PH's 2017 Garlic Trials

[Ricky Shaw]

This is the size you see most in the stores here, larger would represent older and stronger to many shoppers.

[PureHarvest]

This bulb is off of a smaller plant. Actually it is just a hair shy of 2" diameter which is the perfect size for planting again.
Most of what I've seen says keep all the bulbs between 1.75" and 2.5" and sell everything under as Medium and everything above as jumbo.
Most of the plants I've pulled in the last 10 days or so are right at or around 2" diameter.
I think we are all used to seeing the California or Chinese white sofnecks in the store that are jumbo size.
The garlic websites I research that sell, all list the eating garlic at 2" or smaller. They are saving the 2-2.5" for seeds sales or replanting on their own farm. If they are growing jumbo bulbs, they sell those as eating too.
But I can see where the customer is used to seeing the jumbos in the stores. But this is not the same product, so there has to be some education that they should not expect a jumbo product because it is gourmet hardenck varieties.

[PureHarvest]

This is from Filaree Farm and guru Ron Engeland:

"We sell our smaller bulbs that are not premium seed for your eating enjoyment. These are not seconds or culls. They are just smaller than preferred planting size. (1 1/2 to 1 3/4 in diameter.)"

Keene Organics:

"These are great all purpose garlics for all cooking and eating purposes as well as medicinal purposes. These bulbs are usually slightly under 2", but still have large cloves and are easy to peel in the kitchen."

Adams garlic:

"Garlic for eating is $10/pound. Each pound contains 12-15 garlic bulbs 1 inch to 1¾ inches in diameter."

Here you can see around 2" bulbs for sale:

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[zipcode]

I was talking more about the appearance of the bulb, where you don't see the shape of the individual garlics, not sure exactly how to explain it. Also the plants are still mostly green. The size will depend besides variety also on how it was grown, and considering how good your plants looked I expect more, 2 inches is pretty good. Unless there is wet weather coming which might make some fungus problems.

[PureHarvest]

That bulb was from a plant that has only been drying for a few days, so it is still green and has all of its wrappers still hiding the cloves a bit.
And again, it was probably one of the smallest stalks in the bed.

I hear you on appearance. When I look at the bed that has massive plants (and Im assuming jumbo bulbs), I think "these would sell out first in a blink" because they will look so awesomely fat.

[velikipop]

I understand that all have personal preferences as to when they harvest garlic, but what I see from your plants they are not ready yet. If you go by Engeland's advice and others they recommend waiting until at least the bottom four to six leaves have turned brown. I also would not go by the size of the bulb, since the size varies by variety of garlic, some are smaller and some are larger. When selecting garlic for seed I would not even look at a 2 inch bulb unless it was all that was available. Good Luck.

Alex

[PureHarvest]

I agree that the left and right beds are not ready yet. I mentioned earlier that I was gonna do the middle bed. I'm counting the number of the green leaves from the top, and most of them are about 5 left that are turning yellow. The few scapes I left are about to stand straight up.
I will try and get a close up of some plants in the middle bed and see what you think. They are not doing a picture perfect dry down from the bottom first. All of the leaves have some level of browning uniformly, with the bottom most one or two leaves completely brown.
NOTE: the pictures of the beds on the last page are from last Friday.
I will try to update today. We are gonna hit 80 tommorrow, 85 saturday, and off to the low 90's after that. And I work during the week, so I was thinking that taking the middle med on Saturday would be good for me. again, I will try to get updated pics with close-ups so you guys can maybe guide me here.

What size bulb would you plant and why?

[ako1974]

Very nice! I'm going to pull some of my early girls - Asian Tempest and Xian - to see how they're looking. Everything is late this year. I suspect my late garlic won't come out until mid- to late-July this year. Typically, I pull it around Independence Day.

[My Foot Smells]

I'm in the same zone as you and can never remember a time harvesting after the 4th of July. cloves will start to separate if left too long (and don't get bigger) and now comes the heat which will shut down production.

I think the garlic bulb you have pictured is perfect. The right size. Agree that we live in a "supersized world," and imagination has changed, but bigger is not better by any means.

I always let the garlic dry out as much as possible before pulling.

Looking good, imo.

[velikipop]

I save my biggest bulbs for seed, because they tend to produce the best bulbs for next year. Harvesting is not a perfect science and I often do pull a bulb or two just too see where they are at. Of course, local conditions, planting time are important factors. Under normal conditions here on the west coast I am harvesting around early to mid July.

[PureHarvest]

I know it is like asking as tomato grower about pruning. Different answers, alot of "depends", and different climates and varieties.

Pam Dawling who seems to be a pretty sharp gardening guru has lots of posted info on her site. She is in VA, which is a couple hrs. south of me. Probably a 1/2 growing zone warmer. She says her harvests usually occur between May 30th and June 18th.

So I feel like I'm right in there somewhere. She also claims that her harvest starts 3 weeks from first seeing scapes emerge. Mine did back on May 15th. So that is about right in the range too.

Alex, I'm thinking all the seed producers go with 2 to 2.5' because of the uniformity and that they plant more footage of row per pound than the same weight in jumbos.

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by zipcode

I was talking more about the appearance of the bulb, where you don't see the shape of the individual garlics, not sure exactly how to explain it. Also the plants are still mostly green. The size will depend besides variety also on how it was grown, and considering how good your plants looked I expect more, 2 inches is pretty good. Unless there is wet weather coming which might make some fungus problems.

I know what you mean as in the picture it appears to be more of a "round" than a head of individual cloves. Even when freshly harvested, you see nice and plump cloves under the wrapper if the head has fully matured.

I've always followed the rule of harvesting when the top five or six leaves are the only ones that are still green.

[bjbebs]

Pure
I'm a bit confused. You said the bulk of this years harvest would go into next years seed. To gain the most from this plan you would want to allow the bulbs to mature into cloves. Your picture shows a bulb without any separation. Are your bulbs not showing cloves? Are you not expecting them to?

Based on when your scapes started to show, the early harvested bulb and especially the picture of your middle bed, you are still 10 days to 2 weeks from harvest.

The picture shows what remains of my July '16 harvest for personal use. Yes, there is weight loss, a stronger taste and some interior green but still being eaten raw and cooked with.

I have about an 1/8 acre in crop this year. Scapes are about done and will be shooting for a July 5- 10th dig depending on weather.

[PureHarvest]

Bjbebs, i was gonna sell the middle row.

I see what you mean by more separation. I can see mine more in person, but I see where yours are more pronounced.

I will get more pics. I'm thinking I might need to put it off a bit longer. The bulb isn't dry, but I'm assuming we would still see more separation?

[PureHarvest]

Here are some shots of the middle bed then the left (jumbo) bed.

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Jumbos, not ready

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So if you look at some of the first 4 pics, I'm going by how many "green" leaves are on top. They aren't exactly drying from the bottom, up. All the leaves are going yellow/brown to some degree.