Garlic or Allium sativum is a member of the onion family. Cultivated by humans for thousands of years, it has served as food, medicine, and talisman.
While its rich variety of uses in the kitchen make it indispensable to cooks, its easy nature and companionable benefits should earn it a place of honor in every home garden.
It requires little maintenance after its initial fall planting, provides pest protection and soil fertility to its neighboring plants, and is ready to eat before most other crops.
Best of all, it is simple to save some of the garlic you grow to plant your next batch, as it only takes one clove to grow next year’s bulb! Because the hard part is done before we even depart from our winter cocoons for spring digging, garlic growing really is gardening made easy!
If you’re a believer in garlic, as well as a proponent of its flavor adding (and possible healing) qualities, and want to grow it, follow some easy guidelines.
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The vitamins that are in garlic are significant as garlic has been proven to help greatly increase a person’s health. It also is a great way to add flavor to food without adding a lot of calories.
Just some of the health conditions and symptoms that garlic is great for include:
Softneck garlic also known as Alium sativum sativum, is the type most often found in the supermarket. The bulb is covered in papery layers, and the cloves are larger on the outside, becoming smaller and thinner as they get toward the middle. The leaves of the plant are pliable, so they can be braided. Common softneck varieties are silverskin and artichoke.
Hardneck garlic sometimes called ophios, has the Latin name of Alium sativum ophioscorodon. This variety sends up a hard flowering stalk called a ‚”scape.” Hardneck bulbs have fewer and larger cloves and fewer papery layers than softneck varieties. Common hardneck varieties include porcelain, rocambole, and purple stripe.
Most experts agree that the ophio garlic is the oldest and were the first domesticated varieties. They are well adapted to the harsh climates of southern Asia. Their smaller bulbs with many layers of bulb wrappers could withstand the long cold winters and hot dry summers, as well as unmanaged low fertility soils.
As garlic was introduced to new areas such as southeast Asia and Europe, it encountered more moisture and better soil. Consequently, bulb size increased and the process of domestication created the softneck or sativum varieties.
Recently dozens of garlic varieties from the former Soviet Republics have become available in Europe and North America. A new classification system in use by commercial growers and seed companies is based on both degrees of domestication and annual and geographical environmental influences.
When choosing the best variety for growing in your region, keep in mind that ophio garlic grows best in the northern US. Sativum garlic can grow in both the north and south, but are really the only choice for southern growers.
What is Elephant Garlic?
Elephant garlic is not actually garlic; it is more like a leek that produces large cloves. Its flavor is much milder than garlic, making it more pleasant to eat raw.
If you do not have homegrown garlic to start with, you will have to buy or trade to get some healthy stock to plant. Many organic seed companies offer garlic cloves in the fall, and they are generally of good quality.
One of the problems with choosing catalog stock, however, is that it generally comes from another area of the country, and is, therefore, more adapted to that region’s growing conditions.
To find good local garlic for growing that will support your region’s farms and sustainable practices, as well as be suited to your garden’s conditions, try to find garlic at a local festival or farmers market.
Garlic has soared in popularity over the past decade, as food interest has been piqued in the general public, and many fall harvest festivals have sprung up devoted solely or in part to garlic.
By meeting the growers you can get good planting and care advice and help keep their growing profitable and productive in their region. If all else fails, ordering from a catalog is not a bad alternative, but try to speak to a representative about what varieties perform well in your specific conditions.
If you like garlic at your supermarket, you can buy a bulb and plant the cloves. But try to buy organic garlic, because it will be free of pesticides. For the best selection and highest quality, purchase your seed garlic at a nursery or garden supply shop.
In most areas whose temperatures drop below freezing for several months during the winter, garlic planting is done in the fall, and the plant overwinters underground emerging on its own in the early spring.
In other warmer areas, garlic can be planted after the winter months. Be sure to get your cloves in before the ground freezes. Check your local agricultural extension if you are not sure when that is. Or, just be sure to plant early enough. Some ancient traditions recommend planting garlic on the autumn equinox.
Others say the shortest day is for planting (winter solstice) and the longest day is for harvesting (summer solstice). This may work for some areas, but most gardeners will need to plant before December to ensure diggable soil. The cloves will quickly develop roots after being planted and before going dormant for the winter.
The longer they have before winter’s chill, the more they will grow. For this reason, you may be inclined to err on the early side. Just be sure to cover any greens that sprout up if they have time to develop before winter.
Choose a place where onion family members have not been grown in at least one year. Because garlic will spend the winter underground, susceptible to standing water from snow and rain, your site must have good drainage. You might want to use a raised bed, mounded area, or even a container.
Garlic responds well even in tight spaces and is generally open for experimentation. Because you will be planting many cloves and not just one plant, you may want to vary your locations to see where it performs best. It will need loose, fertile soil and decent sunlight exposure.
It is generally left alone by pests, so you might even place it outside a fenced area if space is limited. It also looks lovely intermixed where other plants will grow in the spring, and its allium smell keeps insects and diseases at bay.
Crack apart bulbs and choose the largest cloves for planting. Small cloves require just as much work as large cloves but generally result in smaller heads. It is best to eat small cloves rather than plant them. Discard any that are damaged or soft.
