I pulled one out yesterday and it had a few cloves popping out of the wrapper. So what's the deal with that? Can I still eat it? Is it that it wouldn't store well that way?
Yes you can eat it and you are correct, when the cloves have burst the wrapper they do not store AS well. You can still store them, they just don't store as long. I'm not sure how much the storage time is reduced by this. I'm sure they'd store say 6-8 weeks just not 6-9 months.
Most of the scapes, I removed when they first appeared. Some I removed at the point of making a curl. How long after scapes appear, do I wait to pull the plants?
You should cut the scape once it has created 1 full curl.
I also found a couple of plants that were completely brown and tried to pull them, but the leaves were severed from the bulb. Although the ground smelled of garlic when I dug into it, I didn't find the bulb. Under one of the severed plants, I found two cloves. I was away for a week, and didn't notice this before I left.
Bulbs should be dug when the lower half of the leaves are yellowing drying the upper half will be green. This is not an exact science so you should dig some to see their progress. Again cloves breaking the wrapper is allowing them to mature too long but digging them too soon will result in smaller bulbs. I know, this is a SWAG!
I feel like maybe I should harvest and avoid losing anymore, but I don't want puny cloves. Also, it is forecast that we will get rain tonight and we had rain last night too. Would that cause my cloves to pop out of the wrapper?
Not sure but we can't contol the rain. What you can control is to stop fertilization and watering when the scape starts to form. I have not watered for 2+ weeks, no rain but I expect it today.
tom
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