I planted garlic last fall and it's up! Does anyone know when it's ready to be harvested? My neighbor says to use it now while it's young and tender... like a green onion but I wanted cloves like you buy in the store. Any idea's?

Thanks, auntnene

I plant garlic too. It's great looking out the window and seeing something growing even though it's been too wet to plant anything yet this spring.

If you want to harvest them all at once, pull them when about 3/4 of the tops are brown. Or you pull them individually as they turn brown. Pulling them too early sacrifices size, but if your too late, the outer wrapper will be more likely to tear reducing keeping quality.

Hi Auntnene,
I grow a lot of Garlic.Love it.Don't forget to snip the seed pods(there the curly bit on the top of the stems)These can also be used for cooking/salads.If you leave them to go to seed the cloves will not be very big.
Pickled Garlic is EX Just put the whole Garlic don't peel it in malt vinegar for a couple of months and bingo its ready to eat.
Dave

Hi All!
I am new to this forum and live in Monmouth county New Jersey (on the Jersey shore). I love gardening, and if I had a choice would not be anywhere else. I just tried my hand at planting garlic this May, and I have what appears to look like the tops of scallions, how do I know when to dig up the bulb(s)?

Thanks!
Maryann

I'm too lazy to look it up but I think you'll want to let them grow another month or so and then bend the scrapes over. (I won't start garlic until the fall.)

Do what Obywan said. Harvest garlic when the bottom leaves have turned brown, but you still have 3-4 green leaves on top. Each leaf represents a wrapper around the bulb. Brown leaves have already begun decomposing. You can pick when all the leaves are green, but then you are sacrificing size. I pulled my garlic two weeks ago because our summer has been so hot and dry. I got some great garlic. I took pictures and I'll post them soon. There were a few plants that were definitely past time to dig up, and you can see what happens when you harvest too late. The garlic is still edible, but it will not store for very long. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to eat it now.

Oh, Thank you for your help! I'm new to growing garlic, just always grew scallions. I will look out for this and see what grows!

Thanks,
Maryann

Here are some picts of my garlic when I harvested a few weeks ago.


My modest garlic patch of ~50 bulbs.


The mini garlic cloves that appear on the top of scapes.

You can grow a full garlic bulb from these "seeds" but it will take two years to get multiple cloves.


All the leaves are brown on this garlic bulb.


Garlic that was dug up after all the leaves were all brown.

Same garlic as the previous picture. The outter wrappers are gone, but the individual cloves still have their wrappers. One of the smallest bulbs from the crop.


Some of thes bulbs were almost the size of a tennis ball.

ly!

I would like to grow garlic this fall does anyone have any bulbs to share with me?I will pay for the postage if someone does?Thank you Rita I forgot how deep do you plant them and when will I see any growth?Does it just stay in the ground all winter long?They grow garlic in the ground and some garlic on the tip of the stems?Is that right?

Ladystressout,

There was a posting under herbs that gave some general planting guidelines for Garlic. I believe it answers all of your questions.

Thread on growing Garlic

If you have a farmers market in your area, you can use those cloves to start growing garlic. The post has a few places where you can order from too.

I have to start all over again because it did not take the post? Gardening buddies I stil cannot find garlic bubls and I sure would love to start some this fall.I cannot get around town to easy and I hate to keep asking others to take me places if you know what I mean? I will pay for the postage if someone would share and send me some?Thank you Rita

Rita,

I'm about to break up my biggest bulbs to find the nicest cloves to plant for next year. I usually plant 40-50 cloves, and I know that I will have plenty of good cloves to share when I'm done.

I'll be more than happy to send you some. It's a hard neck variety that I picked up from the local farmer's market about 4 years ago. Ohio and Illinois have similar enough growing conditions that the garlic should do just fine in your garden.

How many cloves do you want? PM (Personal Message) me with your address, and I'll send them out some time in September, so you can plant them in October.