Types of Garlic

 Let the garlic scape continue to grow. It will straighten out over time and form a large purple flower (see image above), which will provide you with bulbils and tiny black seeds. You can harvest the bulbils and plant them just like you do an individual garlic clove. They are just really really really tiny garlic replicas and will take a few years to get the size of an actual full grown garlic.  

Once you have removed the bulbils out of the individual flower heads, the flower is now ready to produce the 2nd most amazing thing. Its tiny black seeds. When the flower starts to die back, you can cut it down and turn it upside down in a brown paper bag to finish drying out completely. Then you can harvest the tiny black seeds to grow brand new garlic. This process is much slower as it will take 3-4 years of replanting to yield an actual garlic bulb. The plus side to the seed process, is that the seeds now have the genetics from YOUR garden's structure (soil, nutrients, weather, etc.) in their tiny DNA. They will grow better in your environment, than store bought seeds, each year. The viability for the first year is 10-15%. Each year that you grow true seeds from this original seed will provide you with less bulbils and more seeds. Each year, you are making your garlic stronger for your growing condition and you will end up with 100% viable seeds in a few years. If you leave the scape on the plant, the energy that would have gone to the garlic bulb is now being transferred to the flower. You still can harvest your garlic after the flower has ran its course, but the cloves will not have grown to full potential size. 

**If you want know the process on how to harvest the bulbils or the seeds and plant them, send me a message using our Suggestion Form or the Contact Us Form.

Let the garlic scape grow until it curls around to make a loop. This is when you cut it or snap it off (by simply bending it to break it). This is the prime time to use it in various ways.  

1. Saute with other vegetables.
2. Make dehydrated minced garlic and store in an airtight spice shaker.
3. Squeeze the garlic juice from the stem and store in the fridge to use in your cooking, if you don't want to eat the stem.
4. Cut into small pieces and add to the individual ice tray sections. Add oil or water (your choice) and freeze.  Take one cube out when you want to cook with it. You can also take them all out of the ice tray and store in a freezer safe container and place back in the freezer for storage.

Once you have cut the garlic scape off the plant, the garlic bulb will continue its growing process.

So now your garlic has been growing since Fall and the leaves are thick and green, and the stalks are tall. You removed the garlic scapes and now have hopes for larger garlic. Well done!

Once your garlic has told you that it is nearing the end of its life (by producing the garlic scape), you can start the 3 week clock countdown to harvest. This is a very light-hearted timeline, but I have found it works just fine.

You should be in late June or early July by this time. Once your scapes are cut off the garlic stem, it will be about 3 weeks and your garlic leaves will begin to turn yellow at the tips and start to die off. When 3-4 leaves have died back completely, you can harvest your garlic. You may still have strong green leaves at the top, but if you wait until more than 1/3 of the leaves have died back, you take the chance of your garlic bulbs separating under the ground, providing the possibility of insect damage or bulb rot. It is good practice to pull one of the garlic bulbs up and check for the maturity level, damages, or any bulb splitting. If any of these are apparent, it is probably time to harvest the batch and take care of any problems occurring.

Review the images below for the next few steps.

Hang your garlic in a cool, dry, and shaded place with plenty of air flow for a day or so. You can use a fan in the garage if that works for you. Dry the dirt naturally and brush it off later. The image I show is the garlic hanging in the shade outside my greenhouse. It is a very windy spot and shaded most of the afternoon. At night, I will move it all into the greenhouse so that it does not soak in the overnight moisture in the air. Then I will put it back out the next day to continue drying in the wind. This is a daunting task with the large yield I have, but I am working with what I've got at the moment. Garage is taken by the cars!

After a day or so of drying, cut the leaves about 6-8 inches from the garlic bulb and trim the roots.

Make sure and check each garlic bulb for any damage or splitting of the bulbs. Peel off any leaves that have mildew spots on them. Peel back the first paper layer from the bulb so that you do not leave any damaged covering on the bulb. Aim for a clean bulb. (see the before/after photo below).

Scrub the dirt off with a soft brush of some kind. The stem is a great handle.  Brush as much dirt as you can from the bulb and from the remaining root area. You do not want to leave any debris if at all possible.

Lay your garlic on a drying rack for about 2-3 weeks. The garlic needs to be completely dry for storage. At the 2 week mark, cut the stem closer to the bulb and see if there is any moisture left. If there is, place the garlic back on the drying rack for another week. Check it each week. Larger hard neck garlic can take a little longer to dry.

Once there is no more moisture showing, store your garlic in a mesh bag where it will have plenty of air flow.

Something fun that I like to do before I bring all my garlic in for storage is to count how many cloves are in the bulb. You can see them from the outside.  Each bulge is a clove of garlic. Fun to find the ones that have over 9 cloves!