Growing great garlic involves a lot of different tricks and special techniques (see the book; Growing Great Garlic ), around this time of year there are a few things that you need to do to your garlic plants to get the most out of them.
First as you get closer to harvest time you should cut back on the water you give to your garlic. About two weeks prior to harvest you should stop watering altogether. This will promote nice dry skins and will prevent any mold from forming.
When to harvest is a much debated subject. Some say when the bottom leaves are partially brown, others say when the plant is 40% brown / 60% green. For me it’s more like once I see some browning happening on my garlic I put harvesting it on my garden “To Do” list. The reality is that the home gardener can’t always harvest at just the right time… a week on either side of perfect is not going to be very noticeable, so don’t sweat it.
The second thing you should be doing in the next month or so is cutting off your scapes. Scapes are the stalk and flower buds that form on garlic, these buds will eventually become “bulbils” which are a garlic flower (not a true flower). These flower stalks only appear on hardneck and elephant varieties. The scapes usually show up as a small bud with a short stalk, then, as they grow they will turn a few loops. After they make these loops it’s the perfect time to cut them off. As long as you do not plan to grow from bulbils (which can take upto 2 years) cutting off these scapes will focus all of the plants energy on the bulb production. (note: Elephant garlic will not turn loops, the scape can be cut when it is 8 - 10″ long.)
My garlic just put on scapes in the last week or so, they have not made any loops yet. Here is a photo:
I would recommend letting at least one of your garlic stocks go through its full natural cycle. It’s interesting to see how it all works and some varieties have beautiful flowers. Some Elephant garlic will put on a stalk that is near 6 feet tall and flower the size of a grapefruit.
As a great bonus the scapes are good eating! Stir fry, grill, sautéed, just about anything you’d do with garlic. You can expect a similar taste to garlic without the “hot” bite fresh garlic has. Combine scapes in a dish with squash flowers for a real pre-harvest treat! I like the two with a little goat cheese in an omelet …mmmm delicious!
Stay “In the loop” for more tips on garlic as the time comes.
