Garlic is a great addition to any home garden
and depending on the variety that you grow can be kept in storage for
up to a year. Today i'm going to show you a few cues to look for
as to the proper time to harvest your garlic and then some tips on how to cure
and store garlic for long-term storage-- let's jump in! In my area which is zone
6a, I'm in Ohio, I typically will harvest garlic about
mid july and that's from a mid-october
planting. Now your planting and harvest times are
going to vary a little depending on where you're growing
but typically garlic is going to be harvested about eight to nine months
after planting if you do a fall planting for spring
harvest the first cue that you're going to
want to look for to indicate that your garlic is ready for harvest
is that about 50 to 75 percent of the foliage has started to brown down
and dry out very similar to onions this is going to
indicate that the foliage is no longer feeding the roots and that growth has
essentially stopped on your garlic bulbs it's around this time that you'll want
to stop watering your garlic i know you can't control the rains but
if you're irrigating or watering one to two weeks before harvest is a
good time to stop because you essentially want your garlic to get a
head start on drying down before the harvest
when you see the leaves start to dry down you can do kind of a test
dig to check on the size of your bulbs so if you don't want to actually dig a
bulb up and look at it you can lightly dig the earth around the
bulb without unearthing it you'll want to check that the bulb has
sufficient size that the wrappers are tight and that the
cloves are plump and well formed if your test bulb meets all of
this criteria it's a good indicator that you can go
ahead and dig the rest of your planting if it doesn't just go ahead and wait a
couple days to a week to check again before digging up your
harvest when you're ready to harvest gently loosen around the bulbs with a
small shovel or a trowel and then firmly gripping the bulb by the
base of the stem gently pull them out of the ground at
this point you can brush off any loose dirt that
are on the bulbs and roots but you don't have to clean the bulb
entirely now you can go ahead and cure your
garlic now garlic does not have to be cured
you can use it fresh out of the garden but garlic tends to improve in flavor as
it ages and the curing process will help it
store for a longer term you will want to use any bulbs that have
been damaged say you nicked one with a shovel or
something like that use those bulbs first for curing you'll want to lay the
bulbs in a single layer in a well ventilated area that is shaded
a covered porch a barn or garage that has good air movement
under a tree if there's no rain in the forecast
anything like that anything that's going to be shaded good air movement
dry is a good place to cure your garlic i typically like to lay mine out on a
screen or a palette this year we laid it out on a trailer
because we had so much that we didn't have room for it otherwise
and if you're short on surface space you can always tie them
in loose clumps or soft necks you can braid
and hang up in a similar area to dry the main things to keep in mind is that
you don't want them to get wet you do not want to expose them to direct
sunlight and you don't want to cut the stems off
yet now the curing process can take as
little as two weeks to up to two months and this is totally
dependent on your environment if you live in a very dry, like low
humidity warm climate, curing is going to go very
quickly if you live in a damp humid environment
or you're getting a lot of rain it will take much longer but ideally
you're going to want to keep it warm about 80 degrees if possible and dry and
again with good air circulation so some folks
even like to put a fan on their garlic or in the space where
they've got their garlic curing to keep that air movement going when the curing
process is done you will notice that the roots are dried and shriveled
and that the stems are completely brown and dried up
and at this point once the curing is done and the garlic is totally dried up
you can trim off the stems trim off the roots
brush off any remaining dirt even removing the first layer or so of the
bulb you just don't want to remove too many layers of skin because that's
going to provide the protective layer to keep them good in storage
and then you're going to want to store in a breathable container
so mesh bags people use pantyhose a wicker basket a crate with
air openings anything like that anything that's going
to again provide air circulation and then you're going to want to store
those in a cool dark space so the optimal conditions for
at-home garlic storage are temperatures of around 55 to 65
degrees fahrenheit about 50 to 60 percent humidity and low to no
light and depending on the type of garlic that you've grown
as i mentioned in the beginning your garlic can store this way
for up to a year so i hope that you're enjoying your own
home-grown garlic and if you find content like this helpful
please consider subscribing to my channel Growfully with Jenna
thanks for watching and i'll see you next time