and Peace for Garlicheads
Book Two, Chapters 7 through 13


#1 Soil prep,planting and spacing
#2 When to plant
#3 What do I plant
#4 Winter protection/Mulching and weeding
#5 Feeding, what and when
#6 Differences between types- softneck ,hardneck and elephant
#7 Dealing with scapes (hardneck only)
#8 Bulbils, seed heads and flowers
#9 Drying down before harvest
#10 Harvesting, when and what to do
#11 Curing, braiding and storing
#12 Problems and diseases
#13 Links to good garlic sites




Chapter 7, Dealing with scapes (hardneck only)
MHG-4/1/2007/ Cutting scapes. There's a couple of lines of thought there.
Cut them after they coil, diverting growing energy back down to the bulbs, and you "may" see a 25% bulb size increase in some varieties... IF you've actually kept records of your harvested bulb sizes overall from previous years to factually compare to....
I personally don't do this unless I'm harvesting the scapes for someone who's looking to cook with them. I wait until they have straightened and the bulbils look ready to burst.
And here's why.
You have to remember that I grow for resale, which means I sell shelf life. Now although a larger bulb sells better, they won't store as well in relation to how much they dehydrate. ( ...and for those of you following along here thinking you're gonna sharp-shoot me; yes, some varieties inherently store longer than others, but this is a general overview....) By diverting the energy back to the bulb, the ratio of water to mass becomes a detriment for me as I like to brag my 12 month(+) shelf life to produce managers. That's also why when recommending a garlic purchase for a cook, I point towards the smaller, uglier, "tighter" bulbs.
By letting the plant go thru a longer "natural" life cycle, not only did the scape ''harden-off" (key word there), but the bulb does also. Instead of being in a growth spurt when the top growth is starting to think about dry-down, the bulb is thinking about being ready for a long winter's nap. It's a chemistry thing; please don't make me use big words I can't pronounce, let alone spell.
Now that is not to say that if you are using your garlic in the kitchen at a rate that you don't have any to throw away before you run out, then go for the big bulbs.

MHG-5/10/2007-Can ya eat them? - Yep. Let them get to full height and coiled. They are still supple at this point. Cut the coil off, trim off the seed/flower head. Use it like you would a winter onion or chives. Be aware that it can turn whatever your cooking it with green. Had a chef try boiling them in with his pasta, but he didn't care for the resulting color. They can also be froze, but will keep for quite some time in your crisper. Basic rule-of-thumb; they are usable up until the coils have straightened and the stalk has become stiff and woody.
MHG, same post-Cutting scapes - impact on garlic harvest.
Studies have shown that cutting scapes after they have fully emerged but before they have uncoiled can increase bulb/clove size. The same studies have shown that same garlic had a shorter shelf life. Your choice - cut, brag, get it used up before it dehydrates,... or leave them until they straighten and then clip the heads off so that it doesn't voluntarily re-seed your garden, giving you garlic that should store longer for you. Don't leave the cut coils/heads in your patch, they will/can still mature and sprout next season.
I let mine go full term, clipping the heads only just as they are opening to flower; mine need a longer shelf life for my retail markets. The basic "quality over quantity" theory. Anybody can grow big bulbs, but not everybody can go the distance. Where to cut - anywhere between where they emerge from the leaves up to the coil.


MHG-6/3/2007 *NOTE* - one thing I don't know if I mentioned; I pop my tops after the stalk has straightened but before the bulbil opens. This gives me the longest "natural" cycle without self-seeding my field. I also only remove JUST the bulbil, leaving the stalk to continue straighten itself, thus giving me another visual clue as to the maturity of the garlic. Bulbils harvested, even though not opened, still contain viable garlic seed. Beware where you dispose of them if you don't want garlic growing there next spring.
MHG-7/1/2007-cut the scapes off at the top leaf junction and eat them.....they will keep for a couple months in your fridge if you keep the tails in a glass or jar of water.
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Chapter 8, Bulbils, seed heads and flowers
bulbils

