Planting the Next Crop of Garlic

November 8, 2016

Everyone at the farm is busy completing our long list of autumn chores and tasks. The mild weather has provided a little more time to plant our bulbs, and get a head start on blowing and raking all those leaves.

Garlic is among the last crops we planted. Although garlic can be planted in the spring as soon as the ground can be worked, fall planting is recommended for most gardeners. This allows extra time for the bulbs to grow and become more flavorful for the summer harvest. We planted a lot of garlic from Keene Organics, a family owned farm in Wisconsin that sells certified organic and naturally grown gourmet bulbs for both eating and planting. Garlic is great for cooking and very good for your health. It is known to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and carries antioxidant properties. Knowing that I also grow the garlic myself makes it even more special.

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: It’s always exciting to get a box from Keene Organics filled with a variety of garlic bulbs for my garden. The box comes complete with an informational pamphlet explaining how to prepare and plant the garlic. Keene also recommends my blog as a good source for garlic tips. https://www.keeneorganics.com

: When planting garlic, look for the largest most robust bulbs. There were about two or three bulbs in each netted pack, and each bulb contained at least four to six cloves – some even more.

: Ryan prepared the garlic for planting – first, crack each bulb and separate all the cloves. Do this carefully, so as not to damage any of them. After all of the garlic heads are separated, group the cloves with other similar varieties. For the best results, plant the largest cloves from each bulb and save the smaller ones for eating.

: Chamisol Wild-Rocambole are hardneck, very hardy, large-sized cloves with an earthy sweet flavor – it’s a true heirloom garlic and has grown wild in the Southwest for many years.

: These heirloom Armenian Porcelain cloves are very popular because of their large size and flavor. They are enjoyed raw but they also retain their full-bodied flavor when baked.

: The Music Porcelain garlic is easy to grow. Raw, this garlic is very hot-flavored, but it mellows when it is baked or roasted.

: The Northern White-Porcelain garlic is full-flavored, robust, hot and spicy. It also stores well and for long periods of time.

: Metechi-Purple Stripe are easy to grow, with a hot, fire flavor.

: Italian Red Porcelain garlic has a hot garlic flavor. It grows well in northern regions and is a longer storing variety.

: These Montana Giant-Porcelain garlic cloves are easy to grow, and are slightly spicy but not overpowering.

: The Russian Giant Marble-Purple Stripe is easy to grow and gives off a mild garlic flavor.

: Pehoski Purple-Marbled Purple Stripe is a hardneck that’s hot when eaten raw and more mild and earthy in taste after it is cooked. This is an heirloom garlic grown in the Polish community in Wisconsin. It’s an all-purpose garlic for baking and sautéing.

: Persian Star Purple Stripe has a spicy taste that is sweet when roasted or sautéed.

: Elephant Garlic is actually a leek that resembles garlic in growing and in appearance. It has a very mild flavor.

: The German Extra Hardy Porcelain garlic is large-sized and medium flavored. Because of its large root system, this hardneck is extremely hardy and often withstands freezing and thawing cycles when other garlic varieties don’t.

: The Russian Giant Marble-Purple Stripe is easy to grow and gives off a mild garlic flavor.

: Majestic-Porcelain is easy to grow, hardy and easy to peel with a mild flavor.

: Georgian Crystal Porcelain has a medium rich flavor that’s extremely popular among growers.

: The Chesnok Red-Purple Stripe garlic is an heirloom variety. It is loved for its rich flavor as an all-purpose cooking garlic. It’s also well known as a superb baking garlic.

: In all, there were 16 different hardneck garlic varieties. The next step is to prepare them for planting.

: Ryan mixes a solution of baking soda, water, and fish emulsion.

: Fish emulsion is an organic garden fertilizer that’s made from whole fish or parts of fish. It’s easy to find at garden centers or wherever gardening supplies and fertilizers are sold.

: Ryan placed the garlic in separate plastic containers, keeping all the labels near each type for easy identification.

: Each container was filled with the solution. Soaking the garlic cloves in fish emulsion gives them a fertilizer boost and rids them of possible diseases, which could have been carried by the garlic.

: The cloves were all left to soak overnight.

: The next morning, empty the containers, and do a second soak with the garlic in isopropyl or rubbing alcohol, for about 20-minutes. This helps to sterilize the cloves.

: If you don’t have alcohol, you can also use hydrogen peroxide or vodka.

: Once soaked, Ryan uses a sieve to remove all the liquid.

: Let the cloves drain for a few minutes – this process will take a bit of time, but ensures all the liquid is removed.

: Return the cloves to the plastic containers and create garden markers listing each garlic variety.

: Garlic likes loose, loamy and nutrient filled soil. When preparing your soil for garlic planting, be sure to add plenty of organic matter, compost, manure and fertilizer.

: Wilmer used twine to make sure all the cloves were spaced evenly. Doing this creates straight, pretty rows, but it is also important to give each clove enough room to grow and develop. They should be planted at least several inches from each other.

: To make the holes for planting garlic, use a dibble or a dibber. This is a T-dibber. The T-grip allows the planter to apply enough pressure to create a consistent depth for each hole.

: The dibber is perfect for planting garlic. Cloves should be at least two to three inches deep. Be sure to plant the tip of the clove faced up, and the root side faced down.

: When planting multiple rows of garlic, be sure the rows are at least one-foot apart. The majority of garlic in the US is planted from mid-October through November, several weeks before the ground freezes.