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Old 28-06-2016, 01:02 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
T[_4_] T[_4_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jan 2015
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Default When to pick garlic?

On 06/27/2016 04:36 PM, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
songbird wrote:

T wrote:

First I picked off sprits from my garlic (yummy!). Now all of the
tops have slowly died. Is it time to harvest?


when the leaves have started to die back,
but before they all have. if you wait too
long the tunic on the bottom starts to
degrade. it's not a big issue if you are
just keeping it for yourself, but it is
nicer to have a good tunic for storage.


Does garlic require much water?


i keep it regularly watered up until
the last few weeks.


songbird


In my climate (new england) it's usually 6 weeks or so from scapes (I
need to cut them soon) to harvest. I used to wait too long and let the
whole plant go brown - and I never had decent wrappers. I now try to
harvest with at least 4 leaves still green, and I have better wrappers.
Dry in shade for a while after harvest. We are not much for irrigation
(though I'll have to step that up if tomorrow's rains don't come - today
there was a rain hole in the big line that passed over, so we got
nothing), but you're in a desert climate and probably need to - "evenly
moist" is a goal up until the last couple of weeks.


Thank you!