MHG-6/30/2007 Lisa - Looks like it's ready to come out of the ground, like Bean and Dave said. Those are bulbils (seed) forming on the stalks, generally in my experience brought on by heat or drought stress. Split them out after you have harvested and dry with the rest, then use as seed stock in the fall, or eat them like little garliky nuggets. Smiler
NOTE* - one thing I don't know if I mentioned; I pop my tops after the stalk has straightened but before the bulbil opens. This gives me the longest "natural" cycle without self-seeding my field. I also only remove JUST the bulbil, leaving the stalk to continue straighten itself, thus giving me another visual clue as to the maturity of the garlic. Bulbils harvested, even though not opened, still contain viable garlic seed. Beware where you dispose of them if you don't want garlic growing there next spring.
MHG-6//3/2007,As to harvest dates - keep in mind the late hard cold spell a lot of us suffered thru....it's gonna have an affect on your harvest dates in varying degrees this year depending on how hard you were hit. Exactly how it will have effected your final product as to storage and size, I can't really say. How hard I was hit and them having to suffer thru my wet spell has definitely shown me a reduction in the size and vigor of my field.

.....and remember, if you are saving to replant, the largest bulbs ARE NOT for eating.

MHG-6/16/2007 Blue - cut the seed heads (bulbils) off, set them out of the way to finish drying, treat like you would any other saved seed.
Come this fall when you get ready to sow them I suggest you soak them first like you would beet seed.
MHG-4/2/2007-And why not harvest your seed and pot it indoors thru the winter this year instead of just letting them fall? Gives you a nice fresh cut garlic chive for those holiday potato dishes.
MHG-4/1/2007-Elephant corms ( ....little side bulbs...) - soak them in water for 4-5 days, then plant them; you'll get a better sprout rate, they take a lot of moisture to soften the outer shell to "hatch". This is true with your garlic "seed" also. It's why you see seed "green" so much later than clove "green" .


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Chapter 9, Drying down before harvest

Drying down before harvest
oh2fly-6/6/2007 MHG, your last statement about pulling back the mulch....... I was just thinking I needed to do that because I saw the same outer skin missing on the one I just took a pic of. The bulb is fairly deep and the soil is wet, like last year's garlic.Remember that one?
MHG-6/6/2007 Dave - yep, pull it back ( after you reach the 25% dried/yellowed bottom leaves ). Your goal is to dry out the bulb area, but to have moisture at the lower root level. Think of it as "hardening off" the plant.
Liz1-6/17/2007 Garlic should also ideally be away from other plants you intend to water, right? So you can let it naturally dry out as it comes closer to harvesting time. (Nice trick some years, depending on where you are.
MHG-7/1/2007 Watering At The End.........Try to keep in mind that although we don't want to see a week of wet weather just before harvest; we do want to still keep the garlic alive. Moisture at/in the root zone up until the moment it is freed from the ground is a GOOD THING.
Wet/muddy up around the bulb and neck - BAD THING.


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Chapter 10, Harvesting
Posted by MHG, 6/2/2007
Garlic matures from the bottom of the plant upwards, the bottom leaves being the outer most wrappers. At prime harvest window, you often won't even be able to distinguish the individual cloves, they will become evident as the skins dry and shrink down tight around the bulb.

MHG-I am seeing stunted plants now with only a few weeks until my harvest time.
Now all that being said; you might have gotten dead or dying seed stock to start with also. The size and health of your planting stock is also very important. Garlic cloves feed off their stored nutrients for quite some time before relying on their root system. Seed stock that has started to or is already partially dehydrated before it goes in the ground has everything going against it, often to the point where sprouting is all the energy it has left with nothing left to feed itself until a root system can be established.


