If you still haven’t heeded my advice and planted at least a few stinkin’ cloves in your own garden then now’s a perfect time to read up on the subject and get your seed stock ordered to plant this fall. There’s a complete archive of garlic growing articles here including the following selection to help get you started:

Tips and Tricks for Raising Home Grown Gourmet Garlic

• Planting Fall Garlic in the Home Garden
• Locating and Purchasing Gourmet Garlic Seed Stock
• Favorite Gourmet Garlic Varieties
• Fun Facts and General Garlic Information

Now back to my latest garlic harvest. I dug up a sample clove a week or so ago because I needed a bulb for a new recipe and because I was curious to see exactly how the crop was progressing. The randomly selected garlic bulb turned out to be a whopper and I was all smiles about the prospects for the remainder of this season’s harvest.

An Untimely Delay in the Garlic Harvest

Then came the rains, which were welcomed and needed in the garden, but arrived at a bad time and interfered with digging up the garlic bed. The rain delay pushed the garlic harvest back by a week or two and very little in the way of green leaf growth was left by the time the bulbs were dug up.

Fortunately the garlic bulbs were still in great shape and only a few showed any signs of splitting out of their paper-like wrappers. Size wise it turns out that my random test bulb happened to fall towards the upper end of the spectrum, but most of the garlic was at least a few inches across and definitely larger than your typical store bought bulbs.

The crop was very productive with a growing bed about ten feet long by five foot wide yielding nearly a hundred bulbs of delicious gourmet garlic. Not to even mention how carefree it was to manage this garlic production from a fall planting.

The Ultimate Way to Savor Freshly Dug Garlic Cloves

The garlic has been hung to dry and cure for a few weeks with the exception of a few bulbs that were diverted straight to the kitchen! So what shall it be? Hmmm, fresh garlic bread, roasted garlic cloves, or maybe a garlicky pasta recipe?

No, I think I’ll be brave and enjoy the new harvest like a true garlic aficionado; uncooked in a dish that can handle the full flavor and heat of raw cloves! How about a little hummus, salsa, guacamole, or maybe a smorgasbord of all three? I know, I really should have been better prepared and organized, it’s not like I didn’t see this day coming.

Looks like I’m headed back out to the garden to pick a ripe heirloom tomato, some fresh basil and cilantro, and then I’ll have to run to the store for an avocado, tortilla chips, and a baguette of multi-grain bread. On the way out of the store I’ll try my best to resist swinging by the garlic bin to taunt those pathetic, puny, little, flavor deprived, no-fire, bulbs that pass for garlic in my local supermarket!

“I had such a good crop of Fireball garlic last year that I used some of the best cloves for planting last week. Hope that it works. Have others saved their own bulbs or are you buying new ones every year?”

Saving the Best of Your Garlic Harvest for Seed Stock

It doesn’t get any simpler in terms of seed saving than to sort through your garlic harvest and select the largest and best looking bulbs to become the seed stock for future garlic generations. But it does sometimes require a bit of discipline to resist cannibalizing those prized garlic bulbs that must be set aside and reserved for seed!

While most gardeners want to use super sized bulbs for planting stock, some argue that the medium sized bulbs are just as good and maybe even a better choice for planting. I’m OK with using either as seed stock, but reject any dwarfed cloves from the seed quality bulbs and send them off to become salsa or guacamole instead of seed.

One caution when saving garlic seed is to ensure that all of the garlic bulbs designated as seed stock come from healthy plants that grew free of any sign of disease. Plant viruses are common in the garlic world and infected bulbs are perfectly fine for eating, but are best avoided when it comes to selecting your garlic seed.

Diagnosing, Managing, and Controlling Garlic Viruses

That’s easier said than done because the signs of disease aren’t always obvious and can be easily overlooked. Garlic viruses sometimes make themselves known by the appearance of stunted plants, misshapen leaves, and poor growth in the field.

Other times diseased crops may be revealed by slightly yellowed or discolored leaves, smaller sized bulbs at harvest, or garlic that stores poorly. While the presence of a virus in the garlic seed won’t automatically doom your crop, if you have doubts about the health of the seed I would recommend starting your next planting with good quality seed stock obtained from a reputable garlic seed supplier.

