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Garlic growing as individual cloves?
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Posted by noamsmom Israel (My Page) on Tue, Apr 7, 09 at 8:00
| I just lifted some of my garlic crop yesterday - not sure of the exact species, but since it bolted I assume it's a hardneck variety. Most of the bulbs are large (larger than the original garlic cloves I got) and look beautiful, but a few look like they never developed the outer membrane that binds the garlic cloves together. The cloves are huge and juicy-looking, but rounder than usual and dirt has seeped into the cracks between the cloves.
What causes this, can I prevent it happening next year and are the garlic cloves growing this way OK to eat?
Thanks!
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Garlic growing as individual cloves?
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| If the outer wrapper is gone, the bulbs were likely harvested too late. Each green leaf on the garlic plant extends underground and is also a wrapper around the cloves. As the green leaves die off, so do the layers of wrapper. If you allow all of the green leaves to go brown your wrapper will be gone. Garlic should be dug when there are still 3-5 mostly green leaves. Your wrapperless bulbs are still good for eating, but will not store as long so you should use them first. TomNJ |
RE: Garlic growing as individual cloves?
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| And I thought I was harvesting too early! Most of the leaves are still green (I usually harvest when about 40% of the leaves are brown, and most aren't there yet). So I suppose I should just harvest the whole crop? What happens if you harvest too early? |
RE: Garlic growing as individual cloves?
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| If most of the leaves are still green, then there must be some other factor at play here - don't know what. There are no consequences in harvesting at this stage. TomNJ |
RE: Garlic growing as individual cloves?
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I have had garlic hanging in mesh bags in my garage for a
long time. They are starting to sprout. The outer wrapper
are real loose and the bulb feels dry. I would like to
plant them back out. Do I need to take the loose wrapper
off first?
Thanks |
RE: Garlic growing as individual cloves?
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| You need to separate the cloves and plant them individually. You do not need to remove clove skins, only the outermost wrappers that holds the cloves together, and then only enough to separate and remove the cloves. TomNJ |
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