Harvesting Garlic

Garlic is one of my favorite things to grow. Every spring when it comes up it reminds me that summer is not far off and I'll be outside planting soon. It also seems to withstand hail pretty well. Aren't we happy about that! The stem got beet up pretty bad but the bulb was safe and sound several inches underground.

I started my garlic 4 years ago and have been building it up since then. Each year saving more and more back to plant and thus increasing my stock.

After the garlic is pulled it has to sit out of sun and rain for a few days to a week. When they are done curing then the roots and tops are trimmed. They are then ready for storage. In the fall we will bring out the some of the bulbs to plant for next summer.

In North Dakota it is best to grow a hard-neck variety. This is a long day type. Long day refers to how many hours of sunlight the garlic need. Long day type need more sunlight hours so they work great in the northern parts of the country where summer days are long. Short day is just the opposite and need fewer hours to thrive. They are grown in the southern stated.

The hard-neck refers to the top or stem. It is indeed very hard. It must be cut off with sharp knife or kitchen shears. Hard-neck garlic can not be braided like soft-neck garlic for this very reason.

A few weeks ago we harvested the garlic scapes. Garlic scapes are the blooms of the garlic. They are very funny looking things. The stem grows up several feet then curls over and around with the bloom on the end. You cut them off about eight inches below the bloom and that is your garlic scape. It can be used just like garlic or you can pickle it like we like to do. It is absolutely delicious spread on a sandwich.

I didn't get a picture of them when they were are curled up. However, we thought it would be interesting to leave a few blooms on and see what happened. I did get a picture of that. They uncurl and stand straight up.

We also found mini garlic cloves in the flower head. I learned that these are called bulbils. They are different from seed  but you can grow garlic from them just like a garlic clove. It is a long process. It takes 3-4 years before you get a good sized garlic bulb. Every summer they have to be dug up like any other garlic then replanted in the fall. By the third or fourth year it should be to size. That is a long wait after all that work but I'm very eager to try it.


Here are what the blooms and bulbils look like.

They look like miniature garlic cloves don't they. We are excited to grow garlic from these tiny little bubils!

Happy garlic eating!

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