24 inches wide by 21 inches long would fit approximately 20 cloves. They would be 6 inches apart going across and the rows will be 7 inches apart.
Once you have obtained your organic planting stock from www.TheGarlicStore.com or one of the reputable suppliers who are sprouting up around the country in response to garlic mania, the next question is: how do you grow it?
It's not that hard, but there are some key things to remember. We are happy to share our experiences with you, although they may be biased somewhat by our western climate - cold winters, hot summers and low humidity year round. The hardneck garlics especially do well in colder climates. In fact some thrive on being in the ground during very cold winters (upstate New York is a center for hardneck growers). We will be happy to share your growing ideas and successes with other visitors to the site. Just e-mailus with your comments and we will incorporate them into these pages on a regular basis.
Naturally if you really want to dig into this topic, you must read Ron Engeland's classic book "Growing Great Garlic". You may also get our garlic growing video "Enjoy Garlic! Enjoy Life!" But now, let's turn to this year's crop.
Note: Many of the terms used here are explained in depth in the Test Your GQ section.
SOIL
Garlic likes full sun and well drained soil. Garlic is quite tolerant when it comes to soil types and textures, but it definitely appreciates sandy-clay-loam that is friable (easily crumbled in the hand) and has a high organic content. It does best when the pH is in the 6.2 to 6.8 range. You can get your soil tested at the local university extension office or use one of the soil test kits on the market. Make sure you take samples from several spots in your garden and mix them together to obtain a representative reading. The garden or field should drain easily - standing water just won't cut it as the bulbs could rot in the ground. To increase the tilth of the soil (isn't that a great word?), add organic matter such as well-composted manure. You can also green mulch, that is plant cover crops such as clover or buckwheat and then till them into the ground.
PREPARATION
As with most crops, proper soil preparation is essential. If you have a large enough field, disc and cultivate to really work up the soil. If you have a large garden, do the rototiller thing. If you have a small plot, spade up the top 6 to 12 inches. Garlic roots like to go deep, so well cultivated soil is a big help. Mix in the organic matter and manure at this phase. After the deep tilling, we find a final pass with a cultivator that powders up the upper several inches of the soil aids in planting.
PLANTING
When to plant? The fall is best. Remember garlic is a bulb (like tulips and daffodils). Plant 4 to 6 weeks before significant ground freezing may occur. On the High Plains, we like to get going by mid-September, since snow by the end of September is not at all that rare here. Further east and south, late September and into October will generally do. The idea is to get the cloves in the ground during warm weather so germination occurs and good root formation follows. It is good sign when you get green shoots popping above the soil in late autumn. Don't worry. The tips may suffer a little winter burn, but they can tolerate zero and below. Studies have actually shown that some garlic leaves actually grow ever so slightly on sunny days with temperature is below freezing. Recent tests have shown that early spring planting provides good results not only in the South, but also in colder areas.
When do you "crack" the bulbs? Since one obviously does not plant the bulb whole, you must crack (split) the wrapper and separate the individual cloves. It is best not to do this more than about 48 hours before actual planting, or they will begin to dry out and lose viability. Incidentally, one half pound of garlic typically has about 3-5 bulbs. And each bulb has somewhere around 5-15 cloves (it depends on variety). Thus at the most you'll have somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 75 potential plants per half pound of garlic. You can get a return of about seven times for a successful planting. But keep one rule in mind: bigger cloves mean bigger bulbs. Thus the smaller cloves should not be used for you main crop.
What can you do with the small clove culls? Well, you can eat them. Or, here's a secret: use them for spring baby garlic. Just go ahead and plant them like any other garlic, in a separate plot and with a much tighter density (1-2 inches apart is fine). In May when the plants are about 12-16 inches tall and look like scallions, dig them up. And prepare for a real culinary treat. They have both the look and texture of scallions, but they taste of pure garlic. Try them in salads, braised, with roasts, in stir fries, whatever. They are just great. You can also plant spring cloves for greens and have a nice crop in 60 to 90 days.
How deep to plant? We find the tips should be about 2 inches below the soil surface. For elephant (Buffalo) garlic, make that 3 to 4 inches. Be sure to plant with the pointy side up/basal plate (root) down. They will grow at other orientations (they're tough plants) but you will have bent stalks which detract aesthetically from the final product.
How to plant? While we use a modified onion planter, most people do it by hand (as do we in our test plots). There are several techniques. In dry climates we find it works best to let the upper few inches dry out and then bring in the cultivator, turning the soil almost to powder. Then you can literally just stick the cloves in the ground by hand and the soil covers them up as you remove your fingers. If you have heavier and/or wetter soil, you can poke a hole in the ground with a broom handle and just drop the cloves in the hole, covering up the entire batch with a rake at the end. This works best if you water the soil several hours before planting so it is moist but not muddy. How close do you plant them? Our experience is that closer is better. If you look at the commercial plantings out in Gilroy, they are amazingly tight. But the cloves should have enough room to grow into large bulbs (at least 4 to 6 inches for hardneck and 6-8 inches for elephants). The close planting helps with weed control once the plants get larger in spring as the leaves block out the sun to the later sprouting weeds. In any case, if you plant in rows, be sure to leave enough room (24-30 inches) in between so you can get in there to weed next spring (which you can count on). |
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FERTILIZING MULCHING We do have one problem here, however. It is the wind. Fifty miles an hour is no big deal on the High Plains. So stuff tends to blow away (into Kansas in our case). Wetting down your mulch helps compact it, making it less likely to take off. But we finally resorted to rolling out chicken wire on top of the mulch. Crude but effective, at least until the wind break trees grow enough to reduce the problem. You should plan to put the mulch on immediately after planting (perhaps after giving the ground a really good watering). Don't be shy on the mulch, at least several inches should cover your crop. You would be surprised how tough those shoots are when it comes to punching through the mulch. If you do mulch extra heavily, removing some of the overburden in spring might be a good idea, but leave enough for weed control. IRRIGATION WEEDING HARVESTING Don't let the bulb stay in the sun very long as it will sun scald, which reduces its quality. For our larger fields here at Yucca Ridge our very clever neighbor Bob has modified an ancient potato picker which actually does an excellent job at extracting the plants. (It really helps to move in next to a guy who likes to weld things and is so clever he makes you feel quite inferior, which of course you can't admit to him....... why am I getting into this?) Incidentally, many people wonder if the scapes should be cut in order to increase bulb size? For elephants the answer is definitely yes. For hardnecks, yes appears to be the correct answer also, although some varieties seem less affected by leaving the scape attached. Cut them generally just before the scape has fully extended (or the coils in the Rocamboles have started uncurling). When still young, the scapes are considered good eating by some. CURING When you do your sorting, keep your biggest bulbs for planting stock. Remember, big bulbs come from big cloves which come from big bulbs....and so on. Also it has been argued that the smaller bulbs taste better (perhaps by people who have trouble growing large bulbs?). STORAGE |