Someone posted picture about cutting garlic scapes, trying to get as much scapes as possible. Make a small cut as low as possible, then pull the scapes from the top.

I know I do not have time to do that. I grow garlic for the garlic head, not the scapes. When you just cut at the top and cut early, the cut part is short.

I just cut the scapes where they emerge from the stem. I think if you pull it out it can invite rain water down into the stem possibly causing neck rot.

I cut about 8 dozen scapes on Saturday and pickled 4 pints of them on Sunday. I still have 3 or 4 dozen scapes left to cut. Chesknok Red has been the slowest to scape. Some types are starting to brown up quickly so I think I will be harvesting some soon. Possibly as early as this weekend.

Dutch - I hope you continue to recover quickly. I got a pneumonia shot a few years back. I think they are good for 10 years.

Dutch, I'm sorry to hear about the pneumonia. You'll be back out there in no time, harvesting garlic :-) Get well soon!

I'm not sure if it's normal, but the lowest foliage has shriveled up. I have gotten some yellowing of upper foliage as well. One of the scapes I removed was yellow and kind of dead. Getting nervous about my first garlic harvest.

Chris, is this something new this year? Or it is an on-going issue?

It seems slightly warmer climate region this year is doing better with garlic. This spring weather appears abnormal.

Dutch, how you have a speedy recovery.

This is the first year I'm growing garlic, so I don't know what to expect.

Chris - I think the neck rot (Botrytis) that I had in some of my garlic last year was first indicated by scaping similar to what you described. It was followed by the necks getting soft so when they were dug they were more like a soft neck type instead of having the hard neck going all the way down to the basal plate.

If you notice this on any plants when you harvest you can go ahead and use them immediately if the bulb still looks OK as they won't cure well and will continue to rot quickly. Other than the soft neck at harvest, most of the bulbs looked fine until a couple weeks into curing.

Below is a link from Cornell that describes neck rot.

Neck rot

Thank you, Jack! None of the necks look that bad...yet. Maybe it's just something trivial...I hope. I only had an issue with yellowing on 1 scape. I keep forgetting that there are 2 other varieties I planted, other than Music. I don't recall the exact types other than they were German varieties(White or Red) - mostly Music though.

We shall see!

Thanks to all for the good wishes. I like to say that I normally need all the help I can get. So thanks again. Jack, I will ask about a pneumonia shot, I never heard about that one before. Still weak though, every day in every way I am getting better and better. lol Out shopping earlier and now it is time for a nap; so this will be quick.

I got scapes all over, just got back in from looking them over. The remaining grocery store variety is full of them, telling me which one that was since only one of them was a hardneck, so are Music, Japanese with the good long necks (first time for me to get the famous extended Japanese scapes), the turbans are showing scapes, also the collected feral and Siberian. The summer bed from last June is also showing them now. The only softneck I planted last fall first cam up gangbusters this spring and then completely rotted out on me; so that is the end of that. Hardnecks seem to be the way for me to go.

Some of the Music seems to be farthest along, and all of them are really just getting started at the scape stage. Lots of scapes here in zone 4! None of the rest of you can be much behind that.

I had planned on saving some bulbils this year so I think I'm going to cut around half my scapes (every other one). That will be a nice comparison for bulb sizing for my 10 or so varities. At this point I haven't even seen 1 scape appear, but probably in a week will see the start of some.

No sign of scapes yet here, but all varieties look healthy - including the artichokes, which have done poorly the last two years. The hardneck bulbil plantings came up strong, I suspect that there will be a few small bulbs... if so, I'll plant them more closely in the future. The softneck bulbils from last year are not as strong as the hardnecks, but I will be happy if they form a decent-sized round.

We have been having our "Midwest monsoon", rain nearly every day for the last week. Last Fall, I moved the garlic bed to a site on a friend's property with better drainage, and I'm glad I did. It has made a huge difference in how the garlic responds to heavy rainfall, especially for the artichoke varieties.

