gtsk4 said: …I waited too long to harvest these California soft neck garlic.

…I immediately pulled up the plants to find the paper sheath almost all gone and the cloves pretty much separated as seen in the pics.

Multiple things are not quite right from your picture, but hey, we earn that green thumb by practice! And, just like everything- a tweak in your timing can make the difference between ALMOST and EXACTLY!

so- the Issues one at a time:

gtsk4 said:
Do you think they're still edible?

Absolutely!
The problem is, with no sheath to protect the cloves, you'll have a difficult time cleaning them from the dirt well enough to want to eat them. In effect, the cloves become 'stained' with dirt once the sheaths disintegrate while they are in the ground. You could prove me wrong on this one! Also, the sheath protects the cured garlic from dehydration and other damage in storage, so they may shrivel (dry out) quicker than you would like, and shriveled cloves are not appealing.

Properly harvested and cured, it will look exactly like the garlic you see in the store.


When in the ground too long, the sheath disintegrates, and they look more like this.

and this


Slightly too long in the ground, and you can still clean them:

gtsk4 said: I researched other internet advice that suggested waiting until all the leaves turned yellow.

Anyone who grows both, would not have said such advice applies to both. Anyone who hasn't, seems to always lump the two together. I guess they both are true bulbs-
As you found, garlic needs a more careful eye than an onion. Sandy is right-

Weedwhacker said:the general rule that I follow is to harvest when there are still 3 or 4 green leaves remaining on the plant, each leaf basically represents one layer of wrapper over the bulb (for hard neck or soft neck garlic).

I added the bold emphasis, because once you get that picture in your mind, watching the drying of the leaves means much more to you.

and this is similar advice from a professional seed source that echos that:

HARVEST
Harvest in summer, when the bottom leaves are
beginning to yellow and 3–5 lower leaves turn brown.
Johnny's Seeds Garlic Growers Information

There is a bunch of 're-blogging' on the net- and nobody can correct them- so I look for University Extension articles (you can add the term '.edu' to whatever search terms you are using to help.) Or, use forums like this. The advantage of a forum is if I tell you something 'not-so-true,' lots of people can correct or add to the advice.



Multiple stems? On your picture, the proper garlic form is the two on the right (assuming the farthest right has multiple cloves that I can't see.)
hmmm.

Those circled in red- middle to left- That is what my stiffneck looks like THE SECOND SEASON if I leave it in the ground for two years.

My guess? Your garlic cycled TWICE.


1) Year one:
fall to early spring: a single planted clove begins to root, and differentiate (or form) 'daughter cloves,' surrounding her. (These are clones, or exact DNA duplicates of herself, representing an asexual process, BTW, and they share the same basal plate- if you're in to that techy biology stuff!)
2) That first 'winter'
The mother garlic prepares to send up a single stem and leaves as soon as it warms. This single stem/leaves will feed the daughter cloves and the mother bulb slowly disintegrates, likely also feeding her progeny by doing so. The new head forms more mass, in early- mid summer.
3) As it completes its growth cycle, the leaves begin to dry- tip to stem and beginning from the top leaves and progressing down. As mentioned by Sandy- this represents the maturing (and ultimately drying) of the outer layers of sheaths around the head.
4) Dormancy (or harvest?)
This marks the end of the season for the garlic. As I speak about fall, winter and spring, it really should be thought of as yearly growth cycles, as your garden might not see an actual 'winter.'
This doesn't mean it might not begin to recycle it's process, almost immediate, though! Planting garlic too early in the summer in my garden can lead to garlic cycling twice, and that is what I suspect happened to yours. See below!

5) If not dug (harvested)
The garlic starts a new cycle. However, this time, each clove is now a mother clove, and starts the process of beginning her own daughter cloves, and sending up her own stem and forming leaves. Now you see multi-stem clumps-family groupings with lots of cousins, like a giant garlic reunion picnic at the park.
These won't grow as well as you'd like, as they are now competing with each other in a very tight space for light, water and soil nutrients.

Wow. I'll stop now!

I love garlic, and hope you found some of this useful. I'm no biologist, o anyone here can correct any of this!

ken

@gtsk4 - Ken's post is excellent and very detailed; be sure to read all of it, probably more than once, and you will have a good grasp of what to do and what not to do when growing garlic.

When did you actually plant the garlic?

When did you actually plant the garlic? [/quote]

I planted them on 10/1/23. The weather here in Murrieta, CA during that time was high 70s, 80s and then the 90s. The nights were in the 50s. November was around mid 60s to 70s with cooler weather from there up to now. Not sure if that made any difference.

I added pics here after brushing off as much soil as I could and have them hanging out to cure.

Ken, thanks for all the info. I'll keep everything in mind for the next crop.

