Curing garlic

[Master_Gardener]

Originally Posted by Dak

..., buying seed garlic is ridiculously expensive!

I've started trolling nurseries and big box stores for end of season discounts. Last year I bought 30 packs of radishes for $0.05 each to use as a compost crop. I also bought some garlic cheap. Apparently, most people only garden 3 months out of the year. Thanks OK. I'll continue to shop for clearances when it makes sense to do so.

Big box stores are not my first choice for garden seeds, but in my case I bought seed garlic for about the shipping cost from other suppliers. The downside is you take what you can get. Usually little or no selection.

[b54red]

Congrats on your beautiful garlic. I had to quit growing garlic because of the problem of trying to cure it down here with our high humidity. I would get a great crop and hang them to dry and every time we would get very high humidity or rainy weather and they just acted like sponges soaking up the moisture in the air and most would end up rotting before they could dry adequately. The first year I grew a lot of different varieties of garlic and we had a very dry spell with relatively low humidity and they dried beautifully. The next three years I planted much more and had terrible drying weather and lost most of each crop. I love growing it but it was just too frustrating losing most of it in the final stage like that.

Bill

[Dak]

That would be very frustrating, Bill, have a beautiful crop and lose it because of the weather.

It's been hot here, around 100 with afternoon winds. Is it possible for it to dry too quickly? Seems like it is drying fast, it's been two days.

[austinnhanasmom]

Great looking crop!

I dry mine horizontal as well - outside, on my deck, in the shade.

My garlic dries quickly here too. After it's dried - looking like yours - I remove the leaves and excess dirt and move it my basement for curing.

I supposed it could dry quicker for you, then someone else, and you may end up with less storage length??

I just cut scapes today, so I think my harvest will be later this year - maybe mid-end of July. But, we seemed to have a cooler winter and I am hoping I have a better harvest.

Last year, some of my bulbs were more like rounds as we did not have much of a winter.

I think - as previously posted - that with patience, certain garlic varieties will adapt to your garden - just as tomatoes and peppers will.

Growing garlic in Wisconsin seems like a dream! Nice soil, cold winters etc. So buying fabulous seed from those growers could create a challenge for people in warmer climates etc.

I will give a variety a year or 2 to shape up - not much patience here because my garden is small. I have 4 garlic beds and if I think a variety struggled due to it's bed placement, I will give it another year in my "best" bed. But then, it's gone of it fails to perform.

[ArthurDent004]

b54red - Sorry to hear about the problems you had I know nothing about growing garlic but it's something I'd like to try one day. Could you have put the garlic in a room with a dehumidifer? Would that have helped dry the garlic despite the high humidity? I assume you were trying to dry your garlic outdoors but I was wondering if you could have dried them indoors or would that have caused a big stink and/or a big mess?

[sprtsguy76]

Dak- GG is Gourmet Garlic. But I will consider your source and ordering soon. It was a fairly warm spring here so sounds like that had something to do with quality and size.

Damon

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[b54red]

Originally Posted by ArthurDent004

b54red - Sorry to hear about the problems you had I know nothing about growing garlic but it's something I'd like to try one day. Could you have put the garlic in a room with a dehumidifer? Would that have helped dry the garlic despite the high humidity? I assume you were trying to dry your garlic outdoors but I was wondering if you could have dried them indoors or would that have caused a big stink and/or a big mess?

I had a lot of garlic to dry and there is no way it was going into the air conditioned house. I really like garlic but not that much.

Bill