The Life Cycle of a Garlic Bulb
The 3rd Trimester: Summer Nurture Plan For Your GArlic and you
Porcelain garlic varieties at Prairie Coteau Farm
As spring turns to summer and the days lengthen and warm, your garlic will be reaching the apex of its above-ground growth. It will have 7-8 or so leaves and should be a tall and stately.
This is a great time to simply enjoy the beauty and wisdom of this plant.
1. Sit With Your Garlic
Yes, really! Whether you have just a few plants or a whole field, take a few minutes to sit down next to your plants, preferably in the morning or evening (Oh, and leave your phone somewhere else).
Take a few deep breaths with your garlic. Remember our special relationship with plants….they breathe out oxygen, and we breathe it in, so you really are breathing with your garlic.
Observe how perfectly the leaves are formed to direct dew and
Appreciate the slick, waxy surface that repels pests, molds, and fungus.
Watch how easily the leaves catch the breeze, dancing and dipping in the wind.
Consider the stalk, how it stands up straight, lifting the leaves to the sky. And though it gets battered by high winds, or smashed to the ground by a rolling dog, or pushed aside by wild turkeys, it remains supple and strong enough to rise again.
How can we be like the garlic? I love to sit in the field with the plants, delighting in their quiet company and learning what they have to teach.
Get to know your garlic plants and nurture yourself with a little contemplation in their presence. Do it as often as you can- every day, even. What a gift to have a garden!
Now, you’re ready to nurture your garlic with two early summer routines: roguing plants and picking scapes.
Checking plants in 2012, the year of leafhoppers across the upper Midwest
2. Rogue:
An often overlooked, but very important part of garlic growing is to check your plants and remove any that show signs of pests disease. Carry a bucket for rogued plants. Don’t toss them alongside the patch or leave them in the garden. Dispose of them elsewhere to prevent contamination of healthy plants and soil. This is especially important if you intend to replant your garlic.
When to rogue: Start monitoring right from the beginning, and continue until harvest time. Some issues won’t show up until the plants are nearly full-grown.
What to look for: When the plants are dry, check for any that are prematurely yellowing, or look stunted, twisted or discolored (keep in mind variety differences; also, it’s normal for garlic to have some yellowing at the tips of the leaves).
How to do it: Pull up unhealthy plants by the root, and examine the look of the bulb end. If the cloves pull away from the basal plate, or there’s considerable root loss or rot, take note, and watch for others that appear similar. Look for any unusual insects, mites, molds, or other signs of disease and dispose of any plants exhibiting symptoms. If you note ailing plants, are they here and there, or together in a group? This can help diagnose the issue.
What if you find a problem? One or two odd plants are no big deal, but if something affects a large number of plants, you may want to send a sample to a lab for testing before digging up all your garlic. Most land grant universities have plant testing labs, or ask your local extension office for information.
Soil testing is important too. Nutrient deficiencies can cause yellowing, stunted growth and other issues.
Most garlic carries viruses and others are spread by insects. Some are deadly to the plant, others cause cosmetic changes that won’t affect eating quality, and still others have no visible affect and are totally benign.
When we first started growing garlic almost 20 years ago, we naively thought nothing could touch it. We learned some hard lessons in those early years! Yes, garlic is a wonderfully resilient plant, but it can be affected by maladies, soil health, and pests just like other plants. Maintaining a clean field will go a long way to nurturing a healthy crop.
(Check out the first two posts on planting and spring care in this series for more on how to grow healthy garlic.)
Picking scapes at Prairie Coteau Farm
3. Pick Scapes:
Around the summer solstice, when vegetative (leaf) growth ends, start watching for scape emergence in hardneck varieties. You’ll want remove this curly flower stalk to maximize garlic bulb growth.
What to look for: From the center of the leaves, a little pointed stalk, called a scape, will appear and form green, curly loops (porcelains and rocamboles make a double, purple stripes a single). This little curiosity will eventually grow straight up and form little bulbils on the end as the garlic’s way of flowering. At this point, the plant will focus on developing those “seeds” to the detriment of bulb size.
How do do it: Grasp the scape between thumb and forefinger at its base near the leaves, and snap it off. If you plan to eat the scapes, wait until they have completed their curl, about a week after emergence. At that point, they’re tender and delicious to eat, but haven’t taken much attention from the bulb.
You can remove them earlier, giving the bulb extra time to develop, but the scapes will be smaller. Later, when the scapes start to straighten, they can get woody, and you’ll have to test them to find the snapping point.
Another method: Some growers pull the scape completely out of the stalk yielding a longer, tender scape. The easiest way is to grab the scape with your fist and pull straight up until it pops out of the plant. I dislike this method because it takes longer and leaves an open tube for water to collect in. This is likely not a problem, but it just doesn’t work for us. Try both methods, and do what works for you!
What if you leave the scape on? If you’re not concerned about bulb size, keep the scape on, or just leave a few for fun. It can also be helpful to leave a couple to indicate proper harvest time (more on that in a future post). You’ll still get a garlic bulb and you can try the bulbils too.
Little Georgia with freshly picked scapes
A Few Ways to Eat Scapes:
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raw in salads or slaw
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sauteed or steamed
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grilled--try them as a kabab skewer!
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in pesto
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pickled
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dried and ground
When sauteed, they have a mild garlic flavor with the texture of asparagus. They also look great in flower arrangements or as a garnish.
Watch for scape recipes in a future post!
This summer, when the days are long and hot, remember to give yourself a breather. Get to know your garlic, rogue your patch, and pick the scapes. Let your garlic nurture you while you nurture your garlic.
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