Abe, one of the nice things about garlic is that it tells you if it's ready.
First off, if you're growing hardnecks, they will put out scapes. You want to break those off, for two reasons. First, they're a culinary treat in their own right. And, second, you want the plant to put all its energy into bulb development.
Bulbs will be ready roughly a month after the scapes appear.
But there's a better way, which works for both hard- and softnecks. The leaves will start to change color, first turning a sort of goldish, then going to brown. This happens from the bottom up.
When 2/3 to 3/4 of the leaves have changed, the bulbs are ready. At that point, dig up one of them to see how it looks. It should be filled out, differentiated into cloves, and covered with several layers of "paper."
If that's what it looks like, lift the rest of them and go to the next step, which is curing. |