Started Garlic harvest

[xellos99]

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 ?

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[bower]

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.

[svalli]

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

[xellos99]

Originally Posted by svalli

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

[zipcode]

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.

[xellos99]

Originally Posted by zipcode

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]

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.

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[bower]

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.

[GoDawgs]

Very pretty garlic! Way to go!

[Worth1]

They look very nice.

[PureHarvest]

Nice!!!