Harvesting and Curing Garlic: A Sustainable Guide Using What You Have On-Hand
Growing our own garlic has been one of the easiest and most fulfilling crops that we added to our garden. Garlic was added when we got more serious about homesteading and started to think seriously about what crops we could feasibly grow a year’s supply of. Ding ding ding…garlic!
Due to its long growing season, garlic is a crop that is planted and harvested once - not succession planted throughout the year like some other crops. Harvesting a year’s supply of garlic all at once means that the harvest, curing, and storage must be done with care.
You can spend hundreds of dollars on fancy racks and hanging systems, hooks, or other implements that will certainly get the job done, but in this case, they don’t really save you any work and they’re not objectively better than using some items you already have on hand. Your setup needs for curing and storing your harvest will depend on how much garlic you are harvesting, but I’m certain you can come up with some sustainable, affordable, and creative solutions by looking around your house and property.
I’ll share what we use to store and cure our garlic harvest below as well as some other ideas for making use of some typical homesteading materials. But first…we must harvest the garlic!
Planning for a Successful Garlic Harvest
We grow in Columbus, Ohio which is in USDA hardiness zone 6. In our climate, we can grow hard-neck or soft-neck garlic varieties. In warmer climates, like in Florida and California, only soft-neck garlic is grown due to the lack of cold that is required to grow hard-neck garlic successfully.
This year we only grew Music, a hard-neck variety. This was partially because I was late to order our seed garlic (just cloves saved for planting), didn’t want to use our 2022 harvest for planting, and because Music was our most successful out of 4 varieties we grew in 2022. It also stored for longer than other hard-neck varieties we grew.
We typically plant around Halloween or a few weeks after. This is about 2-4 weeks after our initial fall frost. The nights are cool but we still have some warmer days so the ground is still workable. We plant our garlic cloves 6 inches apart, covered by about an inch of compost. The cold temperatures of our winter help promote root growth and bulb formation, with most of the above-ground growth in the spring. We add some fertilizer at this time, like a little snack for a bear that wakes up from hibernation.
Our harvest is usually in late June to early July, using the plant as our indicator for when it should be harvested. It can be unsettling to harvest garlic and other crops that grow mostly beneath the soil because you can’t really see what you’re harvest looks like until you pull it up! For garlic, you want to look for a few things that will tell you it’s ready to be harvested:
Formation of scapes: Garlic scapes only form on hard-neck garlic varieties. The scape is the flowering stem of the garlic. It should be removed when it starts to curl so that the plant sends more energy toward the bulb. The scapes can (and should be!) used in cooking - they have a mild garlic flavor and can be used fresh the same way you would use garlic cloves. The appearance of garlic scapes means the garlic bulb is ready to harvest in about 4 weeks.
Yellowing of leaves: Garlic will begin to show a lot of yellowing on the tips of the leaves when it’s ready to be harvested. This is one way the plant is telling you to pull it! You’ll see an increase in the proportion of leaves that are yellow despite heavy rains and being well watered. A good rule of thumb is to harvest your garlic when 1/2 to 2/3 of the leaves are yellow. If you wait too long you risk the bulbs rotting in the summer heat and moisture.
Drying of stems: Similarly to the yellowing of leaves, the stems, especially at the base of the soil, will show signs of drying. You may have to look carefully but there are typically signs of the papery-like skin that we all know of housing our garlic around the base of the stem.
The final step in preparing for harvesting your garlic is to gather your tools. You don’t need much! I like to use our wagon or wheelbarrow to collect all of the garlic and sometimes need a digging fork to carefully loosen the soil around the garlic. Most of the time I am able to just pull the garlic out of the ground without the help of a tool.
Step-By-Step Guide to Harvesting Garlic
Harvesting garlic is actually really simple! Since garlic is planted 8-9 months before it is harvested it is possible that the soil has compacted around the bulbs, making it difficult to just yank them out of the ground without damaging them. If that’s the case, you’ll want to use a digging fork - either a hand tool, a pitchfork, or even a broad fork. You have to be really careful not to damage any bulbs if using a tool. Depending on how closely you planted your garlic, this may not be a great option for you. To use a digging fork or similar tool to loosen the soil:
First, carefully insert the tines of the digging fork into the soil about 2-3 inches from the stem. The fork should be inserted into the soil at an angle close to 90 degrees (upright).
Once in the soil, slowly push the handle of the digging fork down, pushing the tines of the fork up toward the surface. You should notice some movement of the soil and garlic stem and you may even begin to see the bulb pop up.
Grab the stem of the garlic close to the base, near where it meets the soil, and pull up. Shake the garlic to remove any loose soil and continue until all garlic is harvested.
If you find that you’re able to remove your garlic without the use of a digging fork, just repeat step 3 above until all of your garlic is harvested!
Utilizing What You Have On-Hand for Curing & Storing Garlic
You should be thinking about how you are going to cure and store your garlic before you get too far into the process of harvesting your garlic. We grow a lot of garlic - I pulled 135 heads of garlic from just one of three beds this past weekend! It takes time to process this for proper curing and it takes the appropriate space. Even if you’re growing less garlic than we do, it’s important to have a plan in place so that you can properly cure and store your garlic in a timely manner.
The curing process requires the garlic to be hung in bundles in a cool and dry space. This is typically a barn (depending on where you live - barns aren’t typically climate controlled and can be really hot and humid), garage, or basement. You can buy specially made and designed racks for hanging your garlic or you can create your own. I bet you have some materials on-hand that can be easily converted into a curing rack.
