Garlic Harvest

[Durgan]

1 July 2012 Garlic Harvest 1 July 2012 Garlic Harvested.
Garlic was harvested today, about 140 plants were harvested. Sixteen of the largest were set aside for planting for the 2013 year. The soil was loosened with a fork then the plant pulled. Ten plants were slip knot tied into a bundle and hung to dry in full Sun. There were about ten rejects due to damage or malformed bulbs, and ten plants with small bulbs were set aside for immediate use.The harvest was almost identical to previous years. My garlic bulbs has six cloves of almost the same size.Ten plants with scapes still on were left to produce seed.Almost all the mulch applied in 2011 has disappeared.The soil was very dry.I pull my garlic when the lower leaves start to die off, within the first five days of July.

5 June 2012 Garlic Scapes Removed. 5 June 2012 Garlic Scapes Removed
The scapes were removed from the garlic plants. Twelve were not removed so bulbils (the garlic seeds) can be produced, and after three years with successive planting will produce normal size clone bulbs.

15 May 2012 Garlic Growth 15 May 2012 Garlic Growth
A new area is selected for garlic each year. This area tends to be rather wet but is well drained. The wetness was of some concern, but it now appears to be beneficial.The garlic plants this year are the most robust seen over the last five years, and there is two months before harvest about the 10 of July 2012.

22 March 2012 Garlic Thriving 22 March 2012 Garlic Thriving

24 Ocober 2011 Planting Hard Neck Garlic 24 Ocober 2011 Planting Hard Neck Garlic
About 100 cloves of hard neck garlic was planted in a 8 by 8 foot bed. Cloves were planted at six inch spacing with the base firmly pushed into the soil at a depth (base) of about two inches. The bulbs were saved from the 2011 crop, and were large, with from five to seven cloves in each bulb. The bed was mulched with wood chips to limit the effects of the normal winter thawing and freezing cycles, and to limit moisture loss due to evaporation. The vegetation has no difficulty pushing through the mulch in the Spring. The bed wont be touched until the scapes (seed pods) are removed, and then the harvest about the 10 of July 2012. A new bed area is selected each year, which is laced with compost and worked into the underlying soil.

[Contrary Housewife]

Yeah, I need to get mine out of the ground, too. They've pretty much died back already. Early this year, but so was the start of our season.