Any ideas why some heads of garlic would be fairly bright green on the outside? They were hanging in the shade on my porch, can't remember if they were green when I harvested since I was sad about their small size due to drought.
Something I read suggested excess nitrogen, and I did spray them with fish emulsion in May. Could that combined with not enough water be the problem?
I have never had green garlic but I know we have alot of garlic growers on the site. I just thought I would answer your post to get it back on top and give all these great garlic people another chance to answer your question- come on guys- help.
When did you harvest it? Were the tops mostly brown? I've never had green garlic and I don't think fish emulsion would cause it. In fact, you are supposed to use fish emulsion early in the season. My guess is that you harvested too early. Or maybe it was lack of water. ?:|
I harvested the first week of July when the tops were about half brown. Harvest was about a week early, probably due to drought. Only some of the garlic has this problem, some varieties seemed more susceptible than others. I was kind of bummed out by the small size of the garlic when I was harvesting, so wasn't paying real close attention to color. The greening may have happened after I hung it to cure on the back porch, but it was under a roof about 10 feet back and only the early morning sun could get in and through a lattice at that.
Now that garlic is stored away in a very dark closet in the garage, I'll check it again and see if I see anymore green or if the dark has cured it.
Another odd think is that it looked like the sprouting process was already starting inside the cloves. Usually I don't start seeing the green middles until after the New Year at least.
Maybe that was cause by the drought, too.
I just finished planting this year's crop on October 27. The next week it snowed all week (hooray! in spite of a near car wreck). Maybe this will solve the problem.
