‘Bogatyr’ is one of our favorite varieties of hardneck garlic. It produces large bulbs in any kind of weather.
What to Look for Before Harvesting Garlic
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Garlic is an unexpectedly easy crop to grow at home if you get the timing right. Let’s talk about when to harvest garlic—and what to look for before harvesting. Plus, I’ll show you how to cure your garlic for long-term storage.
To grow the best garlic bulbs, you want rain early in the season. Unfortunately, where I live, it has been hot and dry almost all summer. With garlic, as harvest time approaches, the need for moisture decreases. If the soil is too wet, the papery outer wrappers can become moldy and stained, and fungal diseases can attack the bulbs. Bulbs can split open and even rot. Growers who irrigate their fields stop watering 2 to 3 weeks before harvest, but there is no off switch for rain.
When to Harvest Garlic
If you ask ten garlic growers for advice on when the garlic should be harvested, you will probably get ten different answers. Through trial and error, this is what has worked for my partner, Tom, and me.
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- By the time 1/4 of the leaves have started to turn brown, the bulbs should have grown to a good size. Hardneck garlic—the kind we grow—should be ready to harvest when 40% of the leaves are brown and 60% are still green. Softnecks can stay in the ground longer but can start to be harvested while they still have 5 green leaves.
- We also employ the “garlic witch” method of leaving one or two scapes (flower stalks) of each variety on the plants as indicators. When they uncurl and stand up straight, the garlic is ready to harvest.
If the bulbs need extra drying, we lay them out on the wire benches in the greenhouse for a day or two to dry before bundling them. We only do this if it has been particularly rainy around harvest time. There is shade cloth on the greenhouse, so we aren’t concerned about the bulbs overheating or getting sunburnt.
How to Harvest Garlic
Harvest when the soil is dry. Do not yank out the plant by the leaves! The stem will break. The goal is to disturb the soil as little as possible. Some folks recommend using a shovel or fork to pull up the bulb. I just put my finger right down near the stem and just peel the soil back a little bit to reveal the garlic bulb. Scoop the soil away. Carefully get your hand or a couple of fingers around the bulb, and gently pull out the bulb.
You can always harvest one garlic bulb as a test and see if the crop is ready. If not, wait a week or longer and try again! Also, you can harvest the leaves during the season; garlic scapes are edible. They can be chopped up for salads or soups or even juiced for a nice garlic flavor in your juices. Just don’t harvest too many leaves before harvesting the bulbs—harvest a scape here and there.
Curing Garlic
Good air circulation is critical for proper curing. The bulbs also need protection from direct sun. We hang ours on our shady screened porch after they are bundled and labeled. We cherry-pick the best and biggest bulbs to replant and bundle the rest for sale. Any that don’t make the cut size-wise or quality-wise, we keep to eat.
We never wash the bulbs, and we don’t cut the tops or trim the roots until they have dried and cured for at least 2 weeks, 3 to 4 weeks is even better. Then we brush off the dried dirt, clip the roots, and trim the tops to pretty them up for sale. If we have lots of extra bundles left over, I just stuff them into paper bags, tops and all, and store them in an unused bedroom closet where it is cool, dry, and dark. Many varieties, but especially ‘Chesnock Red’, will keep until spring. Don’t store your garlic in the fridge or in a damp cellar; they need to cool and dry if they are going to last.
Garlic makes a great gift, and visitors are often sent home with a bundle or two. Another great idea is to make garlic powder to use all year long!
For more information about growing and harvesting garlic, see the Almanac’s Garlic Guide!
And enjoy my post on planting garlic in the fall.
Robin Sweetser
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Hi Robin Sweetser,
Thanks for the pearls of wisdom. I was intrigued by the 'ten different answers' and found rest of article interesting & informative too.
Something I do here to control the wetness that y'all might try.
Cover the bed area with plastic.
I use and reuse 6mil black plastic. I get about 10 years usage before the UV light and heat start to beat it into brittle pieces. I use it to warm soil in spring so my usage is pretty much all year, somewhere, or it would last much, much longer. ...a lifetime if not exposed to UV light like the vapor barrier in the attic( which is how I started using it, ;) ).
For only blocking rains once a year for harvest, 2 or 3mil translucent(they call it "clear" but it is not), would be lighter and better, and if rolled-up, carefully, and stored in a box it should last many, many years.
I am switching to the lighter(thinner) translucent this year. Rain here has just become WEIRD. It's a deluge for ~ a week, and then no rain for weeks. ... So need to have it over the bed during day and do not want to block the sunlight. The lighter is better for the wire I bought for hoops too b'cuz the wire is not very good at holding a lot of weight.
If y'all are part of the 'all plastic is evil' group, sorry for the noise. Just trying to be helpful.
Ric
I am in zone 7b. 5600’ elevation, yes snow in winter..much like Denver (am in Pine, AZ). Tried growing garlic twice and each time the bulbs are very small. Maybe planting in Oct is too soon? They produce much tall, green leaves before winter hits. Any recommendations?
I live in USDA Zone 7B too but elevation is under 400 feet. Don't worry too much about the ROT of planting cloves in October. For various reasons I have sown cloves as late as early December, e.g., this year was Dec 7. In the past there was no difference that I could see. The _major_ difference is the soil. It must be rich and loose enough so, at least, no shovel is mandatory to dig it for 6" depth, i.e, a trowel is all that is needed. Soil here is good but turns to clay and surface can become hard as a rock(like it is now due to no rain). The results in the slightly amended native soil has always been less(smaller and fewer survivors). Hence I grow garlic in 4'x8' x10" raised bed(s) with mostly(2/3) soil mix of compost(home made), perlite, vermiculite, coir and/or peat with about 1/3 of yard soil; total is ~ 6-8" deep. By amending with compost each year, the main bed has lasted > 10 years, which cut the initial cost a lot(sort of like solar panels do).
It's a guess of course with so little info' but try to sow deeper, mulch deeper and plant later than October. Perhaps try November _after_ the first hard freeze but before the first heavy snow.
It's late but hope you get this in time for 2023 planting and it helps.
Your goal is to grow roots but no shoots before winter.
In Ontario Canada I plant in early November.
I grew garlic for the first time this year. I planted it in a raised bed at the end of November (I am in New England, zone 6). Unfortunately we had a rather warm winter so the garlic started growing almost immediately. I never got any scapes (I planted hardneck). I just dug it up today as the leaves were brown and flopped over, and the heads are firm and perfect, but very small (1 inch diameter). They have already started to develop the papery skin, like they were beginning to cure in the ground. Other than the warm winter I am not sure if I did anything wrong (under water, over water, not enough mulch?).
