Growing Garlic

While out preparing a garden bed for planting garlic in, I remembered that I had promised a garlic growing thread some time ago. This seems like a good time to begin, and I'll do a play by play as we go through to harvest, drying and braiding in July.

I begin by clearing a bed of weeds and plant debris. I usually plant a bed (in Spring) with summer crops I know will be finished by the time I want to prepare for the garlic in the Fall. This bed had green beans, zucchini, delicatas and a tomato plant, all of which are over and done for the year. I sprinkled on lime and a mix of organic fertilizers including kelp meal and azomite (anything with trace minerals will do). Some years I add bone meal, greensand, or oyster shell too. I do not plan this scientifically by using soil tests, though that would probably be ideal. I just give my garden something every Fall and try to vary it.

The garlic needs to be planted by the end of October, so I'll be getting the cloves separated this week.

Then I add a layer of compost or composted manure. This year I bought some, which just isn't as live as good homemade compost, but I got hit by a bad allium fungus this Spring and can't use my own stuff since it might be infected. I am planting in a bed that has not had garlic or onions previously and trying to clean tools carefully before working in this bed.

I so want to grow garlic. Screwed it up this year by not ordering any in time, they were all so danged expensive I kept putting it off. :-/

I'll be glad to see your play by play so at least I'll know what to do if I manage to get my act together next fall. ;)

Pony - you can buy garlic and if it's untreated, it will grow. Shoot - mine grow in the pantry sometimes.
Garlic needs rich-ish well-drained soil. Plant before Thanksgiving.

Yeah, I have garlic sprout on me all the time, but the articles I've read here on DG about growing it say supermarket garlic is inferior for growing from... but geez, the fancy "gourmet" ones cost a bundle!

Hmm... maybe I'll plant some of the stuff I have anyway- it's better than nothing, huh?

I think most garlic you could buy at a grocery store would be from this year's harvest and would be fine to plant. You could also get some from a farmer's market, which might offer some more interesting varieties but not be too expensive. Go for it!

Okay, I'll give it a whirl. Thanks for the pep talk! :D

how can you tell if it's "treated"? how is it treated? I would just love to plant a bit of garlic - I like to use it but don't like buying it in 3 head units, 1.5 always go to waste.

the ones I buy tend to sprout after a while. does that mean I could use them?

I read about garlic being "treated" to keep it from sprouting. Over the years, i have noted that some does not sprout, but most of it does. Sprouting indicates viability & it does grow.
I have purchased & planted the gourmet types, as well as garlic from the grocery store. I like the large-clove types, & that is what I've looked for. either source has worked well for me. If you buy the fancier types, save the small cloves for planting the following year.
The fancier types are more expensive, but you have a wider variety available, certainly several that meet your taste specifications. Easy to grow & no pests; at least in my garden it's the one crop that won't get bothered.

this is more and more intriguing

waiting to see what comes next for mauryhillfarm.

Katye, why would you want to plant the small cloves? That flies in the face of what I've been told, and my experience as a grower myself.

Sorry this is taking me so long, but I had to finish getting the compost dug in, then came Monday and the hectic work week. I've been preparing my cloves to plant a little at a time and planting in the semidarkness of the evening.

I select my medium to big size bulbs to break apart for planting, examining for any sign of mold or damage. I only want to plant really nice looking cloves. This can be a little trickier than it appears. Generally speaking, a bigger clove makes a bigger plant so I select those. However, some of the cloves that look good, on closer inspection have a double bulge and will produce "twins" each of which will be a little smaller and flat sided where they grew together (unless you separate them when the sprout is still small in the Spring which does work if you get to it in time). However there can be exceptions to planting the biggest cloves to get the biggest plants:

There are different families of garlic so to speak, the softnecks which do not produce a flower stalk, and the hardnecks which send up a flower stalk that becomes slightly woody (hard) in the center. Within these groups are many subgroups and varieties. With the softnecks, it is true to my experience that the biggest cloves from the outer part of the bulb will yield the biggest plants and bulbs the following year. We just eat the interior smaller cloves (I eat lots of garlicky foods at planting time!) that I don't plant. With the hardnecks, in general each clove is pretty huge, so even the medium sized and smaller cloves will produce a good sized plant. I personally prefer to plant the medium or large sized cloves of these, but eat the really huge cloves because I don't really need monster sized plants and it is fun to use just one clove in a recipe that calls for "3 cloves of garlic" If I am going to be picky, I select the cloves that have a wide root base rather than a very skinny one. I have not experimented to see if this makes any real difference, but it seems like common sense to want a plat with a solid root base.

Last year, my garlic bed somehow got infected with a fungus. I think the long, cold ,wet Spring made the problem worse. I lost all my early maturing varieties (Asian Tempest, Xian, Chinese Pink, and Early Italian). My latest maturing varieties were fine (Armenian, Kenyan, and Chesnok Red) and did not appear to be affected. Since I want to replant these this year I am taking extra precautions in case they are harboring any spores of the fungus.

