Harvesting Your Garlic - The Definitive Guide For Beginners

Despite growing just below the surface, these plants have been a long, long wait. Much longer than any other crop I grow. The journey started over 9 months ago when I planted the cloves in the fall, mulched the world above them, and then left them alone to do their thing for the better part of a year. The time to harvest my garlic is right now and I want to show you guys every step in the process. How we got to this point, what lets us know that the garlic is ready to harvest, the steps we took to maximize the bulb size, and of course how we dig them up and cure them for long term storage. Just as garlic takes a long time to grow, the variable window of harvest can be quite large and wide ranging. Not to mention, the harvest itself is below ground, albeit right near the surface, but still, not readily visible. But trust me, once you know what you're looking for, garlic is one of the easiest crops to harvest successfully. Alright, even though most of it's pretty straightforward, we got a lot to cover today. So, get comfy, grab a beverage or two, and let's harvest some garlic. Because I've covered all the ins and outs of growing your own backyard garlic in over a dozen different videos before, I'm not going to dive into many of those things today. If however you are a garlic beginner, do check out this all encompassing guide right here, it really can help and it covers the whole garlic growing process step by step. And if you're a garlic aficionado and you just can't get enough, I'll link every single garlic video that I've ever made down in the description. For the sake of completion however, let's go over all the steps of how we got our garlic to this point in a super fast, hyper-focused recap. New garlic bulbs are grown from the individual cloves of an already harvested head. In the early fall, just before the first frost, the cloves are planted at a depth relative to your climate, spaced about 4 inches apart, and then mulched heavily. The process goes quite quickly and hundreds of cloves can be planted in less than an hour. Depending on your weather, in general, and in that year, your garlic may or may not sprout before true winter hits. It usually doesn't matter either way, the real action is happening below the surface. After the long month of winter has passed, spring brings on lush growth in a major way, and your garlic is off to the races and pretty much foolproof at this point. So after enjoying the first few weeks of spring, the onus of garlic maintenance shifts to us, the grower, as the once dormant crop has come to life, looking to fulfill its potential. And it's these tasks of maintenance that'll govern not only the success of your garlic crop, but also the size of the harvest. From the time your garlic really explodes with growth in the spring, all the way up until harvesting, which is where we're at right now, there's four things that you can do as a grower to max out the bounty. When we first set out to plant garlic in the fall, we dream of getting the biggest bulbs nearly a year into the future. We space them properly, plant at the right depth in the right soil, and pick the biggest bulbs to get the best results. All those steps are important, they're all considered best planting practices, but the four things we do with our garlic after winter are what sets apart the glory from the disappointment. And the first of those is feeding. Any crop that grows for as long as garlic does is going to need some additional supplementation. Lucky for us, fertilizing garlic is super simple, because they only need fed twice in their entire life. First, we feed our garlic right after that winter dormancy, after the heavy precipitation has washed our soils and the plants are actively exploding with growth. This is the key time to fertilize. Then, we feed again roughly six to eight weeks before harvest time. Now, this can be a revolving unknown date that literally changes every year, so what I do is, I average it out. And for me, in zone 9b, that means I feed again about six weeks after the first feeding. As for what to feed with, we're after a low dose organic solution that skews slightly higher in nitrogen. We're not after any flowers or fruit. The garlic bulb itself is just a series of modified stems. And as we know, for foliar growth, nitrogen is king. In bold display on the front of any retail fertilizer are three numbers. These numbers indicate the relative ratio of NPK, or nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Pick one that skews slightly higher in nitrogen, balance in the rest. As with any plants, especially garlic, feeding is directly correlated with watering. Plants use water to transport available nutrients in the soil up to their structures and body parts that need it. Conversely though, water can and will flush the soil of those very nutrients in high frequent amounts. Especially in containers, it's really important to avoid that constant need to water, because there's no way the nutrients in your soil will be able to keep up. So, water thoroughly to keep that soil moist and the garlic happy, and for the love of gardening, make sure that you've mulched. That mulch will lock in the moisture, eliminating the evaporative nature of the now increasing temperatures. Oh yeah, one last note about watering. Prior to your known harvest date, or at least one that you've estimated, cease all waterings one to two weeks before digging up those bulbs. Soil that is too wet