daysingarden
A garden diary
Garlic harvest wrap-up
Hardneck garlic (Allium sativum ssp. ophioscorodon).
Garlic harvest wrap-up.
In the post Garlic harvest, I wrote about digging the garlic and starting the drying process. It’s important to keep the drying garlic out of the sun. The leaves should dry back completely and the stalk become more brittle.
In the photo above, the drying process one week after harvest can be observed. The leaves are dry and falling off. The roots are drying up. As the outer tissues flake off, the heads become clean with a lovely purple and white sheen, as can be observed in the photo below, which was taken about 5 days later. Pretty.
The garlic harvest was completed on July 17.
The photo above of the garlic ready for storage was taken on July 29. The stalks have been cut short. The dried leaves and stalks have gone to the compost pile.
12 days of drying. Of course, the length of the drying time depends on the heat and humidity, but I’m thinking I waited a little too long. Next year, I should pay attention to the dryness of the garlic after perhaps 10 days. But garlic is pretty forgiving. A few bulbs have lost almost all of the covering tissue, and the bulbs are visible. This may be too dry. But it isn’t like they are ruined. I left those garlic heads out to be used first. The remainder of the garlic were divided into 2 bags. Those I thought should be used sooner, and those that looked most perfect and could be stored the longest time. Of course, the biggest and best 64 garlic cloves, approximately 8 heads of garlic, will be chosen in October to be planted for next year’s garlic crop.
Put the garlic into brown paper bags, label the bags, and store them away in the darkest, coolest corner of the basement. In all of the garlic posts thus far, have I ever mentioned how proud I am of my garlic.
