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Curing garlic after harvesting?

16 years ago

Maybe I should check the harvest forum for this, but here goes my question anyway...what do you do after you dig up the bulbs of garlic? Let them dry somewhere? Indoors or out, cool or warm air, etc., and for how long? When do I cut the bulb from the rest of the plant, right away or let it all dry up together first? Also, my garlic is tucked in with other things that do still need to be watered, so I can't "stop watering it"...what is the problem with continuing to water it moderately until harvest? Just take longer to dry out and cure, I imagine? Thanks for the help!

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Comments (8)

gladgrowing
16 years ago
I dry ours in an airy place, under cover. I tie the greens together in bunches of 10 or so with string, and hang the bundles either in an unchinked outbuilding or under the metal roof of a porch - out of hot sunlight.If you are in a humid area, between 3 and 6 weeks later at most, they are cured.After curing, i cut away the leaves, brush dirt and snip the roots down short. Peel one layer of the garlic's paper away to get that clean, white look. No cleaning water is needed, even when planted in clayish soil. I found that if i harvest my garlics when the soil is quite dry, i get a much cleaner bunch of bulbs.
I just wouldn't harvest it when water-logged, but damp has not been a problem.
Glad
david52 Zone 6
16 years ago
I have a situation where the soil won't dry out very well when its time to harvest, but it doesn't seem to bother much of anything. I pull them, knock off as much dirt as I can, then lay them on tables covered with several layers of newspaper, kind of layering them so the bulbs are lying on top of the stalks of the ones beneath.
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I hang mine. Dig up, wash off with sprayer, tie up in bundles, tag with name. Hang in shady but airy spot at least 2 to 3 weeks or more if your storage spot is not ready. Leave the green stems on for curing. After all are brown, clip off stems and roots, (you can leave "handles" on the heads and make bouquet, snip roots to .25 inches) sort by size. I reserve the biggest heads for re-planting. Small and less than perfect are used for cooking first. Sort the rest (keeping and gifts). Store those you are keeping for yourself in plain brown paper bags in a cool dry dark place (cellar if not too damp). Decide how many and how to present those for gifts...if you can bear to give any away! ;-) Make note to self: Double production next year :-) Good luck Maryanne in WMass
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You can try air drying them. I would place them in an airy location away from sun and rain, perhaps with a fan blowing air over them, and with the cut stem pointing up. Success may depend on how much stem is left. If cut close to the bulb them may not cure well. If you see mold forming on the stem I would peel, chop, and freeze them in a quarter inch layer in ziplock bags. I don't know if this would work but worth a try. Alternatively you can peel, chop and freeze them now. While garlic tastes better and peels easier if allowed to cure for a few weeks, it is still strong and tasty without curing.
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I plant just about any of my fall crops in the beds my garlic and onions grew in. Some of my favorites to follow garlc are cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kale, collards, lettuce and spinach. I've occasionally planted fall root crops like carrots, winter storage radishes and turnips but those usually go in my spring lettuce beds after it's all been harvested. It doesn't hurt to grow a short term cover crop like buckwheat in the bed before transplanting your fall crops. It keeps the soil weed free, makes a natural mulch to transplant into and adds organic matter back to the soil. Just make sure to cut the buckwheat down about the time it's in full bloom if you haven't already cut it and transplanted into it.
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Violet_Skies_
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks so much! This is all I needed to know. :-) Glad, your explanation was just perfect, concise and easy to picture. Thanks too David for the reassurance that the watering won't do much if any harm to the garlic bulbs, I can't wait to start drying them! :-)
kristincarol
15 years ago
In my experience, water during the last month or so causes the bulbs to start sprouting which does not ruin them for personal use, but they are not as cosmetically perfect.

Where I live we just about always get a storm around Memorial Day and then once or twice in June which has, indeed, caused a small portion of my crop to start sprouting. This year I considered putting a tent over my beds, but ended up pulling them a bit earlier than I had thought I would to avoid the showers we had this week.
sunnyk
15 years ago
Does the garlic have to be cured outside...or will a dry room in the house be ok. I just worry about all the rain we have been having lately, and I dont have any place that I could keep them outside where the rain wouldnt affect them.

Thanks :)
Donna
lilacs_of_may
15 years ago
I just dry mine on the kitchen counter, and it hasn't been a problem. I'm afraid that if I dry it outside, some critter or other will make off with it.
garliclady
15 years ago
Garlic can be cut off the stalks imediatly after harvest and cured by putting them on a screen. We cure ours inside a shed (it its humid here with lots of summer storms).
The garlic lady
bob_perham_hotmail_com
13 years ago
can garlic be stored or kept somehow for more than a season or two. mine is just starting to show shoots from last seasons crop.

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