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happyhillfarm

Harvest

10 years ago

Harvested all my garlic today. Letting it dry, hopefully weekend is sunny. Pic is from one fifty foot row triple planted, all same variety. I have another triple row I pulled of three different varieties.

Comments (12)

  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    Nice haul happy! Looks like a couple hundred or so which is more than my entire crop. What type are these and what other varieties do you grow?

    I would be leery of leaving them out in the sun to dry with the bulbs exposed to direct sun. I have read that it can cause the bulbs/cloves to desiccate and become translucent. IDK if that is true from first hand experience though. I hang mine in my shed to cure for about 3-4 weeks.

  • 10 years ago

    Yes, not in the sun, please.


  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    Beautiful harvest! I cure mine on my porch.

  • 10 years ago

    Its tied up and hanging in shade now. The photo above was all Music. I also have rosewood, german red and german white. ill let in hang in porch for a few days and move it to basement later.

  • 10 years ago

  • 10 years ago

    I hang mine the other way, so that residual oils and flavors drain down into the bulb. Beautiful garlic!

  • 10 years ago

    Yes those look like some huge bulbs Happy. My Music did not get that big but my German White did really well with consistent 2.25" - 2.75" bulbs.

  • 10 years ago

    Those look great!! I've seen them hung in both directions. I wonder if it makes a difference.

  • 10 years ago

    Never thought about which way to hang them. Only my second year with garlic. All these I bought in the fall. I saved a few from last year (different supplier) and they did not do very well. I figure I'll save at least fifty for next year as they look like they did well. I've read it sometimes takes two years of growing to get good size garlic when you save your own. Anyone have experience with that? My onions are doing well but leeks got overtaken by weeds.

  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    Some varieties take a year or two or three to adapt to local conditions, but Music is not really one of them. For me it took right off the first year and has been dependable for me for several years now. Others may mope a bit, but it hasn't been a big issue for my garlics. I lay mine out to cure on old refrigerator wire shelves in my front screen porch. Roots get trimmed early but stems do not get taken off until completely dried out and through. I normally store my bulbs, once cured, in one of those tiered wire baskets right there in a cool (maybe mid 60's) corner of my kitchen. I normally do not get sprouting at all, but I get some dried out cloves. I grind those for powder. None of my stored garlics for food or replant get stored cold or at much at all below normal room temp. I do the same for my multiplying onions and copras.

  • 10 years ago

    I lay mine flat, as well. Put them into the mesh nursery flats and they sit atop a wood frame with 2X4 wire on top. Try to cure them outside for 3 or 4weeks then move them to a high shelf in the house. The later ones always start to get mold as after the end of June we don't get reliable sun/heat/dryness due to extreme coastal location. Relative humidity is 100% most summer mornings.

    Of course, the earlier ones get harvested the end of May/early June and there is usually enough sun to dry them out nicely. Not to mention, no stalks which seem to be moisture reservoirs and make the drying all the slower.

    Can't complain one bit, however, as the crop was really a nice surprise. Music the only underachiever this year and probably due to lack of chill. The grower who used to buy the Music I grew for seed has given up on them as it has been two years of no crop for him. I had next to nothing as I recall last year--failed to bulb beyond looking like a scallion. Think I had one bed that had usable heads out of 4 planted with 3 dozen in each bed.

  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    Kristin, where are you located? Pretty far south? You might get better response than Music with Siberian or even Japanese. Music has been so widely popular that I am wondering if it has been over-propagated without enough culling. So that some of its strains have run out. For me Music is the best producer, but far too many others are having problems with it. My Music originally came from Red Gate, and has always pleased me.