[Sideways]

This is my first season as an allotment holder, first time I have grown garlic.

I have noticed my garlic stems, all around two feet high, have started falling over. The bend is close to the base and there appears to be a swelling of some sort, a bit like the internal part is trying to burst out / grow on. Very strange. Out of x20 plants, six have now fallen in the same way.

It can’t be the wind blowing them down, is this supposed to happen?

[Rampant_Weasel]

if the leaves are starting to brown its time to harvest.

[Sideways]

if the leaves are starting to brown its time to harvest.

I did consider this and pulled one up, it was a very small 'bulb', about half the size of an egg. 

[suesowsseed]

Hi,

My garlic is just as you described.  I'm sure this is normal but I read that some variaties need to be left until August to harvest so I,m going to leave mine a bit longer before pulling them up, just as you say, the bulbs are still quite small at the moment.

[hubballi]

Mine are the same, falling over just like my onions.

[Trillium]

As said, some garlic ripens later, but not too many varieties. We're pretty much into the start of garlic harvest time and the first signs are the stalks and/or leaves starting to dry out and go brown. Once this happens, the bulb will grow no larger as bulb growth has stopped as well. If the bulb is not large (if the variety lends itself this way, not all make large bulbs) then you need to really improve your soil and rotted manure content for next year. They also need regular watering to do well. If the bulbs haven't split into cloves, then you planted them too late and they didn't have a long enough cold spell to make separations. Try planting in October and see what you get next year.

[Jodie A]

Garlic will keel over and go brown yellow when it is due to harvest.

Regarding the bit you say is trying to burst out...this could be the plant trying to flower, if so nip out that round shoot as low down as possible.  The shoot is called a scape, and can be used to flavour joints of meat...some eat it in stir fries but I've always found it a bit tough.

The scape forms the middle stem bit in the clove that you are used to buying from the shops, the longer you let it develop, the bigger the inner bit to the detriment of the cloves.