I’m obsessive about rotating my garlic beds so that the crop doesn’t grow in the same spot more often than once every four or five years. You needn’t worry over the following concerns that Josh expressed regarding crossing though: “If I plant potato onions next to gourmet garlic is there any threat of the two crossing to make some sort of hybrid plant?”

Other Considerations for Saving and Maintaining Garlic Seed

There’s no pollination necessary in the sex life or reproduction of garlic, so there’s no risk of garlic crossing with nearby shallots or potato onions. In fact you don’t even have to worry about different varieties of garlic crossing with each other in the garden, and no separation or isolation is required to save and maintain pure seed stock.

As far as using garlic from the supermarket for seed, I always advise against it with good reason. First, the seed may have been treated to discourage it from sprouting, but more importantly obtaining specialty seed affords the opportunity to explore and experience the wide assortment of flavors and types of gourmet garlic varieties rather than settle for the single softneck variety that is likely to be stocked by your local grocer.

After harvesting and curing garlic I store the bulbs indoors until it’s time to replant them in the fall. Keep them in a cool, dry, location, but never refrigerate garlic. Also, you shouldn’t remove the wrappers or separate the cloves until just before you are ready to plant the garlic seed out into the garden.

Custom Crafted Gourmet Garlic Strains from Your Garden

Saving garlic for seed is an easy way to multiply and propagate your gourmet garlic crop while eliminating the expense of purchasing garlic seed every year. I admit that I frequently purchase a portion of my garlic seed stock anyway, just to try out some new and different gourmet garlic varieties that are out there.

Saving your own seed also has the advantages of enabling you to develop superior garlic strains; as the garlic will become better acclimated to the specific climate and growing conditions present in your own backyard.

Even if you haven’t saved a single seed before, there’s little downside to reserving the best of your garlic harvest to use as the seed for next season’s crop of gourmet garlic!

The gourmet garlic varieties planted out included Music, German White, Ukrainian Red, and Italian Purple. Over a hundred cloves went into a section of the garden measuring about 15 feet long by 4 feet wide. A dozen potato onion bulbs were planted alongside the garlic in the end of the bed.

Preparing the Garden for Planting Garlic Seed

The garlic bed occupies the same area that played host to my heirloom tomatoes during the heat of summer. After the tomato plants were removed I planted a quick cover crop of rye that grew to four inches tall before it was turned under to make way for the garlic to be planted.

I usually don’t bother planting a cover crop between the summer veggies and the fall garlic but decided to put the raised beds brief down time to productive use this fall. After turning and allowing the cover crop to decompose a bit, the soil in bed was loosened to a depth of about eight inches with a digging fork.

The area was also enriched with the addition of an inch or so of compost that was scratched into the top layer of soil prior to planting the garlic cloves. Late September to early October is the proper time to set out fall planted garlic here in my growing region.

The objective is to get substantial root growth but little or no leaf growth from the garlic cloves before winter sends the plants into hibernation. So how will you know that your garlic seed has germinated if there’s no sign of growth above ground? You won’t, but garlic seed germinates pretty reliably, so just relax and have faith that those roots are growing and preparing the plants for an explosion of green leafy growth as soon as spring arrives!

Sowing Gourmet Garlic Seed in the Backyard Garden

Garlic grows extremely well in raised beds with an intensive spacing pattern. Rather than planting the seeds in traditional rows, I use a grid like pattern that spaces the plants an equal distance apart in each direction. The garlic seed is planted far enough apart so that the plants are separated by a distance of six to eight inches.

An easy way to eyeball your garlic spacing is to lay out all of the separated seed cloves on top of the ground so that you can space them evenly. Once the seeds are positioned it’s a snap to go back and plant the cloves without worrying where you left off, or where you have already planted seed.

The cloves should be set one to two inches deep. I use a trowel to pry open a planting slit that is then half filled with an amendment of compost, worm castings, and a little bone meal. The garlic seed clove is then gently pressed down into the welcoming soil, pointed end up of course.

It Doesn’t Get Any Easier than Growing Garlic in the Garden

Fill in the hole and the hardest parts of growing garlic are behind you because this is such an easy and rewarding crop to grow in the home garden. A thick mulch of shredded leaves or straw will be applied after the ground begins to freeze to protect the plants over the winter and prevent weed growth next spring when the plants send up leaf growth.

Of course you could wait and plant your garlic seed next spring but then you lose out on the advantage that fall rooted garlic plants provide in late winter when they are all ready to start growing. Some varieties are also thought to develop superior flavors after being exposed to a harsh, cold winter in the ground.

