I don’t claim to be a professional, but I am a blue ribbon garlic grower, and I’m here to share my secrets for the best garlic harvest you’ve ever had! You cut your scapes, you fertilized right on time, you watered your garlic perfectly… now it’s time to reap the benefits of your garlic plot! Harvesting garlic may seem like a simple task, but there are a few important things to keep in mind when your garlic is ready. Knowing how to pick garlic correctly, whether you pull or dig, will secure your bounty and keep your hard work over the season from going to waste. Here are some tips to ensure that your garlic harvest will go off without a hitch!
How to Harvest Garlic Greens
Surprise! Your garlic harvest can actually start long before it’s time to pick your bulbs. Garlic greens, or spring garlic, are a great way to relish garlic flavor early in the year. They will probably be ready to enjoy around the time that you are eating spinach and asparagus in your neck of the woods.
Pull fresh garlic greens in the spring, when they appear similar in size to a scallion. Simply pull the garlic sprouts from the ground, rinse, and use as you would a green onion! The only drawback to eating green garlic is that you can’t enjoy the bulb later. However, you might try planting some extra dedicated to greens!
How to Harvest Garlic Scapes
If you are growing a hardneck garlic variety, your garlic will produce a scape, or flower stem. It is best to remove this appendage from your plants, because otherwise, the garlic plant will put its energy into flower production rather than bulb growth! It is best to harvest your garlic scapes as soon as the flower nodule is visible, but you can also wait until it grows a bit and starts to curl if you’d like to utilize the delicious scapes as well. A University of Maine study found that leaving the scapes on can reduce bulb size by up to 48%, so whether you eat them or not, cutting garlic scapes is key!
To remove scapes, simply cut them with scissors or a pair of pruners. You can also gently snap them by hand, like our founder April Zubko does. For a more in-depth look at harvesting garlic scapes, check out our article on the subject.
Scapes can last for up to three months in the fridge, but if you’re like me, this once-a-year treat won’t last that long. My favorite way to eat scapes is to use them in my pesto recipe in place of both the basil and garlic!
Let us know in the comments how you prefer to utilize your scapes.
How to Harvest Garlic Bulbs
Your garlic bulb harvesting timeline will vary depending on your location, weather, and chosen variety. We will talk more in depth about when to harvest garlic in the next part of the series, so stay tuned. But for a simple check, you can clear the soil around the base of one of your plants and assess bulb readiness that way.
Once you’ve determined that it’s time to harvest your bulbs, you can try one of two methods. The first is to use a garden fork or spade to loosen the soil under and around the bulbs — just be careful not to damage them in the process! You can then easily gather the entire plant to prepare it for curing (that’s coming up in our garlic series too!)
How do I harvest my garlic? I prefer the second option, which is simply to pull the plant from the ground, without using a fork or garden shovel. Grasp the stem around its base and pull gently in an upward motion. April, who gardens in 7A, has always pulled her garlic, too. ‘I’ve never run into issues with the pulling method, but I have raised beds and the soil is incredibly loose in there. I could totally see needing to fork it or shovel it out first if you were planting in the ground or if I had more compacted soil.”
If you decide to try the pull method and you feel any strong resistance or stem slippage, stop and try the fork/shovel method instead to prevent any damage.
If you’re already an established garlic guru, how do you harvest garlic bulbs? Let us know in the comments!
How to Clean Garlic From the Garden
It is important to clean your fresh garlic before setting it up to cure. Cleaning garlic will help reduce the risk for fungal and bacterial damage in storage. How do you clean garlic? Our friends at Keene Garlic have some handy tips. The Keene pros recommend pulling the lowest green leaf from the pulled plant within an hour of harvest time. This leaves your bulb free of dirt and ready to cure. I have also found that it is a good idea to shake or brush as much dirt as possible from the garlic roots as part of the cleaning process.
Garlic offers so many opportunities for delicious harvest! In your opinion, what’s the best stage to enjoy that incomparable garlic flavor? Let us know in the comments and keep an eye out for our next installment in the ReSprout garlic series!
Sources
- Bulletin #2063, Growing Garlic in Maine, University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
- Harvesting Garlic, Keene Garlic.
- Green Spring Garlic, Keene Garlic.
- How to Grow Garlic in Your Garden, Utah State University.
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