I have a question about Rocambole garlic (first time garlic grower here)
I planted some bulbits last winter and the plants are now developed the scape.
I'm nolonger in contact with the person that gave the bulbits and I have tried to find info on what to do with no avail.
Obviously they are not big enough, so what do I do at this point ?
Am I supposed to extract them and dry them out and replant them this fall ?
Am I supposed to just leave them alone ?
I did read that if I let them flower, that they will produce more bulbits, but I'm more interested in increasing the bulb size for eating maybe next yr..
I don't know dink about garlic but this seems to imply you should leave it untill the foliage turns brown.???
Harvesting
The plants are ready to harvest when the foliage has died off, or mostly died off. If it is very wet near harvest time, consider lifting them a bit earlier and drying them under cover. Left in wet soil, the outer parchment often rots. And if there is disease in the root plate, it may develop too far and cause the bulb to fall apart when it is lifted. Rocambole is almost always ready to harvest a month or so before common garlic. But the state of the foliage is the indicator, not any particular date. An experienced Italian American home garlic grower passes on a valuable tip for refining the estimate of when to harvest common garlic-
"Once the top part of the plant has begun to turn brown, pull one of them and peel back the sheaths one at a time. My grandfather liked to wait until there were 2 sheaths, but I'm more comfortable with 3 to 4 sheaths. The problem with only watching the top part of the plant is that when it's very wet or very dry, the sheaths can reduce much faster than in other years.
For example, it was very wet this year in Pittsburgh, PA, where I live and garden. The plants had just started to turn brown when I checked the first one. It was already down to 3 sheaths!!! You might want to warn people what happens if they wait too long - the garlic opens up and it's nearly impossible to get out of the ground. (And the garlic you do find is already starting its growth cycle, so it doesn't keep.)" - RC, Pennsylvania. USA
Wash the bulbs, especially the roots, and leave them for a week or so to dry- so long as it is fine. If you live in a hot climate area, you will have to dry them out of the sun, or your precious bulbs will sunburn. If the weather is dubious, dry your garlic under cover. When the bulbs are dry, you can trim off the roots, scuff off the outer discolored parchment, and braid your garlic for storage.
If you intend to keep your own clove seed, select the biggest and best bulb. Leave the cloves on the bulb, and at planting time select only the best cloves to use as seed cloves. But store your seed bulbs in a relatively cool, dry place-heat in storage can cause the seed cloves to develop into a plant that produces a single large clove , rather than a normal multi clove bulb. Prolonged very low temperatures can also disrupt proper growth.