Ok, at Lisaann's request, let's talk harvest.
You've decided that it's time; your garlics are averaging the 60/40 ratio of green leaves to brown/yellow.
#1- we're gonna DIG it up, not pull it. Pulling strips off wrappers and can break necks within the bulb, both affecting storability. Not to mention that if you've passed the prime harvest window, you're likely to leave cloves behind in the ground to "mysteriously" sprout next spring.
#2- we've never gonna leave it sitting in raw sunlight for more than the time it takes to turn the shovel and brush the dirt off the bulb. Get it into your bucket/tote/whatever you're gonna use to transport it from your plot to where ever you're going to cure it.
#3- ( from here on I'll just talk about how I do it ) I'm gonna take it to my drying shed, trim off the leaves to the stalk, trim the roots back to about 1/2 inch, and bundle in a loose bunch of around 10 or 12, and hang it from the rafters.
#4- I'm gonna watch it dry, keeping a good airflow going around them to help them along. Basically that means I don't hang the bunches too close together and I leave the shed door open.
#5- After about 4 weeks ( depending on the weather/humidity ) I'll start taking the bundles down, grab my pruning shears and cut the stalks down to about 1" above the neck of the bulb, then take my toothbrush and gently brush the remaining dirt and maybe a loose wrapper or two off. Lifting off split wrappers with a toothbrush is a learned technique, you'll get the hang of it eventually. Key to all this is to LEAVE as many wrappers on the bulb as you can.
oh2fly-7/3/2007 It's exciting, isn't it liz? Do me a favor please, when you dig them up. If you run across any big ones, try to get as much of the roots as you can and compare the length and amount to that of the smaller ones planted nearby. I am pretty convinced that is why mine did so well. I made the root zone a happy place for the bulb and it responded by growing better. The rest of you that haven't dug them up yet, look at yours too when you do harvest. If the soil is loose, the roots should slide out with the garden fork's help. If they break off, maybe the soil has too much clay or is compacted. Remember, no yanking or pulling out! Use the fork. Saves the skins=keeps longer. MHG rule #6.

MHG-6/17/2007 First you gotta get away from "foliage spraying" in your gardens when we water. Keep the H2O down where it needs to be, root zone.
Now how about this for an option for those that use a "flood" method; Since we're talking about moisture migration as you wouldn't INTENTIONALLY soak your garlics at this time, try getting some of the plastic border/barrier edging commonly used to edge/define curvy flower beds around your house....? It's reusable from season to season. Sink it in your soil to separate your garlic's soil area from the rest, the lip exposed prevents run-off flooding, the section below ground stopping any wicking from the moisture amply applied to your 'maters.....
Basically the idea is to create a non-porous, removable, reusable barrier, anything that is will work.
muddyfeet-6/14/2007 That's 60% green to 40% yellow/brown in case you forgot like I just did and had to go back to page one to check.
oh2fly-6/14/2007 If the 60/40 math is too hard for you guys to think about, just count the brown leaves starting from the bottom. If you have 4 you are about there. Mine are averaging 11 leaves, so 4 to 5 is right there.Git your garden fork and your onion bag and go for it. The rest of us with green leaves have to wait.
MHG-6/16/2007 Blue - cut the seed heads (bulbils) off, set them out of the way to finish drying, treat like you would any other saved seed.
MHG-3/31/2008...Might be an opertune time to review the "Why" of the 60/40.

The leaves are the wrappers around your garlic's cloves. A brown leaf is a dead leaf. A dead leaf is a dead wrapper. A dead wrapper in the ground is a decaying wrapper. The number of wrappers retained at/after harvest is directly related to how fast your garlic will dehydrate in storage.

So, when your garlics are showing 40% of the lower/oldest, which are showing a majority ( but not totally ) of browning, you've entered ( in my opinion ) your prime harvest window. The bulb itself isn't going to get any bigger. Any time spent in the ground after that is just wrapper degradation.

As I grow my garlics for wholesale, shelf life/storage is kinda important to me.


