It's Garlic Digging Day!

[Meganp]

@JRinPA stunning harvest

[TheMad_Poet]

Beautiful garlic!!! I have some questions. Been growing garlic for 10 years, not every year though. I have always read that timing the dig should be based on how many green leaves are left. 5 green leaves left, dig it up. Many in your pics have 6-7 green leaves. In your experience do you think the bulbs would have gotten any bigger if you had left them for another week or two. In the past I have left them too long in ground and some bulbs had cloves separating. Grew 4 varieties this year, Music, Chesnok Red, Korean Red and another porcelain. Korean is a known early variety, similar to chesnok. The other porcelain similar to Music. Music and Chesnok were the last ready, and I guess not surprisingly, produced the largest bulbs. These are the 2 I will grow in the future. I more or less followed the 5 leaf rule on all. This year I laid out on racks and used a fan to dry, which really worked well. Your garlic appears very nice sized with the amount of leaves still green. Always looking to learn.

[CrazyAboutOrchids]

I have always read that timing the dig should be based on how many green leaves are left. 5 green leaves left, dig it up. Many in your pics have 6-7 green leaves.

This is what I have been following as well. In the past, I pulled too early, sometimes way too late and had bulbs separating. I grew Rosewood and Music here in my CT garden this year. Music has been growing for most of the last 10 years. I started the leaf thing last year and it's been spot on both last year and this. Despite a sever drought where I had to be careful with my watering (well) and horrible temps and growing conditions, I ended up with the biggest bulbs I've pulled since starting. They were perfectly formed, large cloves, nice papers around them. I cleaned up, dried, and then I hang them on a line in my garage for use until next years harvest.

I pickled cloves one year, but found I didn't use them as much, no logical reason why.

[CrazyAboutOrchids]

@JRinPA , outstanding harvest, sir!

@rxkeith , there's no telling sometimes what causes stuff. Did you say that tomatoes grew there before this recent garlic crop? I can't imagine tomatoes having a negative affect on garlic. That's so disappointing when something doesn't grow well. Maybe have a soil test done in that spot just for the heck of it?

Tomatoes shouldn't affect the garlic. I've been growing garlic in front of my tomatoes in my raised bed garden for 12-15 years with no issues. I think they work well together. As the garlic is growing, it gets all the light and space. When the garlic is ready to be harvested, the tomatoes are really coming into their own and then have full use of light and space. I think they are perfect companions and have never had an issue with them together.