Hello fellow Garlic Geeks,
Interested in growing your own garlic crop this season? We’d love to help!
In Southern Ontario, we plant garlic during October, and harvest in July/August. Here’s some basic garlic growing instructions. When selecting garlic for seed, the most important factor is the quality of the seed. Seed garlic should be disease and pest free, have no marks or blemishes, and preferably have the clove wrappers intact.
Additionally, it is nice to plant larger cloves when possible, as a larger clove will lead to a larger bulb at harvest time. However, clove size is not the only factor in determining how large your harvest will be. Here are some other tips that will help your garlic reach its size potential:
- Soil Fertility: Add TONS of compost before planting. Sheep manure is easily accessible, and very affordable. In my experience, the more the merrier. Integrating lots of compost before you plant will not only increase your bulb size, but will make your soil healthier for the long-term.
- Access to Sun: Garlic will grow anywhere, but the more sun it gets the better. If possible, plant your garlic in a location where it will have access to the sun all day.
- Access to Moisture: After planting, mulch thickly with straw or chopped up leaves and watering will never be necessary. I’ve been growing garlic since 2000, and have never watered my garlic crop even once. Winter and spring precipitation, in combination with a thick mulching, should provide all the moisture your garlic crop needs.
- Keeping your garlic patch well weeded: Reduce competition for nutrients, space, and moisture by keeping on top of the weeding.
- Spacing: 6 inches between each clove is optimal for helping your garlic size-up.
- Garlic Scaping: In the early summer, a flowering seed pod known as a garlic scape will emerge from your hard neck garlic plants. When the scape has curled, it is time to remove it. By harvesting the scape, we are communicating to the plant not to produce seeds, but instead to focus its energy on growing the biggest, healthiest bulb possible.
Got other tips on growing robust garlic? Send them my way!
Keep Livin’ on the Veg!
Daniel
P.S. Here’s some basic garlic growing instructions
P.P.S. Looking for a larger quantity for eating and/or planting? We still have fresh, local, organic garlic available