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green garlic

MHG-6/16/2007 freshly harvested garlic is called "green" garlic. As opposed to having dried down and cured. They peel the wrappers down because freshly harvested garlic is less defined in showing off it's cloves. Making it visually appealing and easily recognizable by the customer who for the most part is used to seeing very clean and dried in the store.
No, it won't store, but that isn't their goal. They are marketing to people who are going to buy only a few bulbs and use them in a relatively short time. Garlic growers are savers, garlic buyers are eaters. And we all know who we are......lol

MHG-6/18/2007 oh, before I forget; Dave brought something to mind when he wondered if that garlic would be any good......sure, it just hasn't dried down, making it harder to work with, but it's as fresh a garlic as you can get to cook with. You don't have to wait to start enjoying the fruits of your labors. Drying and curing is more about storage longevity than taste.
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#5a- If it's a softneck, I won't trim back the leaves if I plan on braiding them. If it's a hardneck I plan on "bundling", I'll trim the leaves back, but leave the stalk long. When I get my pics up, you'll see what I mean.
#6- As I grow 8 varieties for wholesale, I dip the cleaned bulb's neck in food coloring to color code them.

*NOTE* - Over-manicuring your bulbs is the worst thing you can do as to affecting the longevity of it's storage for you. Leave the neck long, don't butch-cut the roots, and a little dirt is better than a dehydrated bulb.
MHG-6/2/2007,As to the value of your end product if you harvest early - mostly you're talking about a smaller bulb with more retained wrappers. Dig it, cure it, move it, start over at your new digs. Always better a little early than too late. Smiler

*NOTE* - SAVE YOUR LARGEST BULBS FOR REPLANTING . The single most important factor regulating the size of your garlic is the size of the planted clove. Eat the little ones, plant the big ones.
MHG-6/3/2007
drying environments. We want dry, airflow, and lack of direct sunlight. I've been known to lay a large harvest out on pallets in my tree line, run rope between the trees and drape tarps over the ropes to shade them. Not optimum, but a guy can only hang so much garlic in one day. Getting it out of the ground is primary #1, I worry about curing after that. As long as it's in the dirt, the more you run the risk of it over-maturing, thus leading to the loss of wrappers. Hanging the garlic is not mandatory, but does facilitate the airflow around them.
Everybody's harvest window is going to be a little diff. due to planting dates, variety, weather, etc., etc.....you'll just have to use the golden rule of 60/40. My stuff "typically" is ready around the end of June / first week of July.
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Post harvest, crop rotation

MHG-6/16/2007 Organic brings to mind a good point as we harvest and our gaze returns longingly to the bare spot we've created.....Alliums shouldn't follow alliums, especially if you had anything that died or was sickly this season in that spot. No onion/garlic crop rotations, please......Plant your peppers or tomatoes there instead - pick a new spot for those chest-puffing proud cloves you've saved....

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Chapter 11, Curing, braiding and storing

MHG-6/3/2007 Your storage is fine. Primary concern to keep in mind is; no direct sunlight, away from humidity like your kitchen sink or dish washer, and a breathable container. Important to remember also - if you prefer to store your garlic in your refrigerator, then that's where they MUST stay, you can't be bringing them out to use as a center piece to show off like your fine china at a dinner party. The change in humidity and temperature wakes it up from it's dormant slumber and it thinks it's spring and will start sprouting. I prefer an old mesh onion bag hanging in the pantry for my cooking garlic.

MHG-6/6/2007 The real "art" in garlic isn't in the growing of it. That's more in genetics and Mother N.'s hands than ours. But the curing is totally under our control.
Optimum - two to four weeks, good air flow, no direct sunlight, consistent temperatures ( a 10 -15 degree fluctuation between nite and day temp.s ), and low humidity.
And what good is optimum curing without optimum storage...good air flow, 65-75% humidity, below that and they dehydrate rapidly, above that will initiate root node swelling. Temp.s of 32-35* ( cold storage ), or 60-70* ( pantry temp.s ). Temp. zone to avoid is the 40-50* range as those are fall sprouting temp.s.
Braiding

Good braiding link here-
http://www.bloomingfieldsfarm.com/garbrdhow.html
Braiding -

MHG-6/15/2007 You wait till they are completely dry and then lay the stalks/leaves ( but not the bulb ) on a damp towel, lay another damp towel towel over the top, let them soak up a little moisture so they aren't so dry and brittle, then braid like you would your hair.

