how can I tell when garlic is cured?

vaherbmom

11 years ago

My garlic has been sitting on wires on an open, covered porch for several weeks. How can I tell when it's cured enough?

thanks for any help

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Comments (6)

largemouth
11 years ago
Cured enough?

Why would you want to diminish that experience of cracking open a newly pulled head and that beautifully moist garlic inside?

Here's the deal. Some folks dry their garlic, some don't. It's something beautiful at all stages.

I start eating my garlic the moment it comes out of the ground. And for months after.

I would suggest you stop the waiting and the yearning.

Crack it open!!!!
jolj
11 years ago
I have been eating my garlic too.
But would like to know when it is cured enough to ship UPS.
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I lay my garlic, onions, and tulips out horizontally on old wire refrigerator shelves suspended up about an inch above cardboard boxes. These are all on my front west-facing screen porch, which gets cross breezes from all sides of the screens but protects from rain and really never actually gets cool in the summer, since the shading trees were removed by a tornado quite some years ago. That would be like Example 3. They stay out there as long as it takes, but are stored in my kitchen ready to hand, by the stove actually. Multiplier onions, and other smaller onion bulbs and what soft neck garlics I have will get braided, if possible and hung in the kitchen. For small groups of bulbs, I have some paper lunch bags that I punched some extra holes, and one of those three tier wire hanging racks (I need another). My kitchen runs cool, maybe low to mid 60's in the winter time. I get some drying out of some cloves towards the end but no sprouting. Store bought onions sprout pretty quickly for me, but my own cured ones last very well, pretty much until they are used up. My garlics all last well through re-planting time and far into the middle of winter and generally are ok until they are used up. I only plant back the largest of the tulip bulbs (at the same time I plant my garlic); so I sort out the best hundred or so. The rest are almost all too small to bloom next year. I found out the hard way that planting tulips too shallow encourages them to multiply into nests like a multiplier onion and all of the daughter bulbs are then too small to be much good for blooming the next year. The order of harvest is such that the tulips are completely cured and bagged before the garlic comes in, and the garlic is done before the onions; so they all get to use the same racks. I am getting ready to dig my tulips pretty soon now. They are all Triumphs so they have all completed blooming even this far north. So I suppose it is time to clean out the porch!
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Mark
11 years ago
Garlic is going to take anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks to cure enough to be put in a box for storage and not risk surface mold/mildew. The timing will depend on the drying conditions.

The best way to tell if it's done is to break off a clove and peel it back. If the inner wrapper is still moist, it needs more time.

Jolj, If you plan on topping it before shipping you should wait till it's mostly cured. Removing the tops too early can diminish the keeping quality.
scooter70
11 years ago
I usually let mine hang for 6 weeks or so before trimming and storing in hanging mesh baskets...
I have also been consuming since it was hung...

think i posted this somewhere else, but, Jolj: when u ship it use some of those silica gel packs that come w/ electronics, shoes, etc; im sure u can even purchase them somewhere online. If anything should happen & it has to sit in the box for an extended period of time they should absorb all of the excess moisture, if there even happens to be any.
vaherbmom
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, all. I have been using it as needed, but have alot and need to store it. Last year's harvest lasted until about March--want to repeat that!
aloha10
11 years ago
Curing also depends a great deal upon the drying conditions. This July, afer harvest, we have had several weeks of extremely hot and somewhat dry conditions. I dry my bulbs hanging in clusters of 7 or 8 from my garden shed rafters. It normally takes about four weeks. This year they were dry and brittle in two weeks. A good, but not perfect, check is to cut the roots off a large bulb close to the bulb. If it feels moist, looks green, or smells real garlicky, cure for another week.
victor

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how can I tell when garlic is cured?

Comments (6)

largemouth

jolj

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how can I tell when garlic is cured?

Comments (6)

largemouth

jolj

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scooter70

vaherbmomOriginal Author

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