Gardentalk – Garlic harvesting and curing

This garlic was harvested last year and cured over the winter with the roots and stem still intact.
This garlic was harvested last year and cured over the winter with the roots and stem still intact. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)

Master Gardener Ed Buyarski has this big tip for harvesting garlic: Do it now before the summer rains come!

Garlic with uncurling scapes – the buds at the top of stems – or yellowing lower leaves is nearly ready for harvesting. Buyarski recommends loosening the soil and gently removing garlic with their roots and stems intact.

During this week’s edition of Gardentalk that aired on KTOO’s Morning Edition on Thursday, Buyarski said he has harvested about half of his garlic and hopes to have it finished before this weekend’s rainfall.

“The concern is the skins on the garlic, when they get wet once the garlic is mature that they start to rot off,” Buyarski said.

Wet or rotten skin of mature garlic may easily slip off when it’s harvested.

“Then it doesn’t hold, doesn’t last well, doesn’t cure well, and then we have to use it up very quickly,” Buyarski said.

Hang the garlic up in a warm, dry place so it can cure for several weeks. Don’t clip off the roots or the leaves so the garlic bulb can continue to pull in nutrients as it cures.

Listen to the July 21 edition of Gardentalk about garlic:

Also, Buyarski urges gardeners to continue planting more vegetables in their plots and planters that have opened up because of recent harvests, and take advantage of the new gardening space while there’s still ample daylight.

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