Is it ready yet? How to judge the readiness of garlic

Contrary to how it might seem and unlike onions, garlic is best harvested when the tops are still upright and mostly green.

This is 3rd June which is earlier than usual, because they are in my greenhouse. We had planted the home-saved cloves in October. We plant garlic outside at the same time in October, and mostly it's not ready yet, although some has extreme rust and does need pulling!
If you leave garlic unharvested beyond the point of bulb-maturity which you see here, with cloves fully formed, the bulb's outer skin starts to decay and then cloves may even detach themselves.

This is my longer video about growing garlic

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[desertdweller]

The smile at the end melts my heart! 🥰

[jacobhall]

I pulled my first garlic yesterday for dinner, a little early with no cloves yet but the smell was sensational

[Jason-os]

Cheer~~~the state of being fully prepared for something.😊

[annagriffiths]

Perfect just checked my garlic today after also putting them down in October, my stalks have browned and fallen over so assumed ready 🤗 I shall dig up this week

[jakobbrun]

Nice bulb!
I have loads of rust on my garlic this year. Usually harvest time is early July for us in Denmark, but might have to try your trick there to see the bulb status and pull them a bit early time time around. These short bits are super, keep them coming :)

[whatifitnt]

Thank You, Mr Charles 💖 I just pulled ours here in the Coastal Pacific Northwest. Perfect timing! Haven’t had much luck here with judging harvest time by the leaves like I could in Southern CA.
They’re usually still green up here when the cloves start to sprout again. I tried this and sure enough they’re ready!!!! 💫💞✨💝

[pippylong]

I use garlic as a companion in pots for many plants, and use the leaves in a salad.

[fahimehbayan]

I like your useful teaching.. Further, you articulate well and are sympathetic too

[bjohnston]

In central Canada, the rule of thumb is whe approx 1/3 of the foliage is dead or dying, you are at the sweet spot. Before you lose growth, after the bulb starts to split and is hard to cure

[donisenberg]

I was taught that Bastille Day (mid July) was time to harvest garlic. But I live much further south now, and I’ve found that D-day is appropriate for my area.

[jesselangham]

Thank you! It's very tricky with garlic

[richielavery]

Literally saw this video this morning and just checked my garlic to find they’re all ready! 👌🏻

[rtpjdk]

This guy is possibly the coolest gardener a David Niven incarnate!

[QGBFH]

My garlic bulbs are tiny, they never get bigger than a quarter. I have no idea what I’m doing wrong.

I thought maybe I planted them too deep, but after seeing how deep yours are planted, I don’t think that’s the case.

[StreetMachine]

i normally harvest my garlic in late august and early sept. after the bottom leaves turn brown here in new york.

[lmrandlette]

This short video is such a reassuring message / demonstration. Did you previously remove the scapes? If so, how much longer were the garlic left to mature? (Just today I was looking over my garlic patch of 5 varieties and finally saw the beginnings of a scape on some. It’s been unusually cool and rainy here which seems to have slowed down the plant maturing…)

[icouldjustscream]

Interesting! Zone 4 here so I grow hardneck garlic. I don't know much about softneck. I've read that it's possible to grow softneck up to zone 5 so I've not tried it here. The hardneck does very well here 🇨🇦. I cut the scapes late June/early July. Late July is harvest time, when the bottom 3 leaves are withered and the 4th leaf is starting to brown. I've noticed that my garlic has seven leaves, I wonder if that is true of all hardneck garlic?

[shaunagustavus]

The necks of my soft neck garlic are so much thinner than that and they've been in ground since December here in Southeast Texas.

[DigwellGreenfingers]

I was hoping to start lifting mine last weekend but, as is typical, rain stopped play LOL

[turtle]

Right in time thanks Charles, I was wondering all the past days. By the way, I have 2 varieties in my greenhouse, die giant russian garlic is healthy with green leaves, the japanese garlic has awful rust. Every year! Yet the harvest of both is always good, strange, uh?