In the spring hardneck varieties send up a stalk called a scape that will develop a bulbil capsule. If you cut the scape before it fully forms, the bulb will grow a little bigger; if not, it will store a little longer. If you cut the scapes when they are young and tender, they make excellent eating raw or in soups, salads, salsas, pickled, etc. If you leave the scapes intact, a bulbil capsule will form in an umbel at the top of the scape and little seed-like bulbils will form and they can be eaten or planted - they take two full growing seasons to mature into and adult bulb, forming only a round ball at the end of their first growing season.

Your garlic’s leaves will tell you when it wants to be harvested. They will do this by beginning to turn brown from the bottom of the plant upward. When only the top five or six leaves are still green, that is the time to harvest. Exceptions to this general rule are the Asiatic varieties - they need to be harvested soon after their lower leaves start to turn brown. The longer they stay in the ground, the larger the bulbs will get, but the fewer bulb wrappers will remain. Garlic with more wrappers will store longer than the same variety with fewer wrappers. Your choice is whether you want larger shorter storing garlic (3-4 mos.) or smaller longer storing ones (6-7 mos.) You can dig down and look at the bulb anytime and check to see if it is big enough.

When the bulbs are big enough, shut off water to any variety and pull the mulch away from the beds to allow the soil to dry out a few days before harvest. The longer they stay in the ground, the larger the bulbs will get.

When just over half of its leaves have browned and only the upper 5-6 leaves are still green, it is time to harvest if the ground is dry enough. Remember that as the lower leaves die down, the upper ones will continue to grow so you will need to check on bulb size frequently. You can test for soil moisture content by putting your hand in the soil. If your fingers get muddy, it is too wet to harvest. But if you must harvest anyway, rinse the mud off in running water and strip the plant down to it's outermost complete leaf/bulb wrapper and cure as usual. The top six of a garlic plant's leaves control the number of bulb wrappers and bulbs with wrappers store longer. If you wait until all the leaves die, these bulb wrappers will deteriorate and you will be left with bare bulbs that don’t store well and invite contamination and disease.

Since each variety matures at a different time, harvest only those that are ready at any one time. You can use a garden fork to break up the soil so that it is easy to pull each bulb gently by hand. The dirt shakes off easily and just falls away from the roots, if the soil is properly dried.

Garlic should be taken immediately to a shady place with good air flow to dry down, or cure as it is called, for a few weeks. Each bulb should always be handled with gentle, loving care to prevent bruising - it can damage them and give disease an opportunity to set in.

You can braid the softneck types when they are about half cured and partly dry, but still pliable enough to braid. The cured hardneck garlics should be cleaned down to the first complete clean bulb wrapper and the roots and dried leaves cut off. The cleaned garlic stores well for three to nine months, depending on variety, at cool room temperature. You can store it in net bags, unglazed ceramic flower pots or double-bagged in plain brown paper grocery store bags.

Do not store bulbs of garlic in the refrigerator, as it will not store long and will soon sprout.