As I mentioned earlier I did a lot of research last summer because I wanted to grow my garlic much larger if possible. And I too had been following the standard advice of planting in October for my zone. But I read a good research paper that discussed the planting temperature. Like you it is still really hot here in October. So last fall I planted in November once it had cooled down a bit. So far, my garlic seems to be right on schedule doing quite well.

I plant in zone 7 -AFTER Halloween and before thanksgiving.
My goal is to get the rooting started before the ground freezes, but to see minimal to no top growth of leaves until spring.
I don't know the timing for warmer zones, and haven't grown softneck varieties.

Back to onions......
Last year I finally found an onion that grows really well here.... they're called Texas Early Grano onions. Nice big bulbs that kept well instead of lots of thin green onions with no real bulbs. I have Egyptian Waking onions for that. So I left 10 onions in the corner of my garden over the winter to go to seed for me because I want to keep growing these forever. Each was a good sized bulb spaced about 6" apart. They soon got very thick and overgrown (picture # 1) and I ignored them all winter. My favorite kind of gardening! They are now sending up their scapes and starting to go to seed so I took pictures for you.

Each one split into 3-5 separate onions over the winter and now they're all squished together. Now I wish I had taken a closer look at them over the winter to see what that looked like. But they're growing well and setting seed. Picture 2 is hard to see but it's what they look like. Picture 3 is one bulb that was growing all by itself and gives a better idea of what is happening. All these seeds will last me for many years. I hope the next time I need to save seeds I remember to plant them maybe 10-12" apart.

Back to my weedwhacking. Bye.

Well, my onions still have green leaves that have not fallen over. Some tips are brown but most aren't. Started them on Oct 1st from bulbs. Shouldn't they be ready by now? The stalks are almost 3" wide with barely a bulb noticeable. I'll post pics tomorrow.

Glad you are asking. I also planted sets(bulbs) last fall. Mine aren't bulbing much yet either, still green, and half or more bolting with a flowerbud stalk now.
Allium leaf miners have killed another 'multiplying potato onion' too

Remember that onions are daylength triggered. Depending on variety this can range from 10 hours to 19 hours. Most sets are long day onions which will not be triggered to bulb until late June in most locations and zone 8 or higher not at all

Always so much knowledge, Dillard. maybe I should have assumed my sets should have been used as scallions.

farmerdill said: Remember that onions are daylength triggered ... Most sets are long day onions which will not be triggered to bulb until late June in most locations and zone 8 or higher not at all

Good grief! I thought my onions and garlic would have been done by now. Need the space for fall growing. Anyways, thanks.

In 9b You would need short day onions Some varieties will bulb in April, notably Fast Track and Quick Start which are used by Vidalia growers for the early market. Most will bulb by May. Century is an example of a variety that bulbs about two weeks later.
Short Day Onion (Allium cepa 'Fast Track')
Onion (Allium cepa 'Century')
@Sally: I would recommend an Intermediate day onion like Candy for your area.

I have no idea if this is at all relevant, given the difference in climate - but I've been planting some onions in the fall for the past couple of years ("Forum" onion sets, recommended by Johnny's for overwintering in the north), and I harvest them in early to mid July. Just "for what it's worth."

Sally, you could try letting a couple of your bolting onions keep growing and collect some seed - I did that last year and have some plants started from them... but no idea yet what the onions will turn out like.

I pulled my onions. The smaller ones on the left were started from bulbs 129 days ago. On the right, 220 days ago. I placed a tape measure for size reference. As you can see, the stalks are thick and I wasn't going to wait any longer for them to fall over and hope the bulbs would get larger. As I mentioned earlier, I need the space for my squash, zucchini and cucumbers.

Anyways, how long should I cure them and where?

It didn't state on the package but I'm assuming these were not the short day variety that's been suggested for zone 9b where I live.

I'll be sure to plant the right ones next time.

gtsk4 said: I pulled my onions. The smaller ones on the left were started from bulbs 129 days ago. On the right, 220 days ago. I placed a tape measure for size reference. As you can see, the stalks are thick and I wasn't going to wait any longer for them to fall over and hope the bulbs would get larger. As I mentioned earlier, I need the space for my squash, zucchini and cucumbers.

Anyways, how long should I cure them and where?

Those are green onions. Best use is immediate, but they will remain edible for close to two weeks in the refrigerator vegetable drawer. Yon can cut them up and freeze them in small containers for use in cooked dishes like soups and stews. You can also cut them up and dehydrate them. Use is also limited to cooked dishes. Back in the 70's I did a lot of experimenting with dehydration. Even conducted a few work shops. Onions were a lot of work and dehydrated onions were not very popular.
Bottom Line: They are not mature enough to cure and store.

That's what I think all mine look like now, if I were to pull them.