Growing Garlic!

Fall is a great time to plant a culinary favorite - Garlic! Not only is it a great addition to many homemade recipes, but it is also a natural deer deterrent in gardens too! Planting garlic around the perimeter of your gardens is a great way to ward off deer once the foliage comes up next Spring through early summer when you'll be harvesting your garlic. Its is a natural Japanese beetle deterrent also! 

With so many benefits of planting garlic why not try some!

There are two main types of garlic: hardneck and softneck. Hardneck garlic have individual cloves growing around a hard central stalk, while softneck garlic have many cloves with larger ones around the outside of the head and numerous small cloves in the center.

Softneck garlic tends to keep longer once harvested than hardnecks. When choosing which cloves to plant, the bigger the clove, the bigger the head of garlic you will yield.

How to plant garlic
Garlic grows best in full sun and in loose, fertile soil. If you have heavy soil, add sand and organic matter for best results prior to planting.  Loosen the soil that you're going to plant in with a pitch fork. Since garlic is best planted in rows, you will want to prepare several shallow furrows in the soil that are 12" apart.

To plant, place a garlic clove, not the entire head, holding the clove pointed end up down into the soil approximately 2 inches deep. Plant the cloves 4 inches apart in the row. After all the cloves are in the ground, gently smooth the soil surface using your fingers to fill in the holes. Water in well.

If you have a lot of leaves, place several inches of chopped leaves over your garlic beds to help keep the bulb protected.

Just after the snow begins to melt next spring, you'll start seeing top growth in your garlic beds. Give your garlic a nice shot of 'hello spring!" using a liquid kelp and fish emulsion. Do this once in early spring and then again a month later.  Garlic isn't a water thirsty plant but, it also doesn't like to dry out either. Feel the soil an inch below the surface, if it's dry, than water. In mid-to late June, you can stop watering your garlic as the heads are starting to form cloves now.




It's harvest time!

In early summer the leaves of the garlic will produce a whip or garlic scape which will produce a garlic flower at the end. When your plant has five or six green leaves with no more than one or two beginning to turn brown it's time to harvest.  Each green leaf is a representation of the wrapper surrounding the head of the garlic underneath the soil!

Using a pitch fork, gently dig around the plant the pry them loose, and pull out. Shake off any excess soil, but do not wash it off. Keep the entire garlic and leaves intact and move to a protected, airy location, away from sun.

Cure & Clean

Curing garlic helps prepare them for storage. Hang the bare bulbs with their foliage in bundles or you can spread them out on a table. Leave the dirt that is on the outside of the bulbs on.  You can eat the garlic right away, but the taste is better after they've cured a bit.

After a few weeks, it's time to clean your bulbs. Trim the stalks to 12" above the bulb and trim the roots close to the bulb. Rub off the outer layer of the garlic bulb gently and using a toothbrush or soft nailbrush carefully remove the dried soil.  Store your bulbs in a well-ventilated, dark area.  If you have great success with your garlic growing harvest, don't forget to save the largest cloves for next years planting!

Did you know that during the course of history, garlic has been touted as a cure for everything from the common cold to the plague? Garlic has powerful antibiotic properties due to the presence of several sulfur compounds. It also contains a variety of amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Garlic is believed to assist in reducing high levels of cholesterol.

Want to try planting garlic this fall? Rutgers Nursery has softneck garlic for sale now!