You can harvest your garlic when there is only about 5 or 6 green leaves left, and 3 or 4 leaves have turned brown. It sounds like your garlic has reached that point. If you wait too long, then the bulb may separate. Don’t pull on the leaves as you harvest—you want them intact. Hang bulbs in a dry, shaded, well-ventilated area; let them cure for about 4 to 6 weeks. Then store in a cool, dry location.
You can save the true seeds, but they may not produce plants that are like the parent; the cloves or bulbils are what will be true to type. Not all garlic produces seeds, and those that do produce flowers, may not produce viable seed. If your seed heads are developing, but not mature, then you’ll need to sacrifice harvesting the bulb to let the seed head mature for seeds (which are harvested around October or so), or you can sever the seed stalk (scape) at the base of the plant and place it in water in a sunny location in the hope that it may still mature. It’s best to remove the bulbils early on from the flower head to encourage better seed development. The harvested seeds need a cold treatment before they are sown; you can place them in the refrigerator for a month or so over winter. When you sow the seeds in spring, it is likely that the germination rate will be very low for that first generation; successive generations improve. Also, that first round tends to produce problem plants, such as weaker or misshapen, but there’s also the possibility of some with desirable characteristics that you can go on to save further seed or cloves. Garlic is fussy, and has evolved so that it reproduces by cloves or bulbils more often than by seed, so propagating it this way may be a challenge, but could also be a fun experiment! Good luck!
You can harvest your garlic when there is only about 5 or 6 green leaves left, and 3 or 4 leaves have turned brown. It sounds like your garlic has reached that point. If you wait too long, then the bulb may separate. Don’t pull on the leaves as you harvest—you want them intact. Hang bulbs in a dry, shaded, well-ventilated area; let them cure for about 4 to 6 weeks. Then store in a cool, dry location.
You can save the true seeds, but they may not produce plants that are like the parent; the cloves or bulbils are what will be true to type. Not all garlic produces seeds, and those that do produce flowers, may not produce viable seed. If your seed heads are developing, but not mature, then you’ll need to sacrifice harvesting the bulb to let the seed head mature for seeds (which are harvested around October or so), or you can sever the seed stalk (scape) at the base of the plant and place it in water in a sunny location in the hope that it may still mature. It’s best to remove the bulbils early on from the flower head to encourage better seed development. The harvested seeds need a cold treatment before they are sown; you can place them in the refrigerator for a month or so over winter. When you sow the seeds in spring, it is likely that the germination rate will be very low for that first generation; successive generations improve. Also, that first round tends to produce problem plants, such as weaker or misshapen, but there’s also the possibility of some with desirable characteristics that you can go on to save further seed or cloves. Garlic is fussy, and has evolved so that it reproduces by cloves or bulbils more often than by seed, so propagating it this way may be a challenge, but could also be a fun experiment! Good luck!