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
