Garlic
When most of your edible garden has finished for the season, garlic is an excellent, easy-grow option for adding to the mix!
Plant care & info
Garlic prefers full sun and light, well-drained, loamy soil rich in organic matter. Keep soil moist while the plant is growing new leaves, then let the soil dry as the leaves turn brown.
Garlic is best planted from September through November, but there is also a planting window from February to March which yields smaller heads. Separate the cloves just prior to planting, but don’t peel them (those skins will help prevent rot). Plant cloves 1”to 2” deep, root side down, pointed tip up. Space plants 6- 8” apart with rows 6-8” apart.
Keep your garlic bed well-weeded. Side dress in March with cotton seed meal or blood meal. Another option is a foliar-spray fertilizer, such as Alaska Fish Fertilizer, every 10-14 days, starting in March.
When summer arrives, garlic stops making new leaves and starts forming bulbs. Once bulbing begins, stop fertilizing and decrease watering.
As the bulbs mature, leaves will turn brown from the bottom of the plant up. Stop watering when 7-8 green leaves remain. In years with a wet June, fall planted garlic crops may never need water.
Hardneck varieties put up a tall, woody, flowering stalk that usually grows bulblets at top. Cut flower stalks off as soon as the stem has reached 8-9” tall, or when they make one full curl. This will redirect energy to the bulb.
When there are 4-6 green leaves remaining, dig up one plant, or dig a small hole to check soil moisture. If the soil is dry 4-6” deep, let plants continue browning until only 2 green leaves remain. If the top 4-6” of soil are wet, dig the plants up and begin curing.
With the leaves and stem still attached, hang plants in a space with excellent airflow but no direct sun—perhaps under an eave or on a covered porch. Slatted shelves or screens can also work. Cure for 6-8 weeks, then trim the roots and stem and move to storage.
Hang garlic in netted sacks, or make and hang braids of the softneck types to provide air circulation on all sides. Perfect storage conditions are 45- 55°F at 50% relative humidity. Keeping garlic below 40°F actually makes it sprout.
September through mid November is a great time to plant garlic, but you can plant in late winter and early spring as well.
Come early fall, when warm days are mostly behind us, manny crops are undoubtedly starting to show some signs that their end is near. For those of us lucky enough to be gardening in the Pacific Northwest, this means there will soon be plenty of space available for some overwintering crops!
Every garlic variety is assigned to a group which shares similar characteristics: length of storage, number of cloves per head, and some flavor components. Garlic groups themselves belong to one of two classes: hardneck or softneck. Softneck varieties store very well, are braidable, and easy to grow. Hardnecks have larger, richer cloves and are easier to peel.