Now I've got to weed the garlic, so I hope it dries out before the weeds get the upper hand. ;-)

I will be cutting the remaining scapes on my garlic this weekend. I think there are only a few dozen left. I'm also going to harvest the Estonia Red as the some of the plants don't have much green left. The other types will wait 1-3 more weeks. I'm done weeding the garlic at this point since the foliage growth is complete.

15 day forecast only shows a couple chances of rain so maybe I won't have to harvest them when muddy for a change.

Garden pictures · More Info

I have finally finished using my 2015 garlic. Now I can start on the new crop. All of my heads are cured. Next is cleaning the bulbils. My German White bulbils that I planted last fall are still going, though. What do you all think about planting some of these cloves? I'd like to get the seed into chill by the end of July for October planting, but getting commercial seed before September is hard. The heads are a bit

Finally updating with some pics. These were taken June 2nd.

First my Korean Mountain, it's an Asiatic variety. This variety came up looking the strongest from the start but many of the other varieties look like they've overtook them at least in size. These ones are supposed to be ready a few weeks before the other ones. I guess we'll see what happens. Mulched with straw.

These are pics of my main 320+ bulbs of garlic in one large raised bed. I think it's 5x12 but don't quote me on that. It was mulched at planting (in the fall) with about an inch of fine wood chips that I made from a cheap electric home leaf/twig chipper shredder. and then a thin layer of straw once things warmed up outside in the spring. Maybe overkill on the mulch, but I've not once ever "needed" to water. Everytime I've pulled back any woodchips is a nice moist consistency. I've done a small amount of watering if I'm outside with the house watering my other things anyways though. I only have really watered substantially to help apply fertilizer. Please don't take this as gospel, it's my first year of seriously growing lots of garlic. My heavy mulching my end up cursing me in the end but so far I think it's been working well for me.

Now I'm looking for advice on two things:

One, What's the foolproof method of determining when to harvest, and also how do I know when to start cutting off watering? Last year I kind of did it by "look" and I feel like I pulled the trigger too early and had a few small bulbs.

Two, I don't have a plan for where I'm curing the garlic and I don't really have an outbuilding. My garage is off limits. Is it possible to do outside at all, under a raised tarp, in a camping tent, etc? Keep in mind I'll be curing around 1000 heads of garlic from all my beds all at once.

Inulover - those bulbs should be good for planting. Did you take the bulb wrappers off the Glazed PS and the German White after harvest or did they lose their wrappers before harvest? I have no experience with vernalizing prior to planting in warm climates so I will let someone else comment on that.

MrChip - Can you give us you location so we can better advise on when to harvest. There really is not a foolproof method to determine when to harvest. Basically when 40-50% of the green foliage has browned is recommended. I tend to error on the side of early rather than late and the weather forecast plays a big role for me. I do not like to harvest the garlic when it is muddy as I believe it makes it more difficult to cure the bulbs.

As far as where to cure, a tent or canopy would work in a pinch but I would keep the garlic up off the ground at least. As long as you keep it dry, out of the sun, and provide good air flow it should be OK. Do you have a friend or relative that has a shed or outbuilding that you could use for a few weeks? I prefer to hang my garlic in bundles of 6-8 plants as it cures.

I pulled the trigger on harvesting my Estonia Red yesterday. Only 15 planted and 15 harvested. This type was my worst last year for getting neck rot but no neck rot this year. I planted every clove from the only 3 bulbs that were still in good shape at planting time so a few of the seed cloves were rather small. Of the 15 harvested, 11 were over 2", 5 of those were over 2.5" with the largest at about 2 7/8". 2 appear to be rounds or small differentiate bulbs about 3/4".

We are going to have mostly highs in the 90s starting in a few days which should hasten the garlic along and no rain in the forecast until June 13 so I may be harvesting more in the next week.

LoneJack. I'm in Toronto, but it's about the same zone as you, although you get quite a head start on us by probably 3-4 weeks I'm guessing. We have hot and dry summers here. I think I'm just starting to see pre-scape growth.