I read about a method of prepping cloves for planting to avoid spread of diseases (sorry don't remember where I found it or I'd provide a link). As follows:

Soak the cloves in a bowl of baking soda water for several hours or overnight. I didn't measure, just sprinkled in a liberal amount of soda until the water felt a bit slippery. This allows easy removal of the clove wrapper. Then dip the cloves in rubbing alcohol for a few minutes before planting. This is time consuming, but I did find a few cloves that had little black specks under the wrapper. I'm not even planting those.

i don't think you need to go to all this trouble under normal circumstances.

This message was edited Oct 28, 2009 8:55 PM

Please excuse the messy table! After posting I noticed the ripening tomatoes, stack of potholders, etc.

I have always planted by the end of October, but I am glad to hear that Katye has had success planting up until Thanksgiving. Since it is supposed to be raining the next few days, I'm not going to go get soaked and may wait to plant into the first few days of November this year without getting concerned about being late.

It is possible to plant the softneck varieties very early in the Spring, or technically late Winter (February or early March). They do mature a bit later and the plants will be a little smaller since they didn't get a head start. I did this only once in the last 25 years. When we moved to our current home, we moved in mid Novemer and I didn't have a garden bed at all. It was all straight pasture. We tilled manure and compost into a patch of ground and mulched it to be ready for planting in a few months. I didn't plant any hardneck varieties that year. My softnecks did alright considering it was newly gardened ground.

Here is my planting arrangement. The bed is about 4 feet wide. I alternate rows of 5 cloves and rows of 4 cloves. They are laid out in a triangle pattern. Each clove is about 7 inches apart in all directions. Books I've read say plant 6 to 8 inches apart, and it just happens that my handspread from pinkie tip to thumb tip is 7 inches so I use that measure.

This arrangement is really easy to weed and cultivate because you can easily reach in between the plant rows in 3 directions, straight across and diagonally both ways.

Usually I plant in one day, but this year I'm doing it a little bit at a time. So, I have laid out little stones to indicate where the next row will go when I get out the next day. This way I will keep my triangulated arrangement even though I can't see where the cloves are that i pushed into the ground the day before.

SK - sorry about the poor communication, re: small cloves. I have a raised bed specifically for Garlic. I select the largest cloves for planting with the intention of harvesting the following year. I also plant the smaller cloves in a separate area of that bed, but with the intention of growing them on yet another season.
I do the same with Shallots.

Love that method, Holly. This is very interesting! Oh, and I was going to say that the counter looked very enticing. Late harvest mixed with cooking paraphernalia in the background of a preparatory project.

questions:

is a raised bed necessary? I don't really have a way to form one in, but could berm the soil up some if desired. we live on a slope, so if drainage is the desired outcome, got that already.

what is best pH? you mentioned lime, and I routinely add lime here. our soil is somewhat acidic. (acid loving plants like azaleas love it)

where is good place to find garlic variety? I only know two!

The raised bed is only absolutely necessary if your native soil is shallow and poorly drained like mine is. Garlic thrives in soil well amended with compost or composted manure. It needs enough nitrogen to support strong leafy green plants and the soil to be loose enough that the bulbs can form without fighting a hard soil. If you have been gardening already in the intended garlic location, I'm sure the soil is just fine.

In my opinion, a bermed up bed counts as a raised bed. It doesn't have to have the side boards. I do that because it helps the people and dogs know where the defined path is and it holds the mulch from being blown away completely when we get a windstorm. It also raises the soil level up for me to reach easily, as just a few inches not bending over as far helps my back, which suffered a pretty bad injury a number of years ago.

As far as ph, somewhere close to neutral, whatever is good for most vegetables. Our soil here is also acidic due to conifer forests and plenty of rainfall, so lime helps balance that out.

I have bought garlic to plant at the farmer's market, gotten some from friends, and bought from Filaree Farm here in Washington State. There are probably specialty garlic growers somewhere nearer to you on the East Coast who would know the best varieties for your region, but the people at Filaree might be able to recommend some that would be successful for you also.

thanks!

Loved your tutorial! We tried garlic last year, raised beds, planted in March. As you've described, garlic was on the smaller side but did well. We've planted already this year, several different varieties. I have left over cloves that my son has as 'extras'. He'd love to share if anyone wants to try. We like garlic, but even we can only eat so much.

The varieties are: Applegate Giant, Tochlavri, Chinese Pink, Chet's Italian, Susanville, German Brown and Shvelisi are the 'new' garlics he ordered for this year. He planted 25 of each and we've sampled most. All were organicly grown, ordered from Garlicsmiths in Kettle Falls, WA this fall. Our box arrived in September so we've had them a bit.

