I assume the alien little bulb-looking things you're talking about are scapes. (see linked image below) They are a sign your garlic is maturing. You can harvest the scapes and cook them in stir fries and such if you want.

I'm not a garlic guru, being only a casual garlic grower, but I harvest mine after the leaves are turning a yellowish-tan. I don't harvest as soon as they start to turn, but wait until they are about 1/3 to 1/2 way turned tan/yellow and are drying out. If you wait until the leaves are 100% tan/yellow you may find the flavor is unpleasant so don't wait too long.

With onions, their necks, right where the leaves come out of the top of the bulb, will start to bend over. It will look like the wind just suddenly blew them over, but it is part of their natural maturing process. Once the necks are softening and falling over, you can leave the onions in the ground a week or two if you want. If you watch closely, you'll see that the necks are still sort of green and fat when the tops start falling over. Over time, the onion necks thin and flatten out and that's a good thing as it indicates maturing of the bulbs. Once you harvest them, you cure them in the shade. I line them up on folding tables on my covered patio and usually cure them for up to two weeks, depending on how far along they were before I pulled them out of the ground.

I am further south than you and planted my onions almost on time for my location. My short-daylength types had their necks falling over by mid-May, and 90% of them are out of the ground now. The only short daylength types still in the garden are the ones whose necks haven't fallen over yet. With the intermediate daylength types, a few of the necks of one variety just started falling over around June 1st, so almost all those are still in the ground and I won't harvest them for some time yet. With the intermediate day length types, sometimes they all are ready for harvest here at our house by mid-June, but sometimes not until late June.

I raised a ton of onions this year so I could freeze a bunch, both chopped and sliced, for use over the course of the year. Normally I use most of the short daylength types for this purpose, and use the intermediate daylength types for storage/fresh eating. With proper curing and storage, the onions sometimes last until December or later. Without proper curing,they might last only 2 or 3 months. In a very wet year, they usually don't store as well because even though you cured them properly ,they just had such a high water content to begin with.

Now, this is where you need to exercise some gardener's judgement. Normally it is pretty dry when my onion tops are falling over and I can leave them in the ground a couple of weeks, allowing the onion bulbs to sort of draw in moisture and energy from the leaves as the leaves wither. However, if your garden is incredibly wet and the ground is soggy, once the tops fall over, it can be risky to leave the onions in the ground for another couple of weeks because they might develop fungal diseases or even could begin to rot. So evaluate your soil conditions, especially if it keeps raining several times a week, and remove the onions from the ground and start curing them in a dry, shady place rather than leaving them in the ground for another week or two. If you feel torn between which method to use, harvest half to get them out of the wet ground and leave half in. Later on, evaluate which ones stored the best, tasted best and lasted the longest..

Once the necks are falling over, you don't water or fertilize.

Hope this helps,

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Photo of Garlic Scapes

Ok. I feel better, thanks. Glad I didn't shoot the aliens. ight after the hurricance force winds, almost all of the onion tops are fallen over, so i will wait until the neck begins to flatten, then to harvest, did I get that right? They are in sandy foot high raised beds, and are not soaking, even though we have had a ton of rain.
Panic attack is over, thanks.

I would also like to improve my allium knowledge. The red onions I planted kind of disappeared, my garlic has definitely not bulbed but have scapes. The Egyptian onions from spring fling seem fine.

I'm far from an expert and Dawn has covered the subject very well. I will add a little. I usually start digging garlic when 1/3 or more of the leaves have died. If you wait till over half have died it can be almost too late. I cut off most of my scapes last night. Different varieties will send up scapes at different times. I have one early variety that sent them up 7-10 days ahead of all the rest. It should mature ahead of the rest also. So I will dig the bulbs earlier also. I dig them and hang them to dry. I like to cut the scapes if removed while still tender and add them to my salads. I have used them in everything from soups to fajitas when I have them. Many chefs prefer them to using garlic cloves. Sometimes I leave them so they can mature bulbils if I want to save bulbils to grow.. Some years leaving them don't affect the bulb size at all and other years it does. This year I have concerns about the bulb size so have removed them. Garlic will bulb up a lot after a scape is sent up. Don't get too concerned yet. The reason I'm concerned is although I planted a month earlier than usual the leaf size and stalk diameter on many is smaller. That is often an indicator of bulb size. With that being said my elephant garlic has the largest stems I've ever had. I listened to two gardeners talk last week. One owns a greenhouse/nursery, has a large garden and medium sized vineyard and the other has a large garden and small vineyard. They both said after a bountiful grape harvest last year they don't feel they will have many if any this year. And said everything is not only later but smaller. They feel their gariic is going to be smaller also. Despite what we do Mother Nature has more influence many times than anything else. Jay.

