Last fall we planted 65 cloves of garlic and over the last few weeks I have been harvesting, curing and processing! I ended up with 62 so I guess 3 never sprouted or maybe got messed with by some animals but I am happy with that amount.
Hopefully it will last us all year and give enough to plant for next year too.
Here is a pic of our garlic patch before it got harvested (next to some potatoes):
Most of the garlic was softneck and they turned out very nice and big, we threw in a few hardneck as well and they came out a lot smaller and also had a lot of irregularities, like growing a second bulb up the neck. One grew a bulb on top and started flowering. It looked very alien TBH:
Here is what was inside when I cut off the scape and opened it???
weird LOL. Here is another example of one growing a double garlic:
I don't think we will grow those hard neck again...
Here is one of the biggest softneck vs. the smallest hardneck:
To cure them I harvested a brushed off the biggest chunks of dirt then laid them on a rack to dry in the wood shed.
After a few weeks I took them out and trimmed the roots and used a dry cloth to brush off as much dirt from the bulb as possible.
I have hung them back up in the woodshed to cure a little more before we bring them inside.
We usually hang them up in mesh bags so they get some airflow (garlic needs to stay dry or else it will sprout!)
Overall I find growing garlic to be pretty easy and low maintenance. We never watered it or did anything special and just let the rain take care of it, definitely reccomend!
To follow on twitter, personal account, Alien Art Hive Community account <3
