I. Love. Garlic.
Garlic is by far my favorite food to grow. I started in 2016 with a few pounds and built up stock and varieties over the last few years, planting almost an acre in the Fall of 2020. This year I had to downsize and have only planted about 1/3 of an acre. it amounts to about 20,000 cloves planted and I narrowed my varieties down to the best 9 that grew exceptionally well for me. This will provide seed to upscale again next year when I have more land available to me!
I would say that mostly, garlic is an easy crop to grow. I recommend it to anyone with even a tiny amount of garden space to jam some cloves in and see how amazing their harvest will be the following Summer. There is nothing like fresh garlic!! Cured properly bulbs will last a few months to the next harvest depending on the variety. Plus there is always the bonus of knowing how and where it was grown.
So. There are two main subspecies of garlic, hardneck and softneck. Where I live, we have long cold Winters which is perfect for growing hardneck as it requires a period of stratification to grow. The hardneck varieties are: Porcelain, Purple Stripe, Rocambole, Creole, Asiatic, Middle Eastern, Marbled Purple Stripe, Glazed Purple Stripe and Turban.
Hardneck has bigger cloves, but fewer of them in each bulb. It has a hard stalk that produces a scape. This you will want to harvest as it will drive all of the growing energy back to the bulb and not into flowering. The scape is actually a flower stem with the flower being full of garlic bulbils, or true seed.
German Mennonite Hardneck
Garlic Scapes
Softneck is mostly what grocery stores carry and is grown in warm climates overseas or in the States. The softneck varieties are Silverskin and Artichoke. I have tried with several softneck varieties with little luck except for one called Italian Gold that gave me some good sized heads. Softneck do not grow a scape, and they fall over when ready for harvest just like onions. Both varieties take 9-10 months to grow.
Italian Gold Softneck
Ok. Once you have decided on hardneck or softneck for your zone (I am 5b) the best source of bulbs for seed will be from a local grower or a reputable Canadian Farm like Rasa Creek in British Colombia or Johnny's Seeds. Locally grown garlic will do better for you as it is already acclimated to your area. Your bulb should have tight papery skins, no molding markings on skins and the cloves themselves should be full, firm and blemish free. If you see bumps or tiny spots on the cloves the garlic might have mites and you should not replant. I will do a separate post on disease in garlic.
Next is a bit controversial, whether or not to "soak your seed". Some growers recommend this next step, and some are totally against it saying it does no good. I use water, organic fish fertilizer, and baking soda for the first step. Is like giving your seed a boost against the various fungal diseases that can affect garlic. It also gives them a nice boost of energy to jump start their growing process. After a 24 hour soak (Ihave left it for 3 days before due to life getting in the way and there were roots developing, still planted and did amazing) followed up by a quick dunk of hydrogen peroxide or cheap vodka (I use vodka) which will sterilize the cloves and kill any mites that may be hiding.
Bathroon turned seed soaking station
Planting is the easy part. Garlic is very forgiving and pretty resilient. It can survive a few days of flooding (this has happened to us and we had to pump our garden out) and it can survive multiple frosts and grow beautifully. It is hungry for nitrogen during bulbing. You want to plant in the Fall anywhere from mid-October to mid-November. You are aiming for some root growth but no top growth before it goes dormant for the winter.
Garlic clove planted 10 days prior with great roots and no top growth before going into Winter
The easiest way to plant your cloves is 4" deep and 6" apart. For every square foot of garden space you can plant 9 garlic cloves! You don't want to plant much closer than 6" as it will give you smaller bulbs.
Taken yesterday as I am STILL trying to plant all my garlic
After planting I cover my rows with mushroom compost and then 6" of straw to insulate over the winter. Straw also helps with weed pressure in the spring and helps maintain moisture throughout the growing season. In the Spring when you see your garlic pop up through your mulch you can fertilize if you want! You must not fertilize after the scapes have appeared, they show up mid to late June. Harvest is 3-4 weeks after scape harvest. I like to fertilize 3 times, 2 weeks apart. I recommend you use an organic fish/seaweed fertilizer, easily obtainable and reasonably priced. You should water your garlic steadily from Spring to about 2 weeks before harvest. Ideally we like damp to dry conditions at harvest and hopefully the weather co-operates. It can be stressful if there is non stop rain in July for a garlic grower!!
Starting to apply a thick layer of compost before straw
Last year's crop under snow and thick layers of straw
I am going to stop here for now....I have to go outside and try to plant the last 2 rows and start to cover in straw still haha! In Garlic Growing-Part 2, I will cover when to fertilize in more depth, when to harvest scapes, pests to look for and what to do about them, watering, what to look for when determining when to harvest, harvesting, curing and storing bulbs.
Happy planting if you are growing garlic! There is still time to get it in!