can definitely cause bulb rot at this stage, and the heads of garlic are infinitely harder to cure from a soggy soil. Another duty of the dutiful garlic grower is weeding. Just as garlic needs space from itself, it also needs space from other plants. Keep the beds and rows free and clear of weeds for less competitive pressures to max out that bulb size. And lastly, the fourth thing a garlic grower needs to do to max out the bulb size actually happened about two months ago, and I've already done it here. But fortunately, I knew I was going to make this video, so I recorded all of it. So let's jump back about eight weeks and see what I did. Okay, so we've gone back to a key time, a time about two months before our garlic harvest. Now, for softneck and single calendar year garlic growers, this isn't going to apply to you, but for the rest of us, this one's a biggie. In the late spring, when the weather finally starts to warm up, hardneck varieties of garlic send up a thick central shoot known as a garlic scape. With rounded, hardened stems, they're unmistakable against the backdrop of lush, flat garlic leaves. At first, the scapes appear straight, but within a short period of time, they start to curl and spiral. And this is exactly the time when they need to be cut off. Garlic makes this quite easy for us because normally the crop is quite uniform, and all the scapes seem to come up at once. The process is simple, and for me, I always just cut down to the first whirl of leaves. It's not an arduous task at all, and an entire bed should only take you a few minutes. Now, we cut the scapes for two reasons. One, they're totally edible and super delicious. But more importantly, like all flowering buds, they're a drain on the plant. And with garlic, anything that takes energy away from the plant in the three to four months leading up to the harvest is going to affect the bulb size. So, at least two months before you plan to harvest, once those scapes start to curl, cut them off right down to the first set of leaves. Easy stuff. One other key thing we do after cutting the scapes is to give the garlic one last batch of fertilizer. You never want to feed your garlic close to harvest time, so right now is the perfect window for another batch of liquid organic fertilizer. Again, low dose, balanced, and organic works the best. It not only lines up with the timeline of well before harvest, but also it's a good idea to feed your plants, any plants, after a heavy pruning like this. Okay, we've done all the right things at planting time to give our garlic the best chance, and we've taken the four maintenance tasks to heart to max out our harvest. But when do we harvest? How do we know when it's the right time? As we all know, garlic is growing below the ground, so it's not like a tomato or pepper where it's obvious when the crop is ready. The clues for And as ironic and backwards as it sounds, the best garlic bulbs come from the worst looking plants. That is, just like with their cousin, the common onion, garlic starts to become ready for harvest once the leaves start to fail. Also though, we can move away some of that mulch, some of that soil, and get a peek at what the garlic is doing right there at the surface. So why not? Why don't we I actually encourage new garlic growers to do this, not only to see if the bulbs are almost ready to harvest, but also get an idea of what garlic does at various stages of growth. It's not often we get to peek in on an underground crop and see what they're doing below the surface. Garlic can be harvested at any time during the summer. Big bulbs, small bulbs, they're all tasty. But that's not why we're here today. We're here to max out our harvests, as well as our storage potential. And as long as there's green leaves on the plant, the garlic is still growing and increasing in size. However, each one of those leaves of the garlic plant extends down to the bulb as one of its outer layers. And the leaves at this point of the garlic's life cycle make up the outer protective layers around that cluster of cloves. Harvest too early, and your bulbs may be a bit smaller. Harvest too late though, and the protective coverings may be gone, leaving you with a rotten bulb. The rule of thumb for commercial and backyard growers is to start your garlic harvest when half the leaves have turned brown. You want at least four to six green leaves though, still remaining on the plant. It's this key timing of your garlic harvest that's going to give you the perfect balance between maximum bulb size and maximum storage time. Huzzah! It may take a season of practice, you know, a trial and error with a few bulbs, but once you get it, you get it. And the timing is unmistakable. I know we already mentioned it, but I gotta say it again. Before we start digging, we need to stop all watering one to two weeks prior. A dry harvest really helps with the curing process. Not gonna lie, it's kind of a nightmare to cure and store wet garlic bulbs, so try to avoid it. Also, you may see some growers suggest to bend the stalks over 90 degrees about one or two weeks before harvest to increase the bulb size. Now, I used to do this too, but I don't really do it anymore. Honestly, I've tested it on and off for the last 10 years and it doesn't seem to do anything but add more work. The theory is by bending the stalks in half, you're signaling to the plant that it's time to stop growing. And by doing this, the plant is going to send all the remaining sugars, all the remaining