harvesting garlic and onions

harvesting garlic and onions

If you have a vegetable garden, mid-July is the time typically to harvest your garlic and onions. Though similar in many ways, they do have differences in the manner in which they are harvested. For bulbing onions, you can tell they are ready to harvest when the stems flop over and they begin to turn brown and die back. Depending on the size of your crop, at this point you can choose to keep the onions in the ground and use them as-needed, making sure to lift the remaining bulbs before the first frost, or harvest them. To harvest, lift the bulbs from the ground, knock the loose dirt off but do not rinse them, and place them in a sunny dry well-ventilated location for 5-7 days. Once cured, you can cut the roots off and all but one inch of the stems and store them in a mesh bag or wire basket in a cool, dark location.

For garlic, you can tell it is ready to harvest when half of the stem has died back and the other half is still green. If you wait too long the cloves will start to separate and it won't store properly, too early and the cloves won't be fully formed. Unlike onions, do not pull garlic from the ground by the stems, instead use a spade or fork to lift the bulb from below. You can use the garlic right after harvest, or to store it knock off the dirt (do not wash) and place the bulbs in a warm, dry and dark location (unlike onions, garlic needs to be out of the sun to cure) for 5-7 weeks. Once cured you can trim the roots and stems and store in a cool, dark location.