That looks normal to me. You have a garlic scape that is edible or let it grow to get seeds. All my hard neck garlic has that growth this time of year. Just cut my scapes today for dinner tonight.
If you look closely, there is one scape and then there are all whole bunch of new sprouts. Normal growing garlic just has the one scape. This one seems to demonstrate “witches broom.” I haven’t gotten around to harvesting the ones that resprouted like this but I will and try to post picture
2 Likes
Ok I can see that now. Very strange never seen that. Sucks as that growth is taking energy the bulb could use.
Filaree Farm which sells excellent garlic is looking for experienced growers to increase seed stock. Also wanting to buy or buy back 2026 harvests. I’m on their email list. I assume more info on their web page. Ever case anybody is interested in selling harvest. Mostly looking for some rare garlic types from professional growers.
1 Like
my garlic is a naturalized mess at this point. ten years of putting every excess clove or sprouted clove in the ground, ordering in occasionally, forgetting to pull patches. planting bulbils then forgetting them for 3 years. pulling scapes to eat but getting tired and leaving a bunch
yankin too early and not feeling like digging out the cloves
throwing entire “it’s too dry” cloves out among the trees instead of into the compost
buying special ones and forgetting where those are
there’s one spot every year that i plant properly and babysit and harvest but the garlic has sort of taken a place as a ever-present weed all around the place. same with walking and bunching onion. i would love to get potato onion in, they’re perennial too i think.
all hardneck. they like it here and just keep doing their things regardless of my ability to keep up
the main crop should be obvious, they are the ones that got fertlized and put on thickness. some come up in every bed, under every tree, there can be like 3 growing at random in the oregano, under the lilacs, in the middle of the clover “lawn” flat area even.
3 Likes
I wish I could be more random and haphazard like this. Please don’t take this the wrong way.
But my brain and personality like straight lines, organization, and plans. I think it is hinderance at times because there is nothing straight, organized, and planned out in real-world nature.
2 Likes
oh there are times i wish i was the other way like you. believe me
i just can’t, i have that adhd brain, a lot of projects and i forget the ones I’m not directly looking at lol. so it all starts to get frayed at the edges!
maybe we can trade, you give me a SMIDGE of organization and I’ll give you a TINY BIT of “mess is ok”
3 Likes
I’m 100% down with that trade!
1 Like
This is a new wrinkle in gardening for me, planting about 20 Music in early April and now see the first scapes. My Better Half wants to make a stir-fry tonight, so will cut and try them.
You all are good for us. Thanks.
1 Like
Is this your normal harvest time? I pulled mine out at the start of the month. In zone 6. Wow July gone already! I had a nice crop this year. Not a lot of giant bulbs but hardly any small bulbs. Most of the small ones are volunteers from discarded scapes.
1 Like
Late July/Early Aug is our normal harvest time. I usually wait until the bottom 4 leaves are brown. There was a few bulbs that could’ve stayed in longer, but wanted them all out before the rain today. We got 3.5-4 inches in less than 24 hrs.
I prefer to pull early than late. I pulled mine at three leaves. Which should give an extra skin I can pull off and make them look nice and also I need them well sealed to last as long as possible.
Hard and soft (with foliage for braiding ).
5 Likes
Might try harvesting at 3 leaves next year.
1 Like
How do you guys prepare the garlic bed? My soil is very heavy. My friend gets compost and fill his beds with about at least 6’ compost. Also raised bed for the heat.
I have the same problem as you, the way my family improved it was using compost/manure and broad forking the bed.
I add coffee grounds and any kind of mulch soil is garden soil with old potting soil I fertilize when I plant in October and again in the spring with Hollytone so garlic is organic. You want root growth not top growth adding too much nitrogen may actually make bulbs smaller. In a raised one foot bed. I’m happy with results but always llooking for ways to improve
Soft on the left, hard on the right
1 Like
I think raised bed is probably the most important. It provides good drainage and heat the soil better. Garlic won’t grow well in poorly drained heavy soil. Then it has all mold related problems.
I’ve found it takes me at least a full crop year before planting into a big raised bed that I fill. Soil that I push into a bed always turns up weed seed and manure is always full of weed seed. So this year I’m trying just putting cover crops on them first year.
I have one with wooden sides and I did a bunch of sticks on the bottom, then some cut grass and leaves (not too much, but it’s a big bed and I wanted filler). Then manure and compost and a bunch of something that was made from manure and compost mixed with sawdust. I way overfilled it because I knew a bunch of that stuff would decompose.
I have another raised bed that is just mounded dirt from the area around it scraped into a big long row. Then there is a big berm thing and it’s a bit lower on the two sides, but it works for me.
The first two I did I hand weeded and it was a huge pain.
Either way, I let the weed seeds sprout, then do something about it, then plant into it.
If there was a way to speed things up I’d love to hear it.
I completely neglected my garlic bed this year. Didn’t weed it, also planted asparagus last year that may have competed with it and bulbs are thinner this year. I forgot to harvest earlier and I guess they lost some of their paper cover. Would these survive regular storage or should i freeze them? Hopefully a few make it to November so I can plant them
1 Like