Here is a quick article on how to harvest garlic that was planted in the previous article. As previously stated, the growing season for garlic is from October to July. Obviously, you will be wanting to harvest garlic bulbs that as large as possible. In order for that to happen, there is an important step to get large bulbs at harvest time–picking the scapes
Garlic Scapes
What are scapes? They are the flowering head of the garlic plant. Around June, you will start to notice these starting to grow out of the centre of the plant. If allowed to grow to fruition, this flowering head would produce seed. However, this directs the energy of the plant away from growing the bulbs and would thus result in smaller bulbs. That is why it is important the pick the scape heads off. Pick the them after they have curled over like in the picture below.
Don’t throw those scape heads away! They can be used as you would cloves of garlic. Honestly, what to do with scapes is a vast subject in and of itself. But, but if you cut off the white tips, and you can use them fresh. Dice them up and throw them in to whatever you are cooking. Or most popularly, if you have lots, you can pickle them in apple cider vinegar.
Harvest Time
By mid-July, the tips of the leaves will be starting to wither and turn yellow. Now it is time to harvest the bulbs. The best tool for this job is a potato fork. All you want to is loosen the soil so that the bulbs pull easily out of the ground without breaking from their stem.
Now you can clean off the clods of dirt sticking to the bulbs. In order for these bulbs to keep long into the winter and next spring, their skins need to dry and firm up. Read the article on building a garlic-drying rack to find out how best to do this and that is about all you need to know on how to harvest garlic.–Nathanael
Leave a Reply