Some ideas:
chicken wire or wire-mesh fencing
pallets
old gates or fence panels
clothesline or heavy-duty string
wire shelving
Our setup is a 6’ wide x 5’ tall piece of wire-mesh fencing that is zip-tied to a 4’ wide x 1’ deep x 6’ tall wire shelving rack. The prep and curing process is detailed below, but we tie bundles of garlic (& onions) to the fence panel and store it in our basement where it’s dark, cool, and dry (we run a dehumidifier close by). The garlic bundles will stay here for about a month and then we will trim them up and store them.
The concept is pretty similar to the other ideas listed above. You need to rig something up that will keep the garlic hanging above ground and allow good airflow. Dryness and airflow are critical for curing garlic as we are removing excess moisture that will allow the garlic to be stored for months without molding.
Here are some other items that you may need to gather to set up your curing station and/or hang your garlic bundles:
staple gun
twine
scissors
zip ties
Step-By-Step Guide to Curing Garlic
Before garlic can be bundled and hung it needs to be trimmed and cleaned. This is one of those tedious projects that farmers and homesteaders complain about, but truly any excuse to sit down for a while and just zone out while listening to the birds is welcome for me. Maybe that’s because I’m five months pregnant?
I clean and bundle in one sitting. I like to bundle 10 heads at once - it’s honestly randomly chosen because I like the evenness of tens and I can easily inventory all of my garlic once it’s hung. You want to create bundles because it’s easier to hang them, but you need to be mindful that each head is exposed and able to get good airflow so it will dry properly. To clean and dry your garlic harvest you should gather:
scissors
twine
Yup, that’s it!
I broke down my cleaning and bundling process into a step-by-step for you. This process will work for both soft-neck and hard-neck garlic varieties, however, most people like to braid soft-neck garlic into bundles instead of just bunching them together - the stems are soft (hence the name) and will therefore flop over when bunched. Braids keep them upright! I encourage you to find a tutorial for braiding garlic if you have soft-neck garlic to bundle and cure.
Use scissors to trim the root end of the garlic bulbs. Leave only about 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch of root hairs intact. It’s important to trim the root hairs because they can hold and hide large clumps of soil and hide insects that will prevent the garlic from drying properly.
Use your fingers to gently remove any soil clumps from the outside of the garlic bulb and the base of the stem. The garlic doesn’t need to be grocery store pristine, but shouldn’t have any large clumps of soil on them. It’s important to be gentle so that you don’t remove the papery skin. The skin helps protect the garlic and keeps it from molding once cured and in storage.
Once you have 10 or so garlic bulbs trimmed and cleaned, bundle them together. I always feel like I’m making a bouquet of sorts, carefully placing each bulb to create a staggered look. This will help ensure that each bulb gets the airflow it needs.
Cut a piece of twine - the length will ultimately depend on how and where you are hanging your garlic harvest. This is another reason it helps to think of this ahead of time. For our setup using the wire-mesh fencing, I knew that I’d be using twine to tie the garlic bundles up. To save time, I cut a really long piece of twine, about 18 inches, to tie up my bundles. That way, I could use the excess twine on each bundle to tie them to my wire-mesh panel and skip the extra step of cutting and tying an extra piece of twine.
To tie up your bundle, wrap the twine around the bundle about 3-5 inches from the bulbs and tie tightly.
Continue trimming, cleaning, and bundling until all of your garlic is ready to be hung.
To hang, arrange each bundle so that the leaves are upwards, similar to how the garlic grows in the ground. It may seem counterintuitive, but the bulbs will continue to receive nutrients from the leaves until all of the moisture is gone and helps enhance the flavor of the garlic. Make sure you are leaving space between bundles to allow for airflow. I feel like a broken record, but the whole curing process is about naturally drying and removing moisture from the garlic and it will not properly cure if the garlic is packed in too closely.
Allow your garlic to hang for about 4 weeks. You can use it at any time if you need to, but for long-term storage, the garlic should hang for at least a month. The leaves will all turn brown and lose their green color. Now it’s time for storage.
Storage Tips
Airflow is still important for storing garlic properly but it no longer needs to be hung. If you want to keep your garlic hanging until you’re ready to use it, that works depending on where your garlic is hung. It probably doesn’t make sense to keep it in your garage or barn for an extended period though!
To store our garlic we simply cut the bulbs from the stems and compost the stems. The bulbs get grouped together and are stored in mesh bags. This is usually when I sort through the bulbs and set aside some for planting in the fall. The bags we use are saved throughout the year from different produce purchases, so we are once again using what we have on hand. If you don’t have mesh bags you can store garlic in anything from old pantyhose to burlap bags to paper bags. I’ve seen others who store their garlic in crates that are filled with pine shavings. The crates allow for airflow and the pine shavings absorb any excess moisture to keep the garlic dry.
We keep our garlic bags in our basement where it’s cool, dark, and dry. Most hard-neck varieties will stay fresh for about 6-9 months. Soft-neck varieties can typically be stored for longer, which is why most people choose to grow both if they can.
Troubleshooting [INFOGRAPHIC]
The process of growing, harvesting and curing your garlic is simple despite it spanning close to 10 months of the year. Although simple, it can still be daunting if it’s the first time you’re going through it. I’ve compiled a chart of common problems and ways to troubleshoot. Leave any additional problems or questions in the comments below!
My favorite thing about this gardening community is how willing everyone is to share their knowledge and experiences. This post outlines the process and solutions we have come up with that work within our existing infrastructure and budget but there are so many ways to approach curing and storing your garlic harvest. I’d love for you to share your ideas and experiences in the comments below.
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