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When is the best time to harvest your garlic?
You planted your garlic last fall and now you have beautiful green tall leaves growing but how do you know when your garlic is ready to harvest?
Growing garlic and learning how to harvest garlic is not hard once you know what to do. The weather can impact your crop so knowing when to harvest your garlic is important.
I typically harvest my garlic near the end of July. Last summer I did harvest our garlic early, approximately the middle of July, because we had a ton of rain in Ontario last summer.
Can too much rain impact your garlic bulbs?
The answer is YES. Some years when a heavy amount of rain falls, the bulbs can begin to split open. The water and moisture can get into the bulb. This then causes damage to the garlic cloves and this will prevent your garlic from storing properly over the winter.
How can you tell if the garlic is ready to harvest?
The best way to judge if your garlic is ready to harvest is by looking at the bottom 3 leaves of your plant. Typically once these 3 leaves have dried out it is time to harvest the garlic bulbs. If you aren’t sure, harvest a few bulbs to assess. You want to look at the size of bulbs, check for water damage and see if any bulbs have begun to split. You can then make a decision if you should leave your bulbs for an additional week before harvesting your entire crop at that time.
How exactly do you harvest garlic?
The trick to harvesting garlic is to loosen all the soil around the base of the garlic plant first. Once the soil has been loosened, pull the stem straight up into the air. If you really have to tug on the stem, the soil is not loose enough yet. Redig around the base of the bulb and try again. You do not want to damage your garlic bulb.
I use a small shovel and dig around the garlic bulb. I am always careful to not get too close to the bulb itself. I find it easier to dig the entire row on one side and then move to the opposite side to dig the rest of the row. That way I can then pull all the garlic in the row as I go along. It is just easier when you have a larger patch of garlic.
Check out this video to see how I harvest our hardneck garlic. Sometimes visuals are very helpful!
What do you do with the garlic once you harvest it?
Once you harvest your garlic, you need to hang your garlic to dry. I place my garlic in bundles of approximately 5-6 garlic bulbs. I place the garlic at different levels prior to wrapping the bundles with twine. I wrap the top of the garlic with binder twine or string so I can hang the garlic to dry.
Once the garlic has been tied, it needs to be stored in a dry, cool place. The garlic must be kept out of direct sunlight. The garlic needs to dry for 2-3 weeks. You can hang your garlic in a garage, basement or barn.
We have a string (the same as a clothes line) that we hang our bundles of garlic on in our garage. The garlic needs to be in a well ventilated area. This is important to ensure the garlic gets adequate airflow.
Have you tried growing garlic before?
Once you grow your own garlic you will never want to buy garlic from the store again! The flavor and aroma of fresh garlic is unbelievable.
If you would like to learn how to grow your own garlic, make sure you check out this post that explains How To Plant Garlic For Beginners. You actually plant hardneck garlic in the Fall.
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