Carefully use a garden fork to lift the soil and pluck the bulbs. Cure them on a flat surface out of the sun. A screen or something that allows airflow like that would be best, but if all you have is a board or cardboard, use that and rotate the garlic every few days. At least for the first week or 2.

On a down side, some of the bulbs may be rotted, or may be beginning to rot, so your harvest will be hit and miss.

Good Luck!

As for saving this years bulbs and selecting cloves to plant in the fall for your next crop, you are right on the money. Use the biggest bulbs, and select the biggest cloves. Don't pop the cloves off until planting time in the fall though.

We are in the process of putting up a FAQ section so you can check that later to find out more about how to determine when to harvest. Or we can give you that info later in a thread, but I'm a bit pressed for time right now.

southshoregardener
Keep in mind any bulbs that you miss should overwinter and pop up as spring garlic next spring,some may even pop up this fall.You can in spring with these also just seperate the cloves and replant them(the larger cloves and eat the rest) at the proper distance apart and probably will get close to full size bulbs from them next July.
Bill

If you can replant the cloves of any bulbs you miss, why shouldn't I just replant the cloves I choose as I harvest them? My garden has great soil and excellent drainage, so nothing will sit in water.

Sharon - I don't replant right away since I need to dig in more compost, and I move the bed from one section of the garden to another each year. ( to avoid diseases and "rotate" the crops as general garden practice.
But if you try it, let us know how it works for you
Cheers
Maryanne in WMass

Sharon
Its not a good idea to replant to early before the ground freezes as the plants will grow stems and actually what you want in the fall and over winter is the root growth to continue way more than top growth.
Root growth may be minimal but it goes on almost all winter.Topgrowth in summer/early fall,winter will result in smaller bulbs due to them having to use energy from themselves to put out the leaf/shoot stuff and may even deplete the bulb so much that it does not have enough strength or food to restart in the spring as far as what I get out of the garlic growing posts and stuff.Now down south in the higher zones it may work differently.
Bill

>why shouldn't I just replant the cloves I choose as I harvest them? It might work. Garlic is, at base, a perennial. But I see two things that would concern me.

First, the tops might grow too fast, then die back in late fall/winter. That's a lot of energy gone, that might effect the overwintering roots. On the other hand, they just might go through a summer dormancy the way some onions do.

Second, it's likely to be hit or miss, with the replanted cloves rotting from summer rains. The fresh cloves are much more suseptible to this, as compared to cured ones, because the wrappers dissolve before roots can establish themselves.

Give it a try. But be sure and reserve some of your seed stock for fall planting, just in case.

Give it a try you say GardenLad.
Darn I think I'm going to give a few a try this weekend.
A few Elephant bulblets and a few hardneck varieties.
Think it will work better for softnecks here in z5???
Come to think of it-if whole bulbs that I miss will survive (seems they dont sprout after dying back in July)and those bulbing types of yours do well in your z6 overwinter its worth a shot.Maybe the Elephant bulblets will get large enough to clove next year.
Bill

>Think it will work better for softnecks here in z5??? I have no feel for it either way, Bill. If it works, shouldn't matter whether they're hardnecks or softnecks.

Come to think of it, after the wild garlic dies back it doesn't come up again in the summer. Sometimes we get fall growth---just as with domestic garlic. So it just may be that garlic goes through a hot-weather dormancy.

Keep track of what happens with your experiment and let us know.

>and those bulbing types of yours do well in your z6 overwinter its worth a shot.You've got me confused. All garlic forms bulbs. And all garlic overwinters anywhere it grows. So please clarify what you're saying here.

There may be another alternative to trying to dig your garlic this late in the year, and that is to leave them in the ground, they will come up later in the fall.
I harvested garlic this June from a row that I didnÂt get to dig last year. They came back last fall just as if I had planted them in September. There were 27 braids of 15 bulbs. Some of the bulbs were very large, much larger than usual.

Thanks for the responses. I dug up what I could find. They aren't as big as I was expecting so I'm a little disappointed (first time grower). I'll wait and see if anything comes up this fall. Maybe I'll let them go on and see what happens (like Hoptown).

You've got me confused. All garlic forms bulbs. And all garlic overwinters anywhere it grows. So please clarify what you're saying here.
********************************************
OOPs,sorry GardenLad
I was thinking on the line of the Rakkyo and other onions you had posted about a while ago.

Rakkyo is in the back of my mind as 1 to try next year but right now I'm just trying to keep some Catawissa going and build a small stock.I did lose my I'itois and I'm still undecided which to go with of the 2 the Rakkyo or I'itoi.Its hard when one has limited space.
Bill

The Rakkyo (A. chinense) is a different kettle of fish, Bill. I don't think we can extrapolate from it.

Rakkyo is a perennial, to begin with, that is planted in late summer. It starts growing almost immediately, then blooms in October; goes through a winter dormancy, then starts growing again in the spring. By July it is dying back, for a summer dormancy.

I do believe, however, that all bulbing types of alliums will winter over in the ground. At least in mild-winter areas they will. I usually plant my Potato Onions and other multipliers (including, btw, shallots) in the fall, same time as the garlic, and have never had any problems I'm aware of.

Question. I'm reading a lot about curing garlic. Can garlic be used right away or must it be cured for a few weeks first. I dug up a bulb last month(June) and it was strange to peel~so many layers~I was out of garlic and needed some for a recipe.