It’s time to get the garlic in the ground for next year’s harvest. Come along with me and I will show you how I do it.
It starts with having a high quality supply of garlic bulbs to plant. I order mine online from a reputable seed company, such as Baker Creek or Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
You can often grow garlic using bulbs purchased at the grocery store; however, be aware that sometimes these bulbs have been treated to prevent sprouting. Also, you might not know which type of garlic it is, if that matters to you. Lastly, those bulbs may not be as high quality or offer as much disease resistance.
The two common types of garlic are softneck and stiffneck. The stiffneck type has a rigid central stem. They have a milder flavor, are more cold hardy, and do not keep as long as the softneck type. The softneck varieties are more common. The center stem stays soft and this is the type that you might see braided for storage purposes. This year I bought one of each type: Ozark (softneck) and German Extra Hardy (stiffneck).
Truth be told this is only my second time to plant garlic. The first year was successful, so I am doing the same thing this year. Fall is the time to plant garlic if you want a good summer harvest the following year. It needs the cold period to enable the seed to develop into a bulb with separate cloves. I have read that spring planting can be done, but the results may not be what one is looking for. According to Johnny’s Selected Seeds, where I got my garlic this year, planting should be done from the first frost date until as late as November. Our first frost occurred on Oct. 18 this year and November is coming up quickly. I got my garlic in the ground on Oct. 22. The idea is to plant during that window in which good root growth will occur before a hard freeze, yet while cold enough so that no top growth will occur before spring.
To start, separate the heads into their individual cloves. The cloves in the photo below are from one head of garlic of each variety. Typically, the softneck varieties contain a dozen or more cloves per head and the stiffneck, four to seven cloves. Keep the papery husks on the cloves. Note that the largest cloves will product the biggest heads of garlic.
Decide on a location to plant the cloves. Garlic can be grown quite well in containers and raised beds. Just be sure that there is adequate drainage and that they are in a location that will get 6-8 hours of direct sunlight. Also, it is always good to start with quality soil and even better to amend with compost prior to planting.
I am using one of our cedar raised beds for my garlic this year, half of the space to be used for the Ozark and the other half for the German Extra Hardy. Here, the bed is in the process of being weeded. I had planted some lettuce in it and there were a few stragglers holding on. Also, plenty of weeds that needed to come out. I used a wooden stake to make a dividing line down the middle. All this talk of wooden stakes and garlic, you’d think I was concerned about vampires…
After the whole bed was weeded, I was ready to plant the garlic. I did not amend the soil simply because I have no compost that is ready at the moment. I never have enough compost and that will be a good topic for another day!
To plant the garlic, dig a 2-4 inch deep hole for each clove. Be sure to keep the pointy end facing up. I like to place all the cloves on the surface of the soil first so that I can gauge spacing, and once they are all in good positions, I dig them in to the proper depth.
Regarding spacing, I have read several different recommendations that range from 5-6 inches apart in rows anywhere from 8 inches to 2 feet apart. I spaced mine approximately 6 inches apart. As far as spacing between rows, for the right side of this bed, there were fewer cloves – that was the stiffneck German Extra Hardy – so I left about a foot between rows. The left side contained the softneck Ozark. Because I had many, many more cloves of this variety, I was able to leave only about 6 inches between rows. We will see how they fare come spring. After lining them all up, I dug them in 2-3 inches into the soil.
After getting the cloves to the proper depth, pat the soil down and water gently to help it all settle in nicely.
The last thing I did was to cover the soil with straw. Actually, I am still in the process of doing this. Some experts recommend covering your soil with 4-6 inches of a mulch, such as shredded leaves or weed-free straw, to keep the soil warmer over the winter. That is what I did the first time I grew garlic and it seemed to work, so I am sticking with that. I still have to add another layer of straw to reach that 4-6 inch recommendation. No rush, just sometime before it gets too much colder.
When I say straw, what I am using is some of the tall, decorative grasses that I have cut back. This post has some nice photos of the grasses I am talking about. Once they are cut, they dry out nicely. I just made sure to clip off any seedheads so that the grass seeds will not go into the garlic bed.
They really do not need any further care until spring comes along. I’ve read differing opinions on whether and when to remove the straw in the spring. Some say that leaving it on can cause the soil to stay too wet, contributing to disease and rot. Some say to leave it on to keep weeds down. I am of the mind to remove it once the temps are warm enough in the spring, but I will post on that when the time comes.
That was a very long-winded post…hope you found it helpful! Are you growing garlic this year?
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