The other day when I was talking to my neighbor Bob Dane, he mentioned that he had harvested his garlic. “Oh, no, is it time?” I asked in a panic. Oh, yes. I had totally forgotten about the garlic and I did wait a little too long. The problem with waiting too long, and mid-July is a good time to check the plants, is that the garlic bulbs will break apart, and they will be no good for storing. You need to have that papery covering to hold the cloves together, dry and clean. A couple of my plants did break apart as I dug them up. I will use the this week.
One other mistake. I did not cut off quite all the scapes in the spring. If the scapes are not cut off the garlic bulbs will not be big and full. Having made these two mistakes my first try – my next harvest should be much better. Unless I think of another mistake to make.
I wish I had seen this video of Farmer Tracie from Yankee Magazine online a couple of weeks ago. The harvest could have been much better.
I giggled at the thought of you thinking of more mistakes to make. Soon you will have perfect garlic no doubt.
Lisa – I amaze myself at how many mistakes I think to make.
Pat, I have done the same thing two years in a row. It’s because I love seeing the curly scapes! I hate to cut them! My garlic gets big enough for me though, simply because now I have enough of them to last awhile. I think I’ll cut them next year though, just to see how big they might get. LOL.
Garlic failures, unite! 🙂
Kylee – I didn’t mean to leave any scapes, but I might have subconsciously left a few because they are so pretty.
The raccoons and skunks got to my garlic before I could this year. Maybe next year!