Oberon46 said:Sandy. That is what my garlic looks like. Just a huge onion. So it will mature into cloves? No, mine are not yellow much less falling over. And perhaps I water too much. I will back off on the water and let them go until the turn yellow and/or fall over. It still bothers me that they have no fragrance.
Ken, I bought the garlic from Hood River Garlic. But don't remember what kind. Red something I think
Mary, I've never dug my plants up at this stage, but yes, the fall-planted garlic has always matured into nice bulbs with separate cloves. Not sure about the effect of the watering; we've had plenty of rain here, but I haven't watered otherwise, and just (like 5 minutes ago) saw on the news that we've actually had 3/4" less rain this month than we have on average, so... I really am tending to think mine always look like this and I just haven't paid that much attention to them. My advice is to wait until most of the leaves are brown, with maybe 3-4 green leaves left on the stalk, then dig, and spread out to dry (preferably on some kind of big screens or something, where the air can circulate well). I've harvested anywhere from the end of July to the 2nd week of August, depending on the year. Don't wait TOO long, or you will be digging up a bunch of loose cloves, instead of bulbs... been there, done that!
We definitely are (once again) not having the greatest gardening year... nighttime temps are still going down into the 40s, and barely getting into the 70s during the day
I think next year I might put some stakes around my garlic beds so I can wrap plastic around them to hold some heat in, like I do my tomatoes; that way I could also throw some plastic over the top if we're getting too much rain...
It does seem odd that yours don't have a garlicky odor, though... maybe you just have a very mild variety ? (Mine was definitely quite fragrant!)