nutrients back down to the bulb, in theory. But as you'll see in the curing process, we hang the bulbs up anyway, so all those stem nutrients still have a chance to flow downwards. There's no need to add in extra work, no need to bend the stalks in half. You can if you want, it won't do any harm, just don't expect any crazy results. Okay, now that you're sure the garlic is ready for harvest, let's start digging. Notice how I said digging. Although it's tempting, don't harvest garlic by pulling it up by the stems. Garlic roots are quite strong and you could easily damage the bulb. Instead, just dig in a two to three inch diameter around the base of the plant, being careful not to strike the bulb underneath. If you do happen to strike that bulb, break the skin, or damage it in any way, it's still completely edible, but it cannot be stored and you got to eat it right away. Continue to dig in a circular fashion, and once you're sure the depth is past the bulb itself, start to angle your trowel inwards. You'll want to start severing those roots, and at the same time, start to gently apply pulling pressure on the stem. You'll feel the plant start to wiggle, and eventually it's going to break free. It sounds tricky, but once you do a few, it really is a piece of cake. I'll go ahead and harvest four bulbs here simultaneously, so you can get a better idea of how it's done. One other trick you can do too, is if your garlic has grown in rows, you can do every second plant. This is really going to loosen the bed up as a whole, and the remaining ones come up much easier. Just an option, and a little trick that I've picked up over thousands of garlic over the last 10 years. Shake off as much loose soil as you can, which is really easy, especially if you've harvested your garlic dry. As you're digging up the bulbs, bundle your garlic in groups of 10, tying them together near the top. This is going to set us up nicely for curing and storage. After harvest, garlic is immediately set up for long-term storage. You're not going to be able to eat 50 of these guys a day to blow through all your bounty. You gotta set them up for the long term. Curing garlic is super easy. The main goal is to simply dry out the harvested plant. Although the bulbs are super dirty, and it's tempting, don't wash them off. During the curing process, as they dry, the dirt just falls off on its own. Not to mention at the end, there's a final cleaning stage. To cure, hang your groups of 10 bulbs side down in a garage, carport, or shed for about 3-4 weeks. The idea is to keep it out of direct sun and any precipitation. A nice, slow air dry is what we're after. Bundles of 10 makes the garlic really easy to manage, and lets enough air through to speed up the curing process safely. And by hanging your garlic bulbs side down, the remaining nutrients and goodness that's left in those stems is going to flow downwards, ensuring their maximum potential post-harvest. It's a tried and true method of storing and curing garlic that's worked for decades. After a month or so of drying, cut the roots off the bottom of the garlic bulbs and cut the stem down to about an inch or two. Remove one layer of papery covering to reveal perfectly clean bulbs inside. Garlic cured in this fashion and kept at room temperature will keep for at least 6 months, if not longer. The cloves also freeze well, so if timed right and you can grow enough, you'll likely never have to buy garlic again. Which, considering where garlic is coming from these days, that might be a good idea. Speaking of good ideas, the amount we covered today feels like a lot. I think it'd be a good idea if we recap the main point to hammer it all home. It's been a long wait since the fall planting of our garlic, but a relatively easy one. As a low-maintenance root crop, our garlic has endured the winter chill, the spring floods, and now the scorching summer. We've done all the right things at planting time, such as depth, spacing, and mulching. And, we've been diligent about the spring maintenance as well, with our fertilizing, watering, weeding, and scape removal. It's time for the harvest, and we know that because it's in the leaves. No, not some kind of mystical prediction. Rather, when half or more of the garlic foliage has turned brown and started to die off, it's time to pull up the bulbs. By pulling though, I actually mean digging. Carefully dig a 2-3 inch circle around the base of the garlic plant to loosen it up. Eventually, the bulbs get a break free and you'll have harvested your first head of garlic. As you go through the harvest, tie off those garlic bulbs in bundles of 10, and hang them bulb side down for 3-4 weeks in a dry place. After a month or so, trim the roots, cut the stems down to 1-2 inches, and if need be to clean them, remove one of those papery outer layers. That's it. After the better part of a year, you can finally harvest your own garlic. Garlic is an amazing crop, virtually a staple in every cuisine worldwide, and if you're like me, you can never have enough of it. And despite its long growing time, it's a fairly straightforward plant, with few surprises. Hopefully with today's video, I've not only helped you time your garlic harvest right, but also maxed out that harvest as well. Best of luck guys. And you know what? This year's garlic planting is just around the corner, if you can believe it. Hey, thanks so much for watching guys. I appreciate the support more than you know. 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