MHG-6/16/2007 Saving Planting Stock - Believe it or not, I handle planting stock more gently than food stocks. Don't be banging them around; a bruised or gouged clove is going to be very likely to give you a less than desirable plant, if it survives at all.
If your process for choosing planting stock is to save a big clove out of any given bulb as you use it in your kitchen; these cloves should be refrigerated to help minimize dehydration. NOTE** Any garlic refrigerated must STAY refrigerated until you are ready to plant it or eat it, as removing it will induce sprouting.

MHG-7/1/2007 Curing - basically it means the excess moisture in the stalk,leaves, and wrappers is eliminated over a period of time as opposed to drying which can be done in a relatively short period with supplemented heat. You are fully cured when the inner-most wrapper has dried.
Most garden garlic, unless left hanging without a final manicure, finishes it's cure after it's final manicure in your pantry. The core stem takes a few weeks.


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Chapter 12, Problems and diseases

Garlic Rust
farmboy wrote 7/9/2007- My garlic has a bad rust infection. Does anyone have any experience with this? the infection has reached the point that a few of the plants appear to be dead. Harvest time should be in a couple of weeks.

Should I pull everything now? Cut the foliage off and wait until normal harvest time? Will it affect the bulbs? Will it affect how they store? Can I plant the bulbs this fall or do I need to get new cloves to plant?

I have checked my books and online and not found any conclusive answers. Any help will be appreciated.

MHG replied 7/12/2007-Harvest it NOW. All harvest debris should be buried deeply AWAY from your gardening area. You're out of the allium growing business for at least 2 years. That's a wet weather problem; where are you located ? If you are in commercial garlic, onion, shallot, or leek production country, your local extension would probably like to know about it.

It can affect the shelf life of your harvest as your plants were stressed by it, if you're gonna save any of it for personal use, don't wait too long.

DO NOT share that garlic with anyone. Do not replant those bulbs. Do not wear the same footwear that you tread your garden with in anyone else's garden. Basically, you would be a walking "Typhoid Mary"...........

Good Luck.

oh2fly replied 7/12/2007-MHG,I was hoping you would spot this thread. I would like to use it in the tips.Too important to leave out, it appears. Does it have another name besides rust? farmboy I am sorry you got hit like this. You could help a lot of garlic and onion growers here if you could put up a couple pics. If you need help, let me know,and I will gladly post them here. MHG, I noticed you didn't mention burning the stuff. I assume the bad spores or whatever will spread in the smoke?

MHG replied 7/12/2007-That was my reasoning, yes...

here's a link with pics and info re: garlic rust
http://plant-disease.ippc.orst.edu/disease.cfm?RecordID=1328
The garlicheads are not promoting the use of any chemicals to control the rust. The first part of that webpage included info about the rust. That is why the link was used. We are after all, organic gardeners.
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MHG-3/23/2007-It might be time to start talking about the bugs and seasonal variables that can ruin your garlic crop, especially those farther south than I. After-the-fact is...well... hindsight. And this too I wish I didn't have a working knowledge of Frowner Loosing 2/3 of a primo crop last year to a certain species of little known centipede was a hard and expensive lesson to learn.
MHG same 3/23/2007 thread-Why do I keep hearing ya'll talk about your "store-bought" garlic ?? I understand it's cheap and readily available. But quality proven seed stock is also cheap and readily available, either thru a local grower, catalog sales, or over the Internet. So what gives.....?
Not to mention the nasty little viruses, like Yellow Dwarf, or a disease like White Rot or Pink Root, even Basal Rot, that you could be introducing to your growing environment, which is then gonna be waiting for you again next season.
Not to mention the fact that almost all "retail" garlic is grown outside the U.S. The domestic garlic industry in the U.S. took a major hit a few years back with the allowance of the Chinese imports to flood the market at pennies on the dollar, to the point that some of the major garlic processors had to stop growing their own or buying domestically as the imports are so much cheaper. WalMart is Chinese. It may even have the small print disclaimer ( if you buy the little boxed garlics ) printed on them saying "Packaged in U.S.A." ....Blah blah blah...there I go again on my soap box....