Mr Chip: daylength is as important as hardiness zone, since garlic is really hardy as a stone. Different types mature at different times and some seasons are different from others. I expect to dig most of my hard necks by the mid to end of July here in Minneapolis. Japanese a bit earlier.

BUT I got the shock of my life just a couple of hours ago, finding all my Turbans had gone over like a bunch of onions, and here it is only the very beginning of June. I dug one and found a fully developed, if small bulb. So I dug the lot this evening which is IMO very, very early. None of them sent up a scape either, not this year, and that will vary from year to year, too. Last year none of my Japanese sent up a scape and this they are all sending up those weird ones that Japanese is noted for. I left the developing scapes on the Japanese this evening just to see what they turn out to be.

I have heard it said to dig down carefully and expose a bulb to see how far along it has developed and if not ready yet to cover the dirt back over it. IMO if you find a fully developed bulb with differentiated cloves they are probably ready to dig once the tops dry down a bit. Better to dig a bit early if you have the bulbs that to wait too long and have the outside wrappers deteriorate.

For curing I use my west facing screen porch and cure the bulbs on old refrigerator wire shelves. IMO it is important to keep your harvested bulbs dry and out of the sun. My porch gets real warm in a hot summer sun, but it is well ventilated and stays dry. It definitely pays not to move them out of the cure too early; better too long there than too short. Just bring them into storage before the autumn temperature starts to really fall off, and do not let them freeze.
All my alliums and my tulips cure there. If you can make a temporary shed or tent that meets the requirements that should work out just fine. Dry, well ventilated and out of the direct sun.

The tool that works best for me to remove scapes is a decent thumbnail... :-)

Hi everyone, I just thought I would throw in a comment from the north, 51 degree latittude, 3000 feet elevation zone 2b/3, Pretty well all my crop has scaped, so far none of my softnecks scaped, my purple stripes, Red Chesnock, and one called Thai Fire are usually earlier, but this year I harvested them June 30 which is three weeks sooner than last year. About 1/3 of both varieties didn't scape, and I had quite a few "rounds" show up the rest of them were of a decent size. Our weather pattern up here this year was an early spring, hotter than usual May, and a wet cold June. The softnecks, porcelains, and rocamboles all have nice thick necks and I expect a decent size, and also an earlier harvest time for them also. Cheers Chic.

Good update Chic! What region are you in? I'm growing in two areas, zone 4a and 6a. My 4a garlic is doing better for whatever reason. Maybe slightly better soil, and I'm using a nice 2-3" layer of woodchips on top that seem to be improving the growith compared to less covered garlic beds. As of July 4th, my scapes are starting to swell and are starting to straighten out. I'm letting most of mine go to flower on purpose for future bulbil stock. I'm thinking in 2 weeks will be harvest time for me just because I'm going to let the bulbils mature a little.

Also sort of interesting is that because I'm growing about 10 varieties and have things mapped out, I'm also using the look of the bulbils to help in the identification. I planted rocamboles between marbled and porcelain varieties so that should make things easier.

To MrChip Gardener

Hi, I live in Central British Columbia, Canada, a region called the Cariboo. Agriculture is mainly Cattle Ranching and Hay production A big part of my garden is devoted to garlic, I grew 2000 bulbs this year, I have no trouble selling the excess. I grow three softnecks, three rocamboles, two purple stripes, and two porcelains. All of those varieties grow well here. This morning I woke up to 2C, which is as close to freezing as I want it to be July 6th! Your gardens sound interesting, I've tried the Bubil route, but I am too impatient I guess. My main crop I will likely be able to start harvesting late July. Happy growing. Chic

Does anyone have any tips on curing/storing garlic rounds? I just harvested some and I'm thinking it shouldn't take very long at all to cure them since they're around 1/20th the size of a head. Last year I harvested some very small rounds and they just didn't take when I planted them this spring.