Soft Neck Garlic Harvest and Shallots

After listening to the Cultivate Simple Podcast #37 on my way home this evening and getting inspired for some fall/winter gardening/planting I figured it was time pull the soft-neck garlic test bed I planted last fall.  This bed was planted to compare and confirm that the soft-neck garlic is just not productive for me in Zone 5b.  As you can see this bed is looking pretty dead.  Around the perimeter I stuck a few off the smaller shallots I planted last fall and they have since grown up and almost completely died back so I figured it was time to pull them and see what was buried beneath the dirt.

As you can see below I had the same problem I had this year that I did last year.  The garlic scape never made it high enough out of the stalk and the garlic bulbils swell up and create a weak spot in the garlic stalk.  This causes all of my plants to bend over where the bulbils have swelled.  Since most of the plants where yellowing and bent over I decided to pull them.  The bulbs were exactly the same size as last year, no bigger than a silver dollar.  They smelled very strong of garlic, so I have bunched them up and set them aside to dry.

For comparison purposes below is a photo of the hard-neck garlic beds which has foliage that is much denser, larger stalks, and greener leaves.  Each garlic plant produced a legit garlic scape just like I was doing something correct!

Bunches of small garlic ready to be set aside to dry.  I will not be wasting time or space on the soft-neck garlic next season!

Now for the French Gray Shallots.  The shallots I planted in this bed were the smaller of the seed shallots I got from The Maine Potato Lady, and the green tops were pretty much all but dead when I pulled them with the soft-neck garlic.  I was surprised to see them bunched like this because I am accustomed to buying individual store bought shallots at my local supermarket.  These are also smaller than I would have expected, but the soil they were planted in was pretty dense, so that may be a contributing factor to their small size.  They smell great and will make a good addition to meals in the future.  They are currently drying.

A close up of the the two clusters with the largest shallots.

With this bed now virtually empty I will try and make my first attempt at fall/winter gardening!