MHG-3/24/2007-garlic's failure could have been due to four things that come to mind first; #1 - too old and dehydrated to root. #2 - Grocery store imports are often heavily soaked in growth-retardant hormones just like potatoes. #3 - Your wet Feb - Mar. may have caused your cloves to freeze-kill or rot before it had established enough root growth to overcome it. Garlic thrives on "managed" cold by the very nature of it's ancestry, but "wet" is a foreign and deadly environment for it. I have gotten away from planting in raised furrows to cut manual labor invested in my field ( I'm a one-man operation using low-impact practices, i.e - no machinery for soil compaction reasons ) but I really sweat early spring when the snow melts and leaves standing water until the frost goes out also.#4 - It was cured improperly or poorly, thus killing it. Like in letting it "cook" in the sun at harvest.
I must strongly recommend ( if I may be so bold ) that you get the failures out of your garden soil most haste, and Do Not add them to your compost pile. To leave in or to compost only breeds the sort of troubles you definitely don't want to germinate.
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MHG-4/3/2007-Garden Symphylan, aka -Scutigerellaim Maclata, aka -Garden Centipede.
These little buggers can ruin your garlic crop. Last year the cosmic forces that be, provided them with the optimum conditions to teach me all about them in a most unfavorable way.
It was a perfect garlic growing season. Rain at all the right times, test pulls were showing some of

David, this thread is so precious for those of us who want to learn that I copied and pasted it to a WP Document and also bookmarked it. I might just print a hard copy, just so I don't lose it.

Let me be the first to say Thank You, Thank You!

Thanks Connie, but don't you or anybody else print it yet. It is a work in progress and may take me another 2 weeks to finish. Lots of good info here for sure. I have 3 more threads to harvest tips from. It may take a ream of paper to print it all. How about a CD with pics? Now we're talking!

Okay, I can see that you're refining it. That's a time consuming undertaking for you, so I'm still quite grateful. I have till around October/November to get prepared, so that gives me some time. What happened to me last year was that it got really rainy and muddy around that time and, to be honest, I didn't feel like sloshing around in the mud. (Lazy). Anyway, before I knew it the timeline for planting the garlic went by and I let the idea go.

Sure could use that rain right now.

This is quite a feat Oh2fly. I'm grateful for you endeavor. You are a great person.

That's real sweet of you rabbit to say that. It was more work than I thought but I got caught up in it and time flew by. I was soaking a row of baby maple trees and forgot when to switch the hose, ran outside and found I flooded one. Ooooooppps! My wife had the timer and was watering the front yard bushes.

Thanks David, for your work in compiling this thing! I have dug my garlic and am glad to know I did it correctly. Now at the drying stage.

.........impressive body of working knowledge......good job, Dave. Let me know when we need to start talking about royalty checks.....lmao

Why don't the 2 of you co-author an e-book?

Interesting idea liz, Then what about the guide here? No one would buy our book if you could read it here for free. Quick, print it out before I delete it and become a millionaire. I never heard of anybody named MHG

You got me thinking here. With the right pics and someone that knows what to do, hmmmm.... Let me chat privately with MHG and you never know. Could buy us corona now and then, right? At the very least, we will have even more crazy garlicheads around.

#13 Problems and diseases has a new post. Please check it out. Garlic rust is a bad thing!

What does garlic rust look like? I've never had any problems with garlic...

That is one of the reasons I thought I was tooling along so good organically. I have rarely experienced any diseases (actually I can't think of any). I have had very few insect problems.. except for Squash vine borers for the last 6-8years I thought my herbs were keeping things away. My biggest problem has been deer and dry conditions in a sandy loamy south facing yard.

I do have a swampy part of my yard... that's where I grow mints, and let cattails grow.

rabbit, look here
http://plant-disease.ippc.orst.edu/disease.cfm?RecordID=1328