I’ve yet to see a garlic bed attacked by any type of insect and my biggest problem with wildlife has come from rabbits. They don’t eat the plants but can become a pest as they run through the beds toppling the plants as they go. Battling the bunnies is a small price to pay for the large and delicious homegrown garlic bulbs harvested in mid summer from fall planted seed.

Once you’ve finished harvesting your garlic there’s one final task to complete… it’s time for a little garlic curing.

Why Bother Curing Homegrown Garlic?

Sure you can march those freshly dug bulbs off to the kitchen and begin using them immediately in your favorite recipes. But if you intend to store your bounty for any length of time it’s important that you first go through the process of properly curing those precious garlic bulbs.

The garlic curing process will give the bulbs an opportunity to thoroughly dry and adjust to conditions outside of the vegetable garden. The benefits of curing include the following:

• Improve keeping and storage qualities
• Draw nutrients and sugars from leaves
• Control the growth of mold and mildew

Best Places to Cure Garlic Bulbs

The garlic curing process is simple and doesn’t require any special equipment or fancy temperature controlled facilities. I do all of my garlic curing in the rafters of an elevated kid’s playhouse that I’ve converted into a garden storage area, complete with a compost making area underneath.

If you don’t have a similar structure or outbuilding to use in curing your garlic bulbs just look for a location that offers shade, excellent air circulation, and will keep the bulbs sheltered and dry in the event of rain.

I prefer to cure garlic outdoors but another option would be to use a shed, porch, garage, or to even find a spot inside your home. Just be prepared to live with the strong aroma of drying garlic in the area for a few weeks.

The Garlic Curing Process

Brush large clumps of dirt off of the bulbs and roots, but don’t fuss too much over their appearance at this stage. I have heard of growers that wash their bulbs before curing but that idea sounds a little scary to me and I prefer keep the bulbs completely dry once they’ve been dug up.

If you followed my advice in the article on harvesting garlic then you left the leaves and stems attached to the bulbs, this will make it easier to bundle and tie the garlic for curing. Gather the garlic in bundles of seven to ten bulbs and tie them together with string, twine, or a roll of the flexible, coated, twist-tie material.

From here it’s off to your curing area where the garlic can be suspended with plenty of room between the bundles to allow for good air circulation. Now you sit and wait. I usually give the bulbs at least three weeks to cure before taking them down for storage.

Pampering and Storing Garlic Bulbs

After the garlic curing period is over you can clean up and decorate if you’d like, just don’t apply any water in the process. Start by using a pair of scissors to remove the stem and leaves, and to trim the roots. If you raised soft neck varieties and intend to braid the bulbs then of course you’ll leave the leaves in tact.

Most of the remaining dirt can simply be rubbed off of the bulbs by hand along with any torn clove wrappers or skins. Many varieties of gourmet garlic are actually quite attractive and even colorful. To fully enjoy the display or if the wrappers are stained you can carefully remove a single layer of the bulb’s wrapper.

Store your gourmet garlic in mesh onion bags, paper sacks, or in shallow layers on trays or boxes. Store the garlic indoors in a cool, dry, area, but avoid refrigerating homegrown garlic to prevent premature sprouting. Don’t store bruised or damaged bulbs with the others, instead eat them first.

Also, remember to set aside some of your largest and best garlic bulbs to use as your seed corp to replant in the fall. With a little luck your properly cured garlic bulbs should last well into the winter and maybe even supply you with tasty garlic cloves into the following spring without spoiling.

Garlic is easy to grow, avoided by almost all garden pests, and the gourmet garlic varieties are far tastier than the store bought cloves that you may be accustomed to.

In fact, the most challenging aspect of growing garlic for many gardeners is determining the proper time to harvest this generally care free crop. After reading this article you should have no problem harvesting your homegrown garlic bulbs.

When do I Harvest My Garlic Bulbs

There are a few things that make timing the garlic harvest both critical and difficult. First is the obvious; the bulbs grow underground so you can’t see them, and once you dig them up there’s no turning back. Also, there are many different varieties of gourmet garlic and they all tend to grow and mature over varying timeframes.

The reason that the timing of the harvest is so critical is because the bulbs don’t size up until very late in their development. Garlic plants recognize minute changes in day length and as soon as they determine that the days are growing shorter they shut down growth and begin storing energy and mass in the cloves.