Half my garlic is starting to turn brown but my yard is a soaked muddy mess. I've gotten 2" of rain everyday since before the El Reno twister.
Can you harvest wile the ground is so wet?
Any help would be useful I don't know much about garlic.
TREE

Tree first all of my experience growing garlic has been in deep sandy loam that overall is well draining. So I can usually harvest about anytime. With that being said I would say in heavier soil it would be better to dry out some. The problem is if the plants are mature then the bulbs can rot on the bottom if left in wet soil too long. I know some growers elsewhere about two years ago who had to pull a lot in the mud and still lost some to rot. I lost a few nice bulbs due to rot last year. It was a watering problem. I was using soaker hoses and they didn't water a few areas very good. I watered again. Well in a couple of areas I had large mature bulbs and it overwatered them and they rotted on the bottom. Without seeing your plants and knowing for sure how mature they are it would be hard to say what to do. Sometimes you have to either dig one or dig beside it and see what is happening below the soil. Jay

While I would not characterize myself as an onion expert, I do grow a lot of onions. I planted over 7000 this year to sell at the farmers market.

What I do is pull the onion after it has fallen over. I leave the onions which are still standing so they can continue to grow if possible. Every two days or so I go out and pull all of the onions which have fallen over. I put them on shelves in the shade with the tops hanging over the side of the shelf. They stay there until the tops are totally dry (a couple of weeks or so depending upon the weather). They are in a covered area where the rain cannot reach them. Once they are dry I then clip off the top an inch or two from the bulb.

Like Dawn, I have both short and intermediate day onions. Most of the short day onions have fallen over and I have pulled them to cure. The intermediate day onions are still bulbing up and only a small number have fallen over. I figure they will begin to fall over in a week or two. By that time most of my short day onions should be done curing and the shelf space will be available to cure the intermediate day onions.

I prefer to pull the onions pretty quickly after they have fallen over to ensure they are not out in the garden, done growing, during any rain events. This also spreads out the harvest and it is not such a difficult task to pull and cure them.

After the onions are cured I put them in clean laundry baskets (the kind with holes in the sides) and store them in the house on shelves. They then have a constant temperature during storage and will last a lot longer than if stored somewhere outside. Properly cured and stored onions can last 4 to 6 months. Well, at least most of them. Every few weeks go through the baskets of onions and remove any that are sprouting or beginning to rot. This will help the rest of the onions in the basket last longer.

So far, this has been a good onion year.

As mentioned by others up above, I pull my garlic when 1/3 of the leaves have turned yellow. I then cure and store them like the onions.

Tree, When my soil is as wet as yours is, I absolutely get those onions and the garlic out of the ground at the first sign they are maturing. I'd rather have them curing on tables in the shade than sitting in the ground where excessive rainfall will make them rot. In a couple of really wet years (much wetter than this year----2004 is one year that comes to mind), I didn't even wait for the onion necks to start falling over. There was just a point where I just instinctively knew the soil was too wet for them and I started pulling them and curing them early. They stored well and we still had home-grown onions to eat in the following January and February. Some of my friends who left theirs in the ground for another few weeks lost a lot of onions to rot. It is better to harvest early if you have to do so than to leave them and let them rot.

Scott, My intermediates are getting soft necks and falling over at the rate of about 3 onions per day. Unlike the short day types that had a wide range of sizes, the intermediates are nice and big.

I only planted 600 or 700 and find that is a lot for me to harvest and to dry. I cannot imagine 7000.
I use the Dixondale netting tubes for some of the onions, and I store the others in plastic basket-like storage tubs that are somewhat smaller than laundry baskets but otherwise constructed pretty similar. They fit on my pantry shelves. I have a long narrow pantry under the staircase and onions and potatoes both store really well in there for a long time. Like you, I check them periodically to ensure that any which are beginning to sprout or rot are removed and used first, if still usable.

I was worried it wouldn't be a good onion year because Love County wasn't getting enough rain and I wasn't irrigating any more than the bare minimum needed to keep plants alive and growing. We have had 15-16" of rain since mid-May, though, and the intermediate types have benefitted from that, although it came too late to help the short day types enlarge much as they were already so close to being done.

As great as the rain has been, I hope it stops for a while. Even in raised beds of well-amended clay with good drainage, I'm not sure how much more moisture my remaining plants in the big garden can take at this point.

Dawn

Well, I am following the Experts advice and getting onions and garlic out of my wet soil, but may need a little more advice.

The following picture is garlic and winter onion harvest. The Elephant garlic (left end of plywood). I have grown before and did OK. The next pile over are bulbing onions started from seed this year. They did not do to well, I still have some experimenting to do on them. The next pile over is of my extra Egyptian walking onions, I am not sure what to do with them, other than just grind them up with the lawn mower. I have all I can handle still in the garden, have given onions to anyone who will take them. Winter can be aggressive. The next pile over is regular garlic I bought at the store. I expect I will just cure it like onions and Elephant garlic. (my first time growing regular garlic) The next pile over is tops that broke off the winter onions, with what look like baby onions on them. Can I dry them and plant them next fall, on maybe eat them?

