Yep, Music and German extra hardy were my first to scape also. Enjoy! I just noticed last night that my Lorz Italian artichoke is looking like it is ready for harvest. I think the early hardnecks won't be more than a week or 2 more.

My Music, Vietnamese Red, Japanese, and Siberian are all nice big robust plants. So is the grocery store softneck. Music seems to always lead this group but generally none of the rest are far behind. My heritage feral keeps getting bigger every year, but still lags in size against the rest. The Creoles are a disappointment and will be getting culled.

I have two beds of the heritage feral; so I think I will spare a few to form bulbils. The original collection I made had bulbils that were between pea and marble size, but were not fully ripened; so allowing for a full season of bulbil development should produce some really nice, easy to handle size planting stock to compare to whatever clove size I end up with on the bulbing plants.

So far though only one scape and that was in Music, but then I am zone 4 and this is still a bit early for up here. Wet and cool this week, but next week is forecast to be dry, sunny and hot with a potential for 90 degrees. That should get the scapes popping.

I am in zone 17 and Music and GermanX are not quite ready. Took out the Korean Red yesterday and it could have used some more ground time, but will be okay. Softneck varieties are up and nearly ready to braid.

No scapes for me.. All my mature garlics are softnecks. I did a test pull last week but the rest wont be ready until next month. I grew some possible warm weather tolerate hardnecks from bulbils last year but they won't be full size until next year..

I cut my first scapes yesterday. Music is a good indicator of scaping activity.

My scapes are going. I read to wait for two curls before cutting. Is that accurate?

Peter. A lot of hardneck types do not even make one full curl, it is more like a sheppard's hook. Rocambole types will usually make a full curl if allowed. I cut my scapes when they are about 18" long whether curled or not. If allowed to stay on too long they can become woody and are not as good for eating. Sometimes the remaining part of the scape will continue to grow out a few inches but I don't worry about it.

Ok. I planted German White (wuich is porcelain) and Russian Red (which is Rocambole). At least that is what they were labelled... I got them at a garlic festival and honestly I felt like the varieties were largely BS.

Your German White should be the first to scape and will do a sheppard's hook followed by the Russian Red. Your harvest should follow in the same order with the GW 1-2 weeks ahead of the RR.

Thanks LoneJack... when can I expect to harvest? They started scaping a week or two ago, though only some have. They've been pretty big plants for months it seems like. The bottommost leaves have died on most of the plants and I see signs of fading on some of the other leaves as well.

Usually about 3-4 weeks from scaping but weather can skew that a little. Try to harvest when about 5 or so mostly green leaves remain but better to be a little early then a little late. My problem again this year is too much rain at the wrong time so I may be digging them out of mud again in a week or 3 unless it starts to dry out soon.

One of my smaller garlic plants yellowed prematurely, so I pulled it up and it was a round with fluffy white mold all over it. The soil has been wet the past week. I hope it isn't the dreaded white rot.

oh no. good luck peter. hopefully that one yellowed prematurely because of that and the rest are fine. I'd be tempted to dig up another to see how it looked.

It has also been very wet here with 2"-5" of rain a week since late April. Last week I noticed a couple Metechi in one bed had yellowed so I pulled them up. No mold, but the basal plate had rotted but the rest of the Metechi in that bed looked fine. To be safe, yesterday I dug all of the Music and German white out of that bed even though they were probably a week from being ready. No rotting in any of them!! Some pretty good bulbs also with most being 2-2.5". I will probably dig some more this week as we actually have 4 days in a row with no rain in the forecast. Only ~375 more left to dig!!

Should I dig them up? I am just harvesting scapes now. Rain today and tomorrow. Maybe I should remove the mulch.

Do you guys ever get fluffy white mold, and it is just regular mold and not the white rot that can ruin allium crops for decades?

Probably should wait until it dries up some now that it is raining in NY. I have not had mold before that I have noticed.

Mine went rotten by this spring. Trying again this year. They don't seem to like water much.

Garlic loves water, but doesn't stand up to wet feet or standing water very well at all. Good to excellent drainage is required. The standard practice of raised beds helps a lot. I set my beds up to be raised over winter, but then they get edged or lipped to facilitate summer irrigation. Winter rot is almost always a drainage issue, which is a bit strange considering the ground is frozen, but the problem comes with standing water over the plants coming and going,freezing and rethawing, before the ground thaws enough for it to drain off.

One autumn I thought to get a jump on edging the beds for irrigation and planted my garlic in troughs dug in the autumn with a thought towards watering the next summer. I lost the whole planting to rotten cloves.

Garlic harvest 2015... pulled them up early as some were rotting. The mulch had kept the soil too moist. I will not be doing the same next year with the mulch and will rotate to a far away bed. They don't look too bad size wise, if they don't rot in storage.

Yes, tried raised beds etc I think its just been fairly wet and relatively cold where I am this year.

At least now you have that space to plant something else for this summer, peter. the garlic looks nice, hopefully it ends up storing well. I didn't mulch mine and it looks good so far. I dug up a few that toppled over with the strong winds we had, but I'm very eager to dig them all up for the space.

This space was outside my fenced garden... nothing else to plant there. I have plenty of extra space to find room for things the deer and groundhogs won't eat. Thanks though :)

I think I have the perfect spot for them next year. An unused flower bed with sandy soil and 8+ hours sun. I'm going to buy certified garlic this year, there are too many nasty diseases to worry about that stick in your soil for years. I bought this year's garlic at a festival and it looks like white rot to me, but who knows. Hopefully I can find some that isn't ridiculously expensive.

This is my first year growing garlic. Music variety, in the Pacific Northwest. I checked out this forum because I had the exact same problem as Peter - one of my smaller plants went completely yellow and when pulled, the roots, neck and wrappers were completely moldy and rotten. I trashed the plant and tried to get the soil it was in direct contact with. I'm so scared for the rest of my plants! We have been having a serious drought and higher than normal temperatures (highs around 25 C) since May. I've been using soaker hose irrigation, two hours once a week, under dry grass clipping mulch in a raised bed.

All of the garlic plants produced beautiful, huge scapes that I snapped off last week... what are the chances they turn out okay?! Should I pull them now to be safe, or wait and see if any others start to yellow prematurely?

Krystal - most of my other plants didn't have the mold... but there is no telling what will happen as they cure and store. Good luck! I can't really give advice on this, as I am unsure I did the right thing. But if the bulbs don't rot, I am happy with their size, so... if they do, at least I got some nice scapes out of it, and they were attractive plants I think. :)

Music is such a good variety for your first crop! It can almost tell time, and 20-21 days after the scapes hit one full curl, the bulbs are perfect for harvesting. Unless the weather messes things up. So much of harvesting any garlic is intuitive. I had one softneck down yesterday, three today, so it's time to do some sampling, a little early but there you are. My Music still has ten days to go.

Music seems very popular, sounds like a good variety to try next year.

Music is dependable and flavorful with medium to large sized bulbs and very few, very large cloves. Also big robust plants. I stand 6 feet tall, with the plants fully waist high and leaves that uncurl up to my chest. It is a porcelain which makes for very tiny bulbils that take an extra year to produce bulbs, however, and that IMO is really the only draw back. One other thing, being a hardneck, you can't braid it. Music also keeps quite well for a hardneck; this past year I had useable and plantable cloves into May from an early August harvest last summer.

I really like Music, especially for cooking, but it is a little strong for fresh use. VietNamese Red makes a very nice, milder companion for the fresh salads, etc.

Wow... definitely sounds like an awesome variety to plant next year. Thanks.