To Scape Or Not To Scape your garlic?
In late May at USA and Canada, the Hardneck garlic plants send up a flower stalk called a scape. It lengthens and then curls as it matures and if left on the plant it will straighten and become woody. If left in place it will develop a mass of tiny bulbils. Most growers cut off the scapes to allow the plant to direct all of its energy into bulbing rather than developing the bulbils. The scapes are generally removed once they curl and are edible and delicious. If you’re growing garlic for the first time, you might want to leave a few scapes intact so you can see how they develop. You can choose to plant the bulbils for next years green garlic or sprinkle the bulbils in with your stir fry or in a salad. They are delicious.
When to Harvest Garlic ?
Usually growing garlic on our farm develops 10 to 12 leaves by mid-June. As the garlic plants mature, the lower leaves begin to turn brown, shrivel up, and fall off the plant one by one. We plan for harvest when 5-6 green leaves remain. Each green leaf represents a wrapper or skin you’ll have on the cured bulb. To test bulb size prior to harvesting you can push aside the soil around a few bulbs to assess bulb development and size. You will also be able to see if the bulb has clove divisions which signal bulb maturity. If left too long in the ground with the green leaves continuing to shrivel, the garlic wrappers are lost and the bulbs will open allowing for dirt and potential disease and pest to enter the bulb. If that happens, just use up those cloves first because they won’t last as long in storage.
How to harvest Garlic effectively with equipment ?
The HGH-1 Garlic Harvester Machine by HUAYO GARLIC is tractor driven. It combines pulling garlic from the field, shake the soil and collect to the middle of row automaticlly.
Designed to save time and labor, it ensures precise and effective garlic harvesting while maintaining the quality of the bulbs.
- Matched with Tractor Three-point hitch system, it can work with bigger than 35HP tractor.
- Bar Spacing 3cm, suitable for most garlic harvesting
- Belt transmission ( more stable than chain transmission)
- Eight pcs Earthquake wheel. it shake the extra soil on the roots, and get clean garlic .
- Two Black Collection Pates to collect the garlic to the middle of field. thus we can gather them to the truck easier.