To maintain their moisture and viability, try to plant cloves within a few days of separating them. Plant garlic 5-8 inches apart, approximately 1-2 inches below the surface of the soil. You may wish to amend your soil before planting with chopped leaves, seaweed, fish emulsion, or other organic materials.
To prevent frost heaves and frosted sprouts, add a protective layer of leaves or compost several inches thick as winter mulch before leaving them for the season.
Garlic needs little attention. If there are problems with birds or other critters, place a net over it. Water it during long dry spells. Keep the weeds down. Know that garlic has little tolerance for a great deal of heat, for overwatering, or for over-fertilizing.
If you plant in the fall, your garlic should be ready for harvesting in June or July.
Add a layer of compost to deter weeds and retain moisture. Water your plants to the amount of one inch weekly. After the ground freezes in the winter, you may want to pile on more compost as an extra assurance to prevent freezing.
As the garlic grows, the green leaves above will indicate the progress of the bulbs. The ground must dry out fairly quickly in the spring, but some moisture is necessary for healthy bulbs to swell.
If mother nature does not provide around a half-inch of water per week once the heat arrives, you will need to supplement it.
Keep the bed barely moist, but do not over-water; wet garlic will rot and will not store. Conversely, dry garlic will not bulb up properly and will remain stunted. The balance is not terribly difficult. If you experience excessively flooded spring beds, you may consider covering your crop from the weather. However, properly drained beds should be just fine.
After the ground has thawed and you have applied compost, it is time to allow the bulbs to grow unencumbered by spring weeds. With new sunny skies and warmth returning, the weeds will be here any day.
It’s your job to keep your garlic sprouts well-mulched and weed-free. Weeds sap all plants of nutrients, water, and sunlight as they grow and take over. This is especially detrimental to root crops, like garlic.
Using a generous helping of organic compost, chopped leaves, or other natural mulch will keep garlic happy and prevent weeds from encroaching in your beds. Periodic hand weeding is preferable to tool weeding to avoid damaging roots.
In late spring, garlic produces a flowering stalk called a scape. If left on the plant, this scape will eventually bloom and release many tiny bulbils of garlic seed. Most people do not allow the scapes to develop this far and cut them before they produce a large head.
The common belief is that bulbs allowed to flower will be significantly reduced, and it is not worth it. Other gardeners insist that well-fertilized garlic will be little inhibited by a flowering scape. The scapes are tasty, and you may do just as well to snip them and serve them roasted similarly to asparagus.
Or, you may choose to allow a few to develop and show their pretty potential. The most common practice for those who wish to see the scape is to allow a few to mature on the plant or to snip them and keep them well watered in a vase; after a few weeks, they should open like a forced branch.
When most of the crop has begun drying, lift the plants with a garden fork. Shake off the excess dirt. Discard (or use immediately) any damaged bulbs. If you’ve planted softneck garlic, braid the garlic tops if you wish.
This is the time to set aside some of the prettiest, fattest bulbs to use for seed next season.
Once the garlic is pulled from the ground it will need to cure in a warm, dry, well-ventilated area for a few weeks. Carefully brush off excess dirt, but leave papers intact.
Keep the greens attached and tie bundles of about a dozen together to hang from rafters in an attic, an old shower rod, or just about anywhere that is warm and dry and out of the way. Check the bulbs periodically to be sure they are not rotting.
After several weeks, untie bundles, cut stalks to within 2-5 inches of bulbs and remove the outermost dusty paper. Keep garlic in a dry space at an optimal temperature of about 65 degrees. Too low of a temperature or excess moisture may make garlic sprout.
Keep it dry and fairly warm and it should last for many months, hopefully until next year’s crop is ready!
When the tops start to turn yellow and are falling over, it’s time to harvest. (If the bulbs are harvested too late, they will not cure or store well). Use a garden fork to lift the bulbs from the ground.
Do not cut the tops off. Put the bulbs with the stems still attached in a shady and warm area for a couple of weeks. When the skin of the garlic resembles paper (onion skin), and the roots are dry, it’s almost time to store them.
Remove any dry soil from the bulbs but do it carefully so as not to bruise or damage the bulb. Use the stems to braid the garlic into ropes. Store them in a cool (around 40F), dry space. Do not freeze.
Keep the largest bulbs for next year’s plants. Separate the cloves. Each clove will produce a bulb next year.
Your garlic is taking a break underground, so for the winter, spend some time choosing new garlic recipes to try after the harvest! If you experience particularly windy or wet weather, check your site periodically to be sure your cloves are well covered by soil and mulch and not exposed to the elements of winter. A snow blanket is also an excellent protectant.
Homegrown garlic is a great gift if a gardener can bear to part with it. Possibly the hardest part of growing garlic is deciding what recipes to use it in once it’s in the pantry. Always remember to save enough garlic for next year’s crop.
There are so many different benefits to growing garlic and having fresh garlic is the best way to completely benefit from the herb. Learning how to grow garlic can be one of the easiest things that a person learns to do to improve his health. It takes a little time but has huge benefits.
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