Next Year's Garlic Crop is Planted!
It’s always busy at my Bedford, New York farm. My outdoor grounds crew is working hard to complete our long list of autumn tasks - including planting our next crop of garlic.
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. Every year, we plant a big crop of garlic from Keene Garlic, 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 well known to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and carries many antioxidant properties. Knowing that I also grow the garlic myself makes it even more special.
Enjoy these photos.
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- It’s always very exciting to get a delivery from Keene Garlic filled with a variety of garlic bulbs for my garden. I have been planting Keene Organics garlic for several years and am always so pleased with their growth and taste. Here are all the different varieties we are planting this year plus some new ones Keene wanted us to try.
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- Ryan prepares the garlic for planting – each bulb is carefully broken to separate all the cloves. For the best results, plant the largest cloves from each bulb and save the smaller ones for eating.
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- When planting garlic, look for the largest most robust bulbs. There are always about three or four bulbs in each netted pack, and each bulb contains at least four to six cloves – some even more.
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- For the preparation process, Ryan gathers fish emulsion, isopropyl alcohol, a strainer and some plastic containers. 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.
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- Ryan soaks 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.
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- After the garlic is soaked thoroughly in alcohol, Ryan uses the strainer to remove the liquid.
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- Next, he creates a solution of fish emulsion…
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- … and a bit of baking soda and water for each container.
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- Ryan fills the containers with the baking soda water to ensure all the garlic is covered. This will give the garlic a fertilizer boost and rid them of possible diseases, which could have been carried by the garlic. It increases bulb size. It also increases the size of the bulb by giving the plant food before putting it to bed for the winter.
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- The cloves are all left to soak in the baking soda and fish emulsion mixture for at least 30-minutes or up to overnight. And then they are drained.
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- This happens to all the garlic and then they are left to dry thoroughly.
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- All the garlic is returned to their mesh bags for easy transport to the garden bed – this year located in the far southwest corner of the new vegetable garden.
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- This bed was previously used for our potato crop, but it was completely cleaned, fed and cultivated before our garlic arrived. Cultivating accomplishes two things: removing any weeds from the garden bed and loosening the soil to optimize the retention and penetration of air, water and nutrients for the plants. Now, Phurba is measuring where the garlic will be planted. My head gardener, Ryan McCallister, already determined how many rows would fit in this bed and how many garlic cloves would be planted in each row.
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- Phurba uses our Bed Preparation Rake from Johnny’s Selected Seeds to create furrows in the soil. Hard plastic red tubes slide onto selected teeth of the rake to mark the rows.
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- As the rows are made, Brian positions each clove. When planting multiple rows of garlic, be sure the rows are at least one-foot apart.
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- 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.
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- The majority of garlic in the US is planted from mid-October through November before the ground freezes. We have not yet had our first freeze, but maybe it will come this week.
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- To make the holes for planting garlic, Phurba uses a dibble or a dibber.
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- Cloves should be at least three inches deep. Be sure to plant the tip of the clove faced up, and the root side faced down.
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- If the soil is well cultivated, this should be a fast and easy process. Phurba is a very fast planter.
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- Here, one can see the garlic in the hole – just deep enough. Once the garlic clove is in the hole, simply back fill the hole.
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- The garlic crop will tolerate some shade but prefers full sun. This garlic will be ready to harvest mid-July to August. I can’t wait.
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- The same is done for the Elephant’s garlic. Elephant Garlic is actually a leek that resembles garlic in growing and in appearance. It has a very mild flavor.
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- Ryan positions all the Elephant’s garlic in a narrow bed next to all the other garlic.
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- And finally, the beds are raked and well-labeled, so we know what garlic is what. The bed is given and good drink of water and that’s it – we wait until next year to harvest. If you’ve never grown your own garlic, give it a try – it’s so easy and so rewarding. Go to the Keene Garlic web site to learn more!
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