Time to Harvest Garlic and Potatoes

Willamette Valley Oregon, USDA Zone 8b

Garlic 🧄

Are your garlic stalks mostly golden? This means your garlic is summer-dormant, which is ideal for harvesting. Go ahead and lift one or two out of the soil and see if the bulbs are well formed. If they are good-to-go, turn off any irrigation and let them cure in the bed for a few days. Then lift them out with a trowel, brush off any soil (do not wash), and store in a dark well ventilated place to cure. For more information on garlic harvesting read the garlic section in the Simple Harvest Storage Techniques

Potatoes 🥔

Potatoes are also ideally harvested when they go summer-dormant. You can tell when the tops turn golden and flop over. Most do this right on cue in mid-July. But the Makah Ozette potato seems to go later before they turn and flop. It would be a good one for school gardens as the harvest can happen in September.

When you are ready to harvest, turn off irrigation and allow the soil to dry and the skins will begin to cure. (Thicken and toughen to protect against moisture loss.) After a few days to a week of this treatment, I will grip and pull the stalks bringing up some of the potatoes. Then work outward from there with my hands. Discard any very green potatoes. When exposed to sunlight potatoes often turn green (chlorophyll) which is an indication that they are creating the toxin solanine. Read more in my Potato Growing Guide and more about storing potatoes in my Simple Harvest Storage Techniques article.