Garlic skins splitting and small size bulbs

[AllotmenteerParticipant]

Dear Charles

I harvested some french and Italian softneck and hardneck garlics this week. The leaves started yellowing, they had some rust on them but the stems looked very thick and promising.

I ended up harvesting all of them as I noticed the skin on the bulbs was splitting although the bulbs were small and the cloves not well formed. There were also some little brown maggots in some of them.

Should I have left them in the ground longer? Would they have grown larger?

Your advice is very much appreciated as I am a bit disappointed with this year’s harvest.

[charlesModerator]

You could have left them 2-3 weeks in the ground… as long as the rust is not a general, bright yellow.
Mine are currently similar, pesky rust strikes every year now, except in the polytunnel.
Usually I harvest around the solstice.
Rust does not affect eating or storing quality, just size from what I have seen!

[Author]

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