Andrew’s Guide to Planting
Garlic
Here we plant garlic shortly after the first frost,
optimally early to mid October. You’ll want to start
with preparing the soil: Roto-til, break up the hard pan/ add compost, etc. Garlic likes loose and rich soil with good
drainage.
The night before you plan on planting: Separate out the
cloves from the bulbs, leaving the outer layer of skin still on individual
cloves.
Soak overnight in water (1 Tbs Baking Soda to 1 gallon of water), this process essentially ‘wakes up’ the cloves and helps them get a jumpstart on hydrating.
The following day: drain off water mixture.
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| Garlic in each bowl is a different variety soaking before planting. |
An additional step would be to soak the cloves in Rubbing
Alcohol for 4 minutes, this will kill off any soil contaminates that may have
arrived in seed bulbs and will help ensure you will have healthy plants.
Place each clove in a hole 4” deep and 6-8” apart. Pointed end up, root base on bottom of hole. Cover with compost and mulch.
Burry and wait.
Within 4-8 weeks the cloves will begin to sprout, what is important is they are
setting their roots to hold them in place through the winter. Growing garlic in the northern climates it is
recommended that you use hardneck varieties and mulch them for winter
protection.
When green sprouts in spring, make sure you have a nice
coverage of mulch to keep weeds off the plants, garlic doesn’t enjoy weed
competition. Keep them irrigated through
June, garlic needs an 1” of rainfall per week… but stop any fertilizing in the middle
of May. Weeding is important, as weeds
steal moisture and nutrients from your plants and rob you of bulb size.
Remove the “scapes” as they appear. This too will limit bulb size. Once the curly stems are 10” tall they make a
great addition to soups and stir fry. Scapes provide some great garlic
flavor, I've had great luck just throwing them whole into crock pot recipes.
Watch:
as plants mature you can begin harvesting when the first bottom leaf
begins to yellow and before the three from the bottom brown and shrivel. Planting more than one variety of garlic
allows you to have different maturation times and can extend your garlic
harvest. Harvest while they still have five green leaves, after that point the
cloves may begin to separate from each other.
Allow to dry in a shady, breezy locations for two – four
weeks to cure.
Store the Garlic in net bags with 50-70 degrees and 45-55
percent humidity. Don’t refrigerate.
Find a use for garlic in every meal, can you? Its delicious.
Questions?
andrew@walochfarm.com
Sources of Information and Garlic that I've used.
Sources of Information and Garlic that I've used.
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