So if you harvest your garlic too early you’ll be short changing yourself out of growing the largest sized bulbs possible. On the other hand if you wait too late you run the risk of the paper like clove wrappers splitting, and of the cloves themselves separating from each other.

Reading Garlic Leaves Before Harvesting

When harvesting potatoes and shallots you can use the dying and drying of the plants as a harvest indicator, but if you try that technique with garlic you will have waited too late. The general rule is to harvest the garlic bulbs when the plants have four or five green leaves remaining.

Again, that’s just a general rule, to be more precise you will want to dig up a bulb or two to check the size and status before digging the entire crop. And remember to follow this process with each variety of garlic that you grow in your vegetable garden as they may mature at different times.

It’s that simple and easy to determine when to harvest your homegrown garlic – pay attention to the plant’s leaves and test sample a couple of the bulbs to make sure that the cloves are fully mature and have reached a good size.

Warning: Garlic Digging in Progress

When harvesting the bulbs don’t just pull them out of the ground or you may wind up with a handful of the tops and be left to wonder where the missing garlic bulb is located. A better technique is to use a digging fork to loosen the soil, and then remove the garlic from the ground.

Be careful not to bruise the garlic cloves when digging or handling the freshly dug bulbs. And whatever you do, don’t leave the bulbs exposed to strong sunlight for any length of time. The bulbs will sunburn in short order if they were left lying around in direct sunlight immediately after being dug up.

At this stage in the harvesting/curing process I don’t remove the leaves, stalks, or trim the roots from the bulbs, that will come a couple of weeks down the road. In the next article I’ll provide tips on the important practice of curing garlic that’s been freshly harvested from the home garden.

The only complaint so far is that some critter has been getting into the bed and knocking over some of the garlic plants.

Growing Garlic, Easy as 1 – 2 – 3

Last month I posted an article describing techniques for providing spring garlic care to the growing plants, today I wanted to continue the discussion with a few comments regarding summertime garlic maintenance chores. Maybe I shouldn’t even use the word maintenance because there really isn’t much to do with garlic during the summer months.

The major responsibility will be to ensure that your garlic plants receive sufficient amounts of moisture from either rainfall or irrigation. This is especially important if weather conditions are hot and dry. In the absence of adequate rainfall I like to water the garlic bed deeply at least once a week.

A thick mulch of shredded leaves applied during late fall will last through the summer and help to conserve moisture and reduce the need for frequent watering. The mulch will also restrict weed growth to just about nothing.

Weeding and Feeding Summer Garlic Plants

Without a mulch to block weed growth you’ll have to spend more of your time pulling weeds from the garlic bed. The garlic leaves aren’t very large or wide, so they won’t do much on their own to shade the ground and prevent weeds from growing freely. It’s your choice; mulch the garlic beds in the fall, or weed them in the summer.

About once a month apply a foliar fertilizer of seaweed or fish emulsion to provide the garlic plants with extra nutrients to keep them healthy and growing strongly. So as you can see, other than watering and an occasional application of a liquid organic fertilizer, there isn’t much to do out in the gourmet garlic bed during late spring and summer.

The only other task that I can think of is to remove the garlic scapes from the plants as they appear and begin to uncurl. The scapes are delicious with that familiar garlicky flavor that will enhance your favorite recipes or provide a new twist on pesto.

With just a small amount of attention your garlic will survive and thrive right on through the heat of summer. As harvest time nears you should also taper off watering the garlic bed. Later this month I’ll post an entry on tips for harvesting garlic and curing your crop of delicious homegrown bulbs.

Particularly if your garlic is grown in fertile soil and the bed is mulched with a thick layer of shredded leaves or straw during the fall months.

Spring Maintenance for Garlic Beds

Fall planted garlic is usually the first vegetable plant to make an appearance in my garden each spring. There are often signs of new leaf growth as early as mid to late February here in Zone 6, well ahead of even the early spring flowering bulbs.

The first spring garlic chore is to check the beds to make sure that the garlic leaves are able to penetrate the mulch that was used to protect it over the winter. This isn’t an issue if you used shredded leaves or straw as a mulch, but whole leaves can become matted and prevent the garlic plants from reaching the surface.