Let me know if you're interested and what varieties you'd like. I'd be happy to send sampler packages out to those that want to try them. I will bag and mark them individually if you want more than one variety.

Ooh! ladybuggfan, I'd love to try some Applegate Giant and Chet's Italian! Take a look at my trade list and see if there's anything you'd like in return, or I can send you postage. Thank you! :)

Ladybugfan, I would love to try a sampler pkg. I have never grown garlice before! Same as Pony, let me know if you want something in trade, postage, or cash.
Thanks!
Lynn

Great, Pony I will package up each and get it in the mail on Monday. Nothing needed in return. This is 'childs' opportunity to pay it forward. Many wonderful folks have sent heirloom Tom seed and such for him to try. This is his way of giving back. No postage needed either. Just Dmail me your addy. I'll post when I drop them off on Monday as our PO doesn't work Saturday.

Lynn, let me know if you want some of each or anything in particular. Also no need for anything in return. He'll be excited to share, at 11 that's still very thrilling. Just Dmail your addy to me so we can get the package together.

Off to play in the dirt before horse time. I'll check in later. Thanks guys.

Wow- thanks so much, ladybuggfan! I'll D-mail you. :)

Ladybuggfan, not only am I a fan of ladybugs, but I would just love to try anything you have to spare!

where is Carnation? I lived for 4 years in the Tri-Cities, Kennewick. 1st H worked/s at Hanford Nuclear facility. I roamed the state as much as I could, but he didn't like to travel and didn't let me go alone. Had a blast living there. I could never get over concord grapes growing wild.

Bonjon, Carnation is over the river past Redmond. Microsoft territory. I'd be happy to send a package your way too. Miss Charlotte/Lake Norman NC very much. Was home for 8 years. Dmail your addy and we'll put together a pkg to send your way also.

ladybugg, I would be thrilled to have a sampler package as well since I'm starting from scratch with my garlic crops. Thank you, thank you!

Ladybugg, I would love a sampler as well! I hadn't ordered any garlic yet this year and was desparing over what to do.

sent addy right already. THANK YOU Ladybuggfan! will start digging in compost and manure for them.

you north or south of Issaquah? one of my 1st school's alumna participated in the school's "bed and breakfast for alumni" program, so I could stay there cheap. Had a blast, loved Bellevue mall. I still miss apples right off the tree, too.

Lake Norman is a wonderful place to boat/ski etc. Hadn't been back since my 20's, but an old friend moved to Mooresville so we were there in March. Charlotte is a gorgeous city in the spring with all the wild dogwoods and azalea gardens. there are so many gardens there.

SK & Gwendalou dmail me your addy and I'll put together a package for you as well.

That should take care of all the 'extras' he's been saving. Some of ours is up already, looks like it will be a good crop for next year.

Bonjon, we're north of Issaquah. Decidedly different than our suburban Huntersville digs in NC, much more quiet and out of the way. We're getting used to the weather and love having room for the horses, dogs, cats, garden and flowers.

Thanks for providing 'homes' for the extra garlic!

Thank you so much Ladybug. I will D Mail my address to you. Please let me know if there is anything that I have that you would like. Thanks again..

yes, had a high school friend from here stationed in Tacoma area, in his late 30s. he'd had parachute accident and complained his legs bones always knew when it would rain and out there they never stopped complaining. Very different from here with our heat. But oh how gorgeous the rhododrendrons are there! I'll never forget those!

Could never get over how those western mountains stopped near all the rain on the western side close to the coast. the east side is tan, the west side, dark green! Folks don't realize all those apple orchards are irrigated. they think the whole state is like Seattle.

thank you again!

now, where to dig? I have mostly partial sun/partial shade. what does Garlic take? Have a bit of full sun - filled with irises!

As much sun as you can give them is ideal, but partial sun will work; they just won't grow as big as if in full sun.

Ladybug, I am so happy that you have extra to share with people, and interesting varieties as well. I wish I could share, but I don't want to risk spreading the fungus that I had trouble with this year. Luckily, I have given lots of friends garlic to plant in past years and was able to get some of my lost varieties back from folks who have been growing them since. I am crossing my fingers that my new bed has not been accidentally infected from other places in the garden, or my harvest next Summer could be sparse.

well then, looks like a bit of the iris garden will just have to give way to a tomato cage or two and some garlic!

I have grown garlic in my cutting beds & with the Roses in the past. They can be tucked into a lot of what might be considered "unusable" spaces.

that's a great idea. I have a row of roses out front!

supposedly a great remedy for keeping blackspot at bay, but here there's too much partying fungi. I can't vouch for its effectiveness. But I do like using the areas at the rose's feet for small garlic crops. Oh - no werewolves, too.

And keeps away vampires, as well!

works on both. Not on Mummys, though.