When To Harvest Winter Garlic (About Garlic Without Secrets. Part 1)

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

What problems arise when growing garlic - a favorite culture in Russia

Looking through the recommendations for growing garlic, sometimes you see recommendations that are not confirmed by practice. Perhaps, for some other regions, these recommendations are valid. This material is not intended to refute the advice and experience of other authors. I just want gardeners to pay attention to their plants and see for themselves which advice should be used in local conditions and which should not. Quotes taken from the recommendations are in italics. Your comments are in regular font.

When to harvest winter garlic

"The best time for harvesting is the straightening of the arrows", "The best time for harvesting is the moment the inflorescences begin to burst." Perhaps this is an important recommendation for starting harvesting garlic intended for storage. But here's the catch. Very few gardeners grow pure-bred garlic. Most often local selections. Garlic is the same in appearance, but ripens differently - one earlier, the other later. And even within the same variety, the difference in ripening of garlic can be significant. In my observations, the difference in the maturation of plants of one variety was three weeks. They are usually guided by the control arrows. And usually the first arrows that appear are left. When these first flakes ripen, 70 percent of other garlic plants can still grow (and gain mass) without compromising shelf life.

Once I decided to watch the ripening of garlic. The large heads were removed, and the smallest ones were left in the garden. The arrows on these plants were removed, and we had to navigate by the state of the leaves. I was not too lazy to rake the earth around the heads to leave garlic of about the same diameter. I dug a part right away and left it separately - control. I dug a few more pieces when the lower two leaves turned yellow. The heads were about the same. And so gradually the next batch was dug with an interval of yellowing of the next pair of leaves. This continued until the moment when all the leaves on the stem were dry. The heads of garlic, dug out with completely dried leaves, were larger than the control - the first digging - by 30 (!) Percent. A careful comparison of the garlic dug at different times showed a clear tendency: the later it was dug, the larger it was. And there is nothing strange here - the plants do not ripen at the same time.

In parallel with the size comparisons, I also compared the condition of the covering scales. In all cases, the covering scales did not burst. In the last batch, the upper scales were partially decomposed by soil microorganisms.

These observations are irrelevant in the industrial cultivation of garlic. But for a private trader, they are very relevant. Using only selective harvesting (according to the degree of ripeness), you can achieve a significant - up to 30% increase in yield. For me, when growing winter garlic on two acres, such a gradual harvesting is not at all burdensome, rather even convenient. It is not necessary to dry the entire crop at once, but gradually. This also does not interfere with the sale of the crop - they do not buy garlic in bags.

I met this recommendation: “The easiest way to find out if the garlic is ready for harvesting is to take a closer look at the garlic leaves. At the moment the head of the garlic ripens, the leaves fall on the ground and turn yellow. Having watched winter garlic for many years, I have never seen the leaves fall on the ground. They dry out and hang on an erect stem. The stems of spring garlic and one-toothed garlic grown from bulbs fall. Probably, the same thing happens with non-shooting winter (southern) varieties.

Taking into account the observations described above, it is worth considering one important point: the observations were carried out in a dry year, in the absence of rain in summer and autumn. With high soil moisture, it is impossible to wait for all the leaves to dry. Under such conditions, the destruction of the covering scales occurs much faster. I attribute this to the high microbiological activity of wet soil (compared to dry). Delayed in cleaning, you can get collapsed heads that will not last until December.

It turns out that if you want to get the maximum yield of garlic, you will have to observe and compare the state of the leaves and the state of the covering scales. It is necessary for the conditions of your climate to determine the external signs (the state of the leaves), in which the growth of the heads is already completed, but the covering scales are still intact. How do you know if the growth is over? I am guided simply: dying roots begin to appear on the plant - they become grayish (not white) and lethargic.

All that has been said about selective harvesting is even more true when growing different varieties. Gardeners are used to the fact that the variety of garlic is always the same: "the one that grandmothers sell on the market." Meanwhile, garlic can be of different early maturity. For example, the Lazurny variety starts shooting for me two weeks earlier than the Autumn variety. But the plants of these two varieties cannot be confused - outwardly they are different. But many varieties are extremely difficult to distinguish from one another. And experts recommend selecting "powerful, early ripening plants" for further reproduction. By following this recommendation year after year, you will create a population of early ripening garlic. This in itself is not bad. But at the same time, you unwittingly reject promising, high-yielding specimens, but with a long growing season … It is impossible to say categorically: "late ripening - more productive", maybe vice versa. But, removing all the garlic “during the bursting of the first inflorescences”, you do not give the late-ripening garlic a single chance to show itself. And then you will never know for sure how productive it could be.

Once I noticed that some garlic plants (a bed with selections) look "younger" - the top leaf was clearly growing - not fully developed. I counted the number of leaves on "young" and "adult" plants with the same false stem thickness. On "adults" - 7-8 leaves. For the "young" - 9-11. Garlic with a lot of leaves was left in the garden until ripening. When comparing oct-leaved and deciduous plants, deciduous plants had a clear advantage. Outwardly, they were 20% larger. In subsequent years, he paid attention to the ratio "number of leaves - head size". And the result was always the same. Removing all the garlic "during the bursting of the first inflorescences", we obviously "miss" a more productive selection - after all, it still grows and grows.

So why isn't anyone recommending picking later-maturing forms of garlic? For me, this question is still an unsolved mystery. Maybe late-ripening winter garlic does not have time to ripen over the summer? But this is hardly - the latest garlic ripens in mid-August. Maybe you need to get early garlic for early implementation? So after all, the greatest demand for it occurs before the autumn planting of garlic, and by that time anyone will have time to ripen.

I think it is worthwhile to select the best specimens in two directions: early garlic and long-growing garlic (provided that it is more productive).

It should be said that more leaves are not always a varietal trait. Several years ago I found out about the winter planting of garlic (read on the website of the magazine "Flora Price" my article "Little secrets of large garlic part 1 and part 2"). And just in the winter I saw large heads on the market. I bought and planted 4 pieces. The next summer, this garlic developed until the end of August, formed 11-12 leaves and 100 gram heads. I was happy - I found an outstanding form. And the next year, the offspring of this garlic gave 7-8 leaves and a smaller head. Observing him in subsequent years showed: the selection is good, but not so outstanding …

Winter planting of other varieties showed the same - there are more leaves - the head is larger. But with the subsequent usual planting, the number of leaves returns to normal in accordance with the varietal characteristics. The same was seen by other gardeners with whom I talked on this topic. This begs the question: why not grow all the garlic through winter planting? Unfortunately, this method is much more laborious than the one I am using.