The Garlic is Planted!
Another task is done. Next year's garlic crop is now 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. 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.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- It’s always exciting to get a delivery from Keene Garlic filled with bags of fragrant garlic bulbs for my garden. I have been planting Keene Garlic for several years and am always so pleased with their growth and taste. Here are just some of the different varieties we are planting this year.
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- 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. Each bulb contains at least four to six cloves – some even more. Among this year’s varieties – Asian Tempest – Asiatic is very hot when eaten raw and sweet when baked. It tastes rich, garlicky, strong, and robust with easy to peel jumbo cloves.
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- 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.
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- Nootka Rose is known for being a long storing garlic. This type is great baked, roasted, and nicely blended with a variety of dishes.
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- Ryan prepares the labels. It’s good to keep varieties identified, so favorites can be grown again the following season.
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- All the variety names are written on white labels and then covered with transparent tape and secured to the markers.
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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. Then drains.
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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 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. Then they are drained and rinsed thoroughly before drying.
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- Once all the garlic is put through the preparation process, the cloves are returned to their mesh bags for easy transport to the garden bed – this year located in the far southwest corner of my vegetable garden. Extra bulbs were left whole and brought down in case needed.
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- In my large vegetable garden, the beds are treated with a good plant food. This is Miracle-Gro Plant Food for Vegetables and Herbs.
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- Ryan uses a 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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- Josh secures twine to ensure the rows are perfectly straight. This is a guide for all the other rows in the bed. Ryan 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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- Ryan 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.
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- To make the holes for planting garlic, Josh uses a dibble or a dibber. The T-grip on the dibber allows the planter to apply enough pressure to create a consistent depth for each hole.
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- Cloves should be at least three inches deep.
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- Josh gently pushes the clove to the bottom of the hole.
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- And then backfills with soil.
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- Josh and Phurba are fast planters. The garlic crop will tolerate some shade but prefers full sun. This garlic will be ready to harvest mid-July to August.
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- Each marker is placed at the end of the row for easy identification.
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- Finally the beds are raked and then 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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