How To Grow Garlic: A Good-Enough Guide
Everything You Probably Need to Know to Be Successful Growing Garlic
As much as I’d love to, you can’t know everything about everything. Sometimes you have to get started and learn as you go. So in honor of getting started and ‘just in time learning’, here’s a basic guide with everything you need to know to get started and none of the stuff you don’t. (Basically, just plant, relax, and see what happens!)
Garlic is such a great plant to try in your garden. It’s just so easy to grow, and there’s something so exciting about tucking it into the soil on a cold fall day, knowing it will be waiting for you come spring.
There’s still plenty of time to plant garlic this year, even in our cold Zone 4 gardens.
Buying Your Garlic
Start by finding ‘seed garlic’ at a nursery, in a seed catalog, or buy some garlic from your local farmer. True seed garlic will be certified disease-free and selected to have large cloves. I love to support our local farmers and buy from them. You also know you’re getting a variety that grows well in you’re area.
Garlic from the grocery store isn’t usually a great choice to plant. It’s often sprayed with a growth inhibitor to keep it from sprouting on the shelf, and this will also keep it from sprouting in the garden. You also have no way of knowing where it came from or what variety it is; it may very well not be suited for your growing conditions.
Garlic comes in two basic types, hardneck and softneck. Generally, hardneck varieties are hardier and grow better in the north than softneck, which are better suited for the south. Choose a variety that will grow well for your climate.
Planting Time
Garlic is planted anytime between the first hard frost and when the ground freezes; the best time is about 6 weeks before the ground freezes. Here in Vermont, we usually plant them sometime around Halloween, but sometimes I plant as early as mid-October. The timing really isn’t critical, so don’t stress out about it. The goal is just to get the garlic to start rooting into the soil but not to plant so early that they start to send up new growth.
Prepare the soil before you plant. Garlic is a heavy feeder, meaning it uses a lot of nutrients while growing. Using your choice of compost, manure, and/or slow-release fertilizer, apply according to the package directions. Generally, a couple of inches of compost will be just fine to get a good crop. I like to lay it over the top of the soil and mix it in to the top couple inches. You could also fertilize in the spring if you prefer (and some people fertilize at both times).
Right before planting, break the garlic bulb apart into individual cloves using your hands. Each clove will grow into a head of garlic. If you need to, you can use a tool like a butter knife to get it started, but you risk bruising the garlic and this can cause rot. Don’t worry if some of the paper comes off, even if it exposes the bare clove. It will be fine; just try to leave as much of the papery skin intact as you can.
Garlic should be planted about 4” deep and 6” apart; the cloves can be planted anywhere from 2-5” deep and 5-10” apart depending on your conditions. As you get more experienced, you will find what works best for your garden.
Plant the garlic with the pointy end up and the basal plate, where the roots were, facing down. Cover with soil.
That’s all there is to it! Your garlic is now ready to root into the soil all winter and will shoot up new growth in early spring.
You can apply a 2-5 inch layer of mulch over the garlic if you’d like, usually straw or shredded leaf mulch. This is especially helpful in areas where winters are dry and harsh. In Vermont, we generally get a good deal of snow so we don’t need to mulch. The soil stays moist and protected under the snow. Mulch can also help to keep weeds down in the spring and summer until harvest but will keep the soil cool longer in the spring and delay sprouting.
Growing and Caring for Garlic
In the spring, keep the garlic well weeded and watered. Weeds will compete heavily with garlic and other plants in the onion family because they can’t shade them out with their leaves.
Starting sometime in mid-late June, the garlic will start to form scapes, or seedheads. Pick these off as they form to keep the energy going to the bulb and not forming seeds. The scapes can be sautéed or turned into pesto (or just compost them).
Harvest
Garlic is harvested once the leaves start to yellow. For hardneck varieties, don’t wait until the plant has completely yellowed or browned; you can usually start harvesting when about 5 leaves have turned brown. If left in the ground too long, the protective paper shell starts to degrade.
Once harvested, lay in a dry, warm, shaded place to cure in a single layer. Leave until the leaves are dry and brown (about 2 weeks). Then cut the stalks off and remove and brush any dirt from the bulbs.
Bulbs can be stored in a cool dry place for several months (the kitchen is way too warm and moist for good storage). Even with ideal conditions, garlic often won’t last the whole year. To keep it longer, try freezing.
Be sure to keep the biggest best-looking heads of garlic to plant in the fall. Your first instinct may be to keep the best garlic for cooking. But use the small cloves to cook with. Planting the biggest, best, healthiest cloves will ensure that next year you get an equally wonderful harvest.
The Basics:
Don’t get too caught up in the minutia of gardening. Even if you never fertilize your garlic, it will still grow. If you plant it the week before the ground freezes, it will still grow. Your harvest might be impacted, but you’ll learn as you go and figure out what is necessary and what steps you can skip and still have a successful garden. To sum it all up:
Buy garlic suited for your area (hardneck vs softneck)
Plant about 6 weeks before the ground freezes (the same time you’d plant spring-flowering bulbs). Plant 4” deep and 6” apart.
Fertilize, in fall or spring
Keep weeded and pick off scapes.
Harvest when most leaves have about 5 yellow/brown leaves. Cure in a warm place, store in a cool place.
Save the best garlic to replant in the fall.
Garlic is so easy to plant, and it’s one of those things you can use in almost every meal. So get out there and plant some…the best way to learn is by doing it!