Thanks, Larry

Larry I always hang my garlic up to dry. I hang it so that it has good air circulation around it. The store bought garlic is most likely a soft neck variety. Although I have seen some hardneck bulbs showing up in a few stores. Elephant garlic isn't a true garlic. But I cure it the same as I do all other garlic. I know some who lay the garlic on tables with a screen or mesh top. This will also allow air flow. Jay

Thanks, Jay. I hung both types of garlic up, pick off about 20 oz. cup of those little acorns off the bottom of the garlic and spread those out. I also pick about 3 quarts of the top bulbs off the winter onions and spread those out in the shed also. The winter onions I am not sure if those should be shredded with the mower or placed in the compost.

I have planted more garlic and onions this year than the past. I think this is my third year at trying to onions and garlic.

Larry

Great info from all.
I just planted those Egyptian walking after the fling in a 1 foot raised bed(the only place at the time) Do I wait till winter for them or next spring?
I'll Dig my garlic tomorrow now that I know hopefully it's good.
2 nights in a row without rain but more sunday.
Thanks all
TREE

Tree, I guess you can eat or plant them anytime. They are a little strong, but will grow on a rock. A small bed of those things will feed an army.

Larry

Larry if you are still giving away winter onions and are by the greenhouses I might try some.(Oh tell your wife all flats are 5.00 now. Just in case she needs flowers) Guess I have no idea how to plant or what to do with them. Was looking at some types the other day. Have tried some from a lady at church she calls mulitplying onions but she digs them up and brings them in and replants them every year. Didnt do anything for me this year. Not sure what they really are she has kept them from her parents so they are an old type of some kind. Sheila

This post was edited by borderokie on Sat, Jun 8, 13 at 9:46

Sheila, I went by the greenhouse and dropped off onions. The lady there said might like to try some also. If you need more let me know. I have taken them over to the old house and scattered them to shred the next time I mow. If you need more I will go to the old house and at least put the onions in the shade till next thur. I don't think you can kill them.

Larry

Gosh that was quick Larry. And good grief there are plenty there. Thanks so much. Still not sure what I am looking for. Looked on a site the other day and came away more confused than informed. Judy said you would not cook with them because they are so strong. So are they good for cooking or eating when they are younger...still confused. Was so good meeting both of you the other day. Very small world we live in sometimes.

Sheila, Madge does not like to cook with winter onions of any kind. The top part can be used for cooking. If you use a piece of the stem you can just fist it out of the pot after cooking. I am not man enough to handle the bulb, but the same things goes for onion, garlic and many peppers.

I like to keep Egyptian around for a back-up. The winter onion that I like is the Lesbon bunching onion, but is not as hardy for me. I start them from seed in a rain gutter that I have cut to fit inside the kitchen window, or bathroom window.

I have experimented with bulbing onion seed this year and they do well also. but have to be planted new each year. I will show you a picture of some I started in the bathroom and then planted in the garden about three weeks later. We had one in a salad a couple of days ago and it was wonderful, but it is getting a little late for fresh green onions. I have had these plants shaded by a castor bean plant hoping to retard growth, but they are starting to bulb anyway.

The dated on the picture will show when the were planted and what they look like now. The seed were planted late Jan.

If I could only have two types of onion seeds, they would be 1015Y and Lesbon bunching onions.

Larry

Ok i think that may be what the lady at church gave me to try. Did good year before last. Did NOTHING this winter!! They grow new onions on the same bulb. You can pull them up and eat them just like a green onion. Does that sound like the lesbon bunching onions to you? And she digs them up every spring, dries them and then replants them. Is that necessary or can you just leave them in the ground? Those look like the ones I planted. I put them in pots both years. Dont know why they did nothing this year. Did not even grow one baby. If that is them at least I know what I am looking for. Sheila

Sheila, it does sound like a Lisbon bunching onion, but most all bunching onions do the same thing. Years ago when I was man enough to eat raw onions I would pull my winter onions and save the bulbs and replant in the fall. You don't have to do that every year, but you need to do that often enough to keep them from becoming over grown.
They are very productive and there is no reason to grow many times what you will be able to use, that is where I messed up. I will use the space for something Madge will use. We can freeze the bulbing onions and only grow a few winter onions. I have one Lisbon plant I am trying to save seed from. I have never done that before, and it is crazy because I can buy more seed than I can use for around a dollar. You can also buy the bulbs that grow into winter onions very reasonable.

Larry

lol nobody ever said people who garden have good sense!! Sometimes I wonder why in the heck I try. I could go to a farmers market and not spend near as much money. But there is something about making things grow. Maybe its one of our connections to God. And I know what has been put on my plants and I know its good for my family. So save those seeds and try. Keeps you young or crazy one!!!

Started pulling onions today in okc. The tops began falling over about 7-10 days ago and now are mostly all down. You can see a definite spot on the necks where they are thinner. Foliage is still lush green, though, but I'm worried about leaving them in any longer since we got a bunch of rain last night and more is forecast.

Grass harvest will come later. :-)