Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

General information and discussion about cultivating onions, garlic, shallots and leeks.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old June 3, 2019   #1
xellos99
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: wales uk
Posts: 236
Default Started Garlic harvest

Never grown Garlic in my life and I originally thought this Thermidrome Garlic would be ready in July but then in the last couple of days some of them have in fact fallen over.

Lifting them up I can see some are more ready than others so is it best to leave them in the ground for a time after they fall over ?

I would like to have them at the stage where they look like the cloves are well defined. Only some of these are like that.

I guess digging down around them to check is best and wait till I can feel the clove definition ?

Oh and if anyone has grown thermidrome, how long did they store for please ?

002 (3).jpg
xellos99 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 3, 2019   #2
bower
Tomatovillian™
 
bower's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,794
Default

The one in your hand looks perfect!

I would leave the others until you're satisfied that they're ready. I have had this issue with garlic bulbils and rounds in my greenhouse - they seem to be falling down ready but they're not. I'm thinking that temperature extremes might be the cause. Outdoors you can have them blown down by wind too. It is not the same as with onions, the number of green leaves left on the garlic plant is a better indicator (except for small bulbils which don't have a lot of leaves to count). 3 or four green leaves left at the top is what you would expect when they're ready, with the lower leaves dried down.

Svalli grows Thermidrome, she should be able to tell you how well they keep. In general the softnecks are the best keepers, and if cured and stored right they could be good up until next year's harvest.
bower is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 4, 2019   #3
svalli
Tomatovillian™
 
svalli's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Vaasa, Finland, latitude N 63°
Posts: 838
Default

I agree with bower that the one you are holding is right size for harvesting. Three small ones on your photo look like large rounds, so those would not have more defined cloves even if you left them longer. I get quite often such from the smaller cloves of softnecks. Some may have a bigger round in the middle and one or two cloves on the sides.

Thermidrome is quite good keeper when properly cured. Up here those will not be ready to harvest until beginning of August and I do still have some, which are usable, even a bit dried. Even better keeper seems to be Mersley Wight, which I purchased from The Garlig Farm. https://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/product/mersley-wight
They have good selection of different varieties, but the darn Brexit may prevent me from ordering from them in future.

Sari
__________________
"I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream."
- Moomin-troll by Tove Jansson
svalli is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 4, 2019   #4
xellos99
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: wales uk
Posts: 236
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by svalli View Post
I agree with bower that the one you are holding is right size for harvesting. Three small ones on your photo look like large rounds, so those would not have more defined cloves even if you left them longer. I get quite often such from the smaller cloves of softnecks. Some may have a bigger round in the middle and one or two cloves on the sides.

Thermidrome is quite good keeper when properly cured. Up here those will not be ready to harvest until beginning of August and I do still have some, which are usable, even a bit dried. Even better keeper seems to be Mersley Wight, which I purchased from The Garlig Farm. https://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/product/mersley-wight
They have good selection of different varieties, but the darn Brexit may prevent me from ordering from them in future.

Sari
I am thinking of trying solent wight and mersley wight but I think they are later finishing so rust disease may be a big problem.
I got rust this year in mid May and I am lucky that the thermidrome is ready now before the rust spread too much.
One of my neighbours if a full time veg and flower grower and I think the rust disease is possibly carried by the wind from his garden.

What is the best way to cure them, I have researched it but it seems people do it differently
xellos99 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 4, 2019   #5
zipcode
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Romania/Germany , z 4-6
Posts: 1,582
Default

thegarlicfarm just has the same ol french varieties renamed (plus some others of course). They are a different selection however, so there could be differences (just like there are like five+ official selections of Drome garlic, with messidor being the biggest of all).
Last year I harvested Thermidrome on 1st July, middle of Germany, I would have expected yours to be at least that, but maybe milder winters sped it up, since clove formation seems fairly good.
zipcode is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 4, 2019   #6
xellos99
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: wales uk
Posts: 236
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by zipcode View Post
thegarlicfarm just has the same ol french varieties renamed (plus some others of course). They are a different selection however, so there could be differences (just like there are like five+ official selections of Drome garlic, with messidor being the biggest of all).
Last year I harvested Thermidrome on 1st July, middle of Germany, I would have expected yours to be at least that, but maybe milder winters sped it up, since clove formation seems fairly good.
I grew them in 11 litre pots, 5 per pot and put them in a glasshouse on Nov 10th.
I think the glasshouse really helped them to develop faster, by the time I put them outside in April they were already very good size plants.
I expected them to finish in July because I seen a report of another grower in the UK who grew them outdoors only and they were ready 12th July.
It is good that they are finishing early, I can eat them in pasta sauces I make from the tomato`s
xellos99 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 12, 2019   #7
xellos99
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: wales uk
Posts: 236
Default

Finished harvesting now. Planted 300 in 11 litre square pots ( 5 per pot ) and many of them are small as expected, about golf ball or a bit less.
But some were great, measured one at 60mm and because I grew so many there is everything in between.
Very happy considering my climate and method used.

016 (2)-2.jpg

017 (2)-2.jpg

015 (2)-2.jpg
xellos99 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 12, 2019   #8
bower
Tomatovillian™
 
bower's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,794
Default

Nice job!

Incidentally, in my experience smaller bulbs which have been harvested a little less than full maturity will keep the longest - even better than the full size. Thermidrome should be a good keeper anyway.
bower is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 12, 2019   #9
GoDawgs
Tomatovillian™
 
GoDawgs's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: Augusta area, Georgia, 8a/7b
Posts: 1,685
Default

Very pretty garlic! Way to go!
GoDawgs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 12, 2019   #10
Worth1
Tomatovillian™
 
Worth1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
Default

They look very nice.
Worth1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 13, 2019   #11
PureHarvest
Tomatovillian™
 
PureHarvest's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Mid-Atlantic right on the line of Zone 7a and 7b
Posts: 1,369
Default

Nice!!!
PureHarvest is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:38 PM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★