Harvesting 2024 has begun--everything that could go wrong... has
On June 1, when I returned to Louisville, KY and checked my garlic crops, the Thai Fire were ready to harvest. Before I tell you about my harvest, let me explain how to tell the garlic is ready to harvest. The grower should know from the seed source how long the growing season is for the type of garlic they selected to grow and how long a ”keeper” the mature bulbs of that type will be. I found that information when I first purchased Thai Fire from Allicins Ranch a few years ago. It grows in a short season and is a short keeper. In other words, it is the type of garlic I grow that finishes growing mature bulbs before all the others do, and it needs to be used up quickly after harvest because it will dry up (if it’s not consumed or planted for the next season) in 3 or 4 months. I planted this crop on August 28, 2023. It’s ready to harvest now- June 3rd. I know it’s ready to harvest because 4-5 of the center leaves—the newest leaves—are yellow-brown on the top half of each leaf and still green for half the length of the leaf nearest the ground. That’s the sign that the garlic has bulbed and is shutting down leaf production. The garlic plants create their bulbs in the last couple weeks prior to harvest. It is recommended that plants not be watered during this bulbing time. Unfortunately, this year it rained quite a bit during these last two weeks—even the day before I dug the Thai Fire bulbs. That’s not ideal. Yet the good side of this weather is that I didn’t have to water the growing plants at all. The soil retained moisture nicely in the raised beds that have good drainage in which I grew the garlic.
Thai Fire grows in a short season, and through the three years I’ve grown it, it has been ready to harvest in early June. Since it is a hardneck garlic, earlier in this growing season, around May 12, when these plants put up scapes, I broke off the scapes. Removing the scapes signals the plants to put more energy into maturing a larger bulb with a longer storage life.
That same evening, I harvested some of the Music plants that I’d grown from seed I’ve saved for years. It was planted September 28, 2023, and though I’d expect it to grow over a longer season, a storm had knocked the plants to lay flat across the surface of the soil. I’m afraid the necks will deteriorate where they are folded and then they won’t be strong enough to braid. So I decided to harvest that bunch, too. They yielded 23 well-developed and large bulbs. I had planted 23 cloves and harvested 23 bulbs. I’m pleased I didn’t lose even one clove. (Of course, I only plant the largest, soundest cloves from my crops, so they have the best chance of surviving and producing well.)
So far in my harvest, everything was going well.
The next section of the that raised bed was planted in new Allicins Ranch Inchelium Red seed. It also laid over to the ground surface in that storm more than a week ago. I’d like to leave them growing as long as possible. But I had to check, hoping they were big enough to harvest if their necks on the ground had been compromised. So I dug three bulbs to check how they are faring. Those three—1 very large and 2 medium sized—look fine and the necks are still intact. So I’ll leave that patch until later in the week on a day forecast to be sunny. We will be away from the Louisville garden for a couple weeks, and I don’t trust the necks will remain sound, laying on the ground as long as we’ll be gone. I’m pretty sure that damp neck is where critters and bacteria can enter the plants from the soil on which they are laying.
In another bed of this Louisville garden are more of my 2023 Music seed and 9 new Allicins Ranch Music seed from two bulbs. These Allicins Ranch bulbs were huge with 4 cloves in one and 5 cloves in the other. The plants are also huge, deep emerald green leaves. Because of their size, I planted them 9-10” apart—wider than recommended for most garlics. I had already harvested scapes from several of these Music plants, but when I saw them for the first time in three weeks, there were five more scapes which I immediately snapped off and shared with a friend so they could get their first taste of scapes. The new top leaves of these mammoth plants are not yet yellowing at all. I want to see how big their bulbs will grow if given their full long season to grow. I decided to leave these Allicins Ranch Music plants to continue growing until I return to the garden in a couple weeks.
Other years I’ve felt I harvested the Music too early because it was when I needed to harvest. That’s a problem with growing in two gardens that are three hours apart. I have to tend to both gardens and can’t always be where I need to harvest at the ideal moments. This year, I’m pleased I can let the new Music seed grow for their entire 9 month long season.
Still, I haven’t told you what went wrong.
We had a painter painting my porch garlic workshop. He wasn’t finished when I came in from the garden with the harvested garlic, so I had to leave it in buckets in the shade of a tree. The next day the painter finished and left sometime after noon. But during the day, I had a doctor’s appointment and then tutored for a couple hours. I noticed the storm blow in that had encouraged the painter to stop so the paint could dry enough before the rain. While I tutored online, the walnut and evergreen branches outside my window danced vigorously and swayed really low. And the rain blew around outside … as I tutored on.
Not until hours later, in the dark, just before bed, did I remember my garlic harvest in the blue buckets under the tree. I ran out, found a couple inches of water in the Thai Fire bucket and drained it. The Music bucket had very little water collected in it. I drained what would flow out. I carried the heavy buckets to the porch. Next morning, I lifted each plant with its wet, dirt-encrusted roots to slide into the garlic curing rack that my husband had kindly setup for me. I turned the fan on them and they are drying now.
I hope not too much damage was done. We are not supposed to even dig garlic when it could get wet from rain. The bulbs should not be allowed to sit in a damp bucket, let alone one with inches of rain collecting in it. When the bulbs are wet, diseases and very small soil critters can get inside the tender leaves, move from bulb to bulb, and infect others. The harvested bulbs with their leaves are to be hung with air circulating around them to thoroughly dry the roots, and let the bulbs and their clove skins cure for two weeks or more. I leave the fan blowing on them 24-7 until they are braided. They are not to be in sunshine which can cook the cloves inside the thin, tender leaf coverings that, after the bulbs cure, will become stiffer papers and protect the cloves for storage for months.
So tomorrow, we’ll reinstall the curtain that keeps the afternoon sun from shining on the garlic on its curing rack. I’m thankful it’s been breezy and cloudy today. I hope we rescued them in time to prevent damage and disease. We have to wait till I clean and inspect each bulb to place into a braid before I’ll know if they are diseased, damaged, or infested with critters that grow into larvae and destroy the cloves.
In the meantime, I look to the rest of the growing plants and wait for the plants to tell me they are finished and ready to be dug from the ground. I hope that will be by Friday or Saturday when I must harvest the ones laying on the ground before we travel to the other garden three hours away in southern Kentucky.
