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venusruiz

Is my Garlic ready yet? (pics)

venusruiz
11 years ago

Hi, please help me out, are they ready to be pulled? I cut the scapes like 10 days ago and as you can see in the pics the bottom leaf is dry out. They are German Porcelain (Northern White), ROCAMBO garlic.

Thanks so much,

Maria

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Comments (10)

  • Mark
    11 years ago

    No, they are not ready unless you like small garlic, but you're almost there. Wait till they are about half yellowed and don't give them any water till then. :)

  • jolj
    11 years ago

    madroneb, this is my first year.
    Why not water? I am in sandy soil & water my garlic twice a week.

  • emcd124
    11 years ago

    I've only grown garlic for two years now, but the advice I got when I first started was not to water garlic at all after May, and to think about harvesting it around Mid June, if it had half or more of the leaves brown and flopping over (looking almost dead!). And that has served me well. My understanding is that if you water garlic too much as it reaches maturity, you have a greater chance of rot or fungus that harms the bulb.

  • riverkeeper
    11 years ago

    When to harvest garlic varies greatly by climate, seasonal weather, soil moisture and garlic variety....probably more issues. There all kinds of differing web advice .... Some of it very very bad...I learned that the hard way more than once. General advice like.. Waiting till they fall over is marginally ok for artichokes but worthless if storage to 10 to 12 months is desired for the varieties capable of it.
    Growing and timing in Texas is far different than growing in the cool marine climate of Washington State. My advice is go to the pros... Fillaree Garlic farm's on line PDF catalogue has good info as does the site Gourmet Garlic in Texas. Even they can lead you a little astray .. Ex curing they say might only take a few weeks in their 100deg climate. In fact it can take 6-8 weeks in my climate and yours.
    The single best piece of advice is to buy Ted Meredith's book .... The Complete Book of Garlic .... Then STUDY it.
    My background.... I raise between 14 and 17 varieties each year from 8 of the 10 garlic families( no Creoles or Glazed purples). Two Turbans (Blossom and Chinese pink) will start the harvest next week which should end with Nootka Rose, a Silverskin, in August.... In a given year the harvest period can by as much as three maybe even four weeks. My friends and I eat my garlic 12 months a year.
    General but not universal suggestion for harvest (exclude turbans and Asiatics) since everyone wants it simple.... Harvest when about 4 leaves remain mostly green.....the others will be mostly yellow or brown.

  • sunnibel7 Md 7
    11 years ago

    I am no expert (6 years of growing garlic), but I have begun harvesting my garlic at only two leaves browned because something has caused major fungus problems with the garlic patch this year. I'm hoping that will leave enough layers of sheathes after I remove the most affected ones that I can get some storage time out of them. I pull back the soil and can feel that the bulbs are formed (when they are not it feels smooth and round like a really hard onion). I realize that there is often a fair amount of emphasis put on size, but mine are big enough :) I'm probably not too far away from you. There is a big window of time between the readiness of different varieties, some I actually pulled almost two weeks ago, some are just starting to show signs of bulb differentiation. So check them, see how they feel. Cheers!

  • venusruiz
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thank you everybody for your help. I dug around the stalk to check for bulb size and it was not much thicker than the stalk. I have stopped watering, but of course now we got all that rain yesterday. So I guess, I keep on waiting.

  • riverkeeper
    11 years ago

    Sunnibel..
    http://www.localdelicious.com/products/garlic-rust-fungus/
    shows a garlic rust fungus, cause and possible cures and adjustments ... Friend of mine in Seattle has this for the first time in 30 years of growing garlic. Agree with your size comments ... 3" bulbs take far longer to cure in my climate and are far more susceptible to storage molds as a result.. I target about 2 1/2 inch bulbs and still get big'uns which are used to plant or eaten earlier than the others.

    Venusruiz..
    You should contine to water until your bulbs form nicely. Then you can slowly reduce the amount of watering. You are guaranteed to get punybulbs if you quit watering before bulbs form. I used to live in Maryland and as I recall you actually may get enough rain to water the bulbs but you need to take care of business if not.
    most softnecksand hardnecks should be starting to form bulbs now in your area unless you live in Western MD. hang in there in any case because garlic will mature and form bulbs eventually.

  • riverkeeper
    11 years ago

    Venusruiz/Maria..
    MeBad. Read your first post again and noticed that you were growing a porcelain family garlic. In general they require a little more water than other families of garlic....they're bigger. They also send up a scape 3 weeks or so prior to harvest. After about a week, the scape should be cut off where it emerges from the stalk.....then you may begin to reduce water but err on the side too much rather than too little for Porcelains (I grow 4 varieties of it ..my fav to look at and they store well, German X Hardy and Romanian Red are chest high..4' ) You mentioned "Rocambole" (my fav to eat but only stores till Jan..Feb). this is another garlic family, a hardneck, sends up a scape too, so treat the same with a little less water.
    I have no scapes on my porcelain or rocambole yet ... 3 weeks maybe. Won't even check the bulbs until about two weeks after I cut the scapes but based on how the foliage is drying. The porcelain family garlic typically harvest a week or two after some other garlics.... When only about four mostly green leaves remain on the top.
    If you have under watered your garlic so far they will most likely end up being on the small side regardless what you do now.
    Be patient ... East to say, hard to do!

  • venusruiz
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks everyone, I have been watering and keeping them moist. I was going to stop watering based on the previous comments, when we had the big storm and had over 2" of water. So they did not dry out, and now, well I keep on watering as needed.

  • stevelau1911
    11 years ago

    One easy way to find out if they are ready is to dig a little into the soil to check to see if bulbs are formed.

    For most species, once they start yellowing the leaves, or falling over is usually a sign when the garlic is saying it is ready to be harvested.

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