If your garlic plants are growing in spirals trapped beneath the mulch you can rescue them by pulling the mulch away from the base of each plant. It’s better to eliminate this potential problem altogether, simply by shredded the leaves before use.

Benefits of Mulching Garlic

Don’t completely remove the mulch from your garlic bed as it will perform many functions in addition to insulating the plants and guarding against heaving during the winter months.

A thick mulch in the garlic bed will also reduce or eliminate weed growth throughout the garlic growing season. In addition the mulch will help to conserve moisture and keep the soil a little cooler which is fine in the case of garlic plants.

The only negative that I can think of to leaving the mulch in place is that it can sometimes attract and provide cover to animals such as rabbits and chipmunks. One year I discovered a nest of baby bunnies nicely camouflaged right in the center of my garlic bed.

Enjoying Spring Garlic

That’s it for taking care of the fall planted garlic bed during springtime. It’s about as close to maintenance free as you can get. Depending on the condition of your soil you may want to begin feeding your plants with a nitrogen rich fertilizer in early spring also.

You can side dress or scatter fertilizer onto the soil, but with the mulch in place it’s a lot easier to mix a liquid fertilizer such as seaweed or fish emulsion with water and spray the mixture onto the leaves of the garlic plants.

Raising homegrown garlic will also give you the opportunity to enjoy fresh garlic greens, spring garlic, and baby garlic long before the mature bulbs are ready for harvest. With this in mind I usually plant a section of the garlic bed a little closer together and use the plants that are thinned as garlic flavored spring onions in the kitchen.

On-going Garlic Maintenance

I’ll post another article later this month with ideas for summer garlic care, but I can tell you now that there isn’t any more involved than the simple steps to care for your garlic plants during the spring.

How Much Garlic Should I Plant in the Garden?

“I loved your article on growing garlic. I have only used the grocery store kind with some success. I have already put in an order for next year.”

“My question is how much garlic would a family of 5 that uses a decent amount of garlic need (to plant)? If you have any rules of thumb, I would appreciate it.”

Kathi, your question is difficult to answer because there are a number of variables involved in choosing how much garlic to plant, including determining how much a family such as yours will consume on a regular weekly basis.

Garlic Sizes and Production Rates

There is also a lot of variableness when it comes to the size and quantities of garlic bulbs by weight. Depending on the variety and harvested size, a single pound of garlic can contain as few as five or six huge bulbs to well over a dozen smaller bulbs.

I checked with Filaree Farm, one of the garlic seed suppliers that I use and noted that the production estimates on their website average about four pounds of garlic harvested from each pound of seed cloves that are planted in the garden.

Many of the garlic seed suppliers also provide information related to the number of cloves per bulb for each garlic variety. Some varieties have bulbs consisting of as few as four individual cloves, while other varieties form multiple layers containing over twenty separate cloves in total.

Choosing the Right Amount of Garlic Seed

If you know the number of garlic bulbs you use on a weekly basis you can use the averages listed above to calculate a rough estimate of how much garlic seed you will need to plant in order to supply your family with plenty of fresh home grown cloves.

My personal rule of thumb when it comes to determining how much garlic seed to plant is to grow as much as I can allocate space for in the garden. I enjoy cooking with garlic and it’s such a great and productive vegetable to grow in the home garden!

The ideal amount of garlic for any gardener to plant will be best determined through trial and error. Over time you’ll be able to gauge the amount and sizes of garlic bulbs that your garden can produce. Keep track of the quantities that are planted each year and adjust the amount of garlic seed planted as necessary to meet your family’s needs.

Other Issues Affecting Garlic Supply and Garden Needs

Other factors to take into consideration include your storage capabilities. Some garlic varieties will last longer in storage than others, but you will probably find it difficult to store your own summer harvested garlic much longer than seven or eight months.

Garlic that becomes soft, shriveled, or begins to sprout in storage is not ideal for using in the kitchen, but it can be replanted in the garden or in containers to produce chive-like greens, garlic scallions, or small bulbs of baby garlic.

So there will probably be a few months out of the year when you don’t have any of your own home grown garlic bulbs available, unless you’re drying the bulbs or using green garlic and garlic scapes fresh out of the garden.

Finally, when deciding on how much garlic seed to order and plant in the garden, don’t forget to grow enough extra garlic to use as your own seed. This will save money and you will also benefit from developing garlic seed that is perfectly adapted to your climate and growing conditions.