Garlic is one of the famous and well-known food items found in every house. It has a great taste, and adding it to any other dish enhances its flavor. Moreover, it is an item that is loaded with excellent health benefits. Besides this, garlic is an item grown worldwide, and farmers also gain a considerable advantage while planting garlic.
Now, coming to the harvesting of garlic, we will discuss it in detail. The above post benefits farmers who want to improve garlic growth in their fields. If you are among those, then you should crack the information below:
When is garlic ready to harvest
The primary question arises in everyone’s mind when dealing with growing garlic. At the same time, harvesting garlic, if you have witnessed that the lower leaves have grown brown. Besides this, if you have checked, a few bulbs are growing on their upper part. Secondly, if you find that cloves are filling out the skin of garlic, then it is the right time to harvest garlic.
The time to harvest garlic is from mid-summer to the late spring. If you harvest garlic earlier, the smaller cloves within it will grow poorly. On the other hand, if you gather them late, the cloves will get broken and come out of their skin. So, it is essential to have a good idea about the timing before harvesting the garlic. Secondly, if it is not done on time, it results in diseases in the garlic.
The first harvest starts in the early spring season when the garlic grows tall. You can pull the whole garlic plant from the sand and use it for cooking.
The second harvest falls in June. You can remove the wooden central stalk from the garlic and use the bulbs later.
When it is the time to harvest Soft and hard garlic
Harvesting time for the soft neck and stiff neck garlic is almost the same, and it all starts in July or the time when it starts turning yellow color. To begin harvesting, you must pull its head and then keep it in a cool or well-ventilated area for a few days. To make your garlic for a longer time, you should keep it in a dark place.
1. Hard-neck garlic
The stiff neck garlic is the best option to grow during the cold season. The stiff-neck garlic has a long flowering stem, known as a scape, and after its proper growth, it starts establishing bulbils on its top. The stiff-neck garlic can be peeled quite quickly compared to the softer ones. They have fewer cloves as compared to the harder ones.
2. Soft-neck garlic?
Compared to stiff-neck garlic, soft-neck garlic options are grown in the summer season. Soft neck garlic has more cloves on its head. There are many varieties of soft neck garlic: Italian Loiacono, Inchelium red, silver white, and many more.
How to harvest garlic?
After discussing the right time to harvest garlic, you should understand how to harvest garlic. To properly harvest garlic, you should require multiple pieces of equipment or tools: knife or kitchen scissors, garden fork, and mesh bag. Besides this, you should need a mature garlic plant.
Step 1: Check your garlic before harvesting
Finding the right time to harvest your garlic is very hard, and this happens for every root plant. Most farmers choose to grow garlic when they see sprouts on their garlic. On the hand other, if they see the leaves turning golden brown, they harvest garlic.
Step 2: Keep an eye on the right time
The time for harvesting garlic starts when a few of the leaves of garlic turn a yellow color. You will not need to wait for a longer time when you are harvesting garlic as it will start the cloves to get separated from the ground.
Step 3: Check whether bulbs are present or not.
Whether soft-neck garlic or a harder one, the garlic bulbs will not grow as it happens with the onion. If you have planted a small garlic clove, you will see that it gets deeper and has a robust root system. So, it would help if you did not pull your garlic from the ground.
Step 4: Curing
To make your garlic used in the future, you should focus on curing and drying your garlic. You can do so while clinging up to the bulbs. You can take a few garlic roots together and bind them to store garlic better. Make sure that you should place them in a darker area. Keeping away from sunlight will make them gain a natural flavor.
Step 5: Cleaning
Once you have found that the garlic stems have become dry, you should cut them and remove their skin.
Step 5: Storage
Storage is very much necessary when it comes to garlic. So, make sure that you should place them in a darker room. You can hang or braid them to make their storage more convenient. But you should ensure not to turn them in the kitchen as there is sunlight.
How to dry garlic?
You will be amazed to know that there are around 600 varieties of garlic that are grown all across the World. It is the only thing that will add a new taste to the dish. It may not be easy to dry your garlic when you have a ton of garlic. But do not worry; here, we will share its process in detail. So, make the drying process more accessible with the above process.
- Focus on adequately digging your garlic
- Scrubbing is also very much important
- Apply scissors to make it adequately cleaned
Air drying
The air drying method will benefit you when you live in warm or dry climates. To get that, you can hang that on the roof for a few months; after this, your garlic leaves will turn brown.
Baking
To perform drying of your garlic, you can also perform baking of your garlic. To do so, preheat your oven to 170 degrees and peel your garlic to remove the papery skin.
Dehydration
You can also dry your garlic with the help of a dehydrator simulator. Dehydration can be easily done at a temperature of 125 degrees. It will take around eight to ten hours.
How to store garlic?
If you store garlic properly, you can maintain its quality and flavor for longer. Here are a few methods that will let you ease in keeping garlic for a longer time.
Store at a room temperature
It is the best and one of the most convenient ways to store garlic, but if you find that any of the bulbs is broken, it will only last for around ten days. Make sure that the room must be dark and has mild humidity. You can also store garlic in mesh bags to make it fresh always.
Store in a refrigerator
Though storing garlic in a refrigerator will grow sprouts, sprouted garlic tastes bitter. If you want to store garlic in the fridge, you can peel it and store it in the refrigerator. Storing peeled garlic to get stored in the fridge will cause you to make it last for a longer time.
Store in Freezer
Storing garlic in Freezer is the other method to make garlic start for a longer time. You can peel its cloves to make them taste fresh for a longer time. And with this, you can make your garlic stay for more than one month without losing its flavor.
Roast it
If you want a crispy flavor of garlic, you can roast it. The taste of the roasted garlic will be the same as that of the freshly peeled garlic. After roasting garlic, you can store it in a refrigerator. You can keep it for one week as its taste will not get impacted.
Use it in the form of a pickle.
You can also store garlic in the form of a pickle and store it in the refrigerator. You can also add salt and vinegar, and make sure that it must be in the glass container.
Conclusion
At last, we hope you have all cleared up how you know when garlic is ready to harvest. So, make your harvest garlic great and profitable while focusing on the above discussion on how you know when garlic is ready to harvest.