From the Garden to the Table, the Best Way to Grow Garlic.

There are 11 different horticultural groups of garlic. Three of them are classified under softneck: Silverskin, Artichoke, and Middle Eastern. Hardneck varieties of garlic are closer to their wild origins and are divided into eight groups: Porcelain, Rocambole, Purple Stripe, Glazed Purple Stripe, Marble Purple Stripe, Asiatic, Turban, and Creole. Under the umbrella of each garlic group, you’ll discover a list of cultivars.

Garlic is one of the best-known herbs around the world, a perennial plant, mostly grown as an annual it produces edible bulbs composed of several cloves. However, there is a right way to grow garlic, and there is a wrong way to grow garlic. In this Instructable I will explain how best to grow garlic and what not to do.

Seed Garlic

Potting soil and deep pots or containers.

A garden fork or a shovel for working the soil and planting.

A Raised Garden Bed.

Or a Flat Earth Garden.

If needed compost to add to the soil.

I avoid the use of chemicals, garlic doesn’t like anything growing close to it, not even other garlic plants, so many farmers use defoliants to remove weeds and incidental crops from the fields. In pots you can grow garlic without the use of chemicals. In raised garden beds or flat earth gardens, cover kill the weeds and incidental crops before planting works well.

Cover Kill is simply cover the ground until all the plants die. Roll out a sheet of plastic where you want to plant. If the plastic is clear cover the sheet of plastic with a carpet or something to block sunlight. Weigh the plastic down so the wind doesn’t blow the ground cover away. In a couple weeks the grass and other plants will be dead and the soil is ready to till and plant.

I am sure if you look you will find videos and the like with bulbs of garlic growing in a glass of water. This is not the way to grow garlic. Growing garlic like this may make a good show for a science project in school, but it is not the way to grow garlic compared to cloves spread out in a large pot. Garlic needs room for the bulb to expand and make multiple cloves, or it simply fails.

Surprisingly garlic, (Allium’s) reproduces four different ways, scapes with seeds, scapes with bulbils, rhizomes with bulbils, and breaking up the main bulb into the different cloves and planting them.

I have never had much luck with garlic seed, first the germination rate is less than 10% and the garlic can take three or more growing seasons to grow a bulb to a marketable size or for use in cooking.

Scapes can be large, I am 5’6” and the scape beside me is up to my shoulder and still growing. Scapes take a lot of nutrients away from the bulb’s growth. After flowering they produce seeds or bulbils that continue to take nutrients from the bulbs. So, as well as making the bulbs smaller, the bulbils can take multiple growing seasons before they reach a marketable or a cooking size.

The elephant garlic in the last pic took four growing seasons to go from a rhizome bulbil to a marketable size bulb. Multiple growing seasons make growing garlic from seed or bulbils less desirable than planting a clove and harvesting a marketable bulb in one growing season.

You can take your chances and get your seed garlic from the produce department at your local grocery store, if you are lucky, it will grow ok. Or you can buy a specific cultivar from a nursery. There are two main types of garlic: hardneck and softneck. These two categories are based on each variety’s tendency to develop flower stalks, its hardiness, and its clove formation pattern.

Garlic planting is best performed during the fall in most parts of the world. However, not all garlic is created equal. There are hundreds of different varieties, and not all cultivars are right for every region. Check a plant hardiness zone for where you live and the cultivar, prior to buying and planting, examine the features of hardneck vs softneck garlic to discover which variety is best for your region.

I grow different cultivars of garlic simply because the weather where I live can be erratic some years.

Garlic can grow from a seed clove to a marketable bulb in one growing season if you plant it the right way. Spring planting garlic will grow however, they will be small when you harvest the garlic about mid to late summer when the leaves start to die.

The best way to plant is in the fall, you plant the seed cloves, and after planting in the fall, you let the garlic over winter in the ground. In harsh winter environments covering the garlic with straw or leaves to prevent winter kill.

Start by breaking up the garlic bulbs into the cloves.

The biggest garlic cloves tend to grow into the biggest garlic bulbs.

If in a raised garden or a flat earth garden, make sure you plant in a sunny place.

Measure, each clove should be buried 2 inches deep, (4cm) and 3 to 4 inches apart, (6 to 8 cm) with the pointed end of the clove up.

To protect your garlic and help conserve moisture, apply a layer of mulch, such as straw or chopped leaves, around the plants. This will also help suppress weed growth.

If you plant the garlic in containers place them in a spot where they get a lot of sun.

They should begin growing before the snow falls.

After planting in the fall all you need to do is wait. Garlic requires about an inch of water per week, either from rainfall or irrigation. In the spring the garlic will start to grow and after a couple months these curly cues called scapes will start to grow. 

Scapes take a lot of nutrients away from the bulb’s growth, so I like to harvest them as early as I can, this is before the stems turn woody when the scapes are good to eat. Just pick the scapes off with your thumb and forefinger but don’t throw them away.

Scapes are edible, they have a sweeter mild garlic flavor like ramp leaves. They go well as a garnish in soups, salads, stews, and pickles. Just dice them up and add them to the dish of your liking.

 Garlic bulbs are ready to be harvested when the foliage begins to turn yellow or brown. To harvest the bulbs, use a garden fork or shovel to carefully loosen the soil around them. Then, gently lift the bulbs from the ground, take care not to damage them. Shake off any excess soil and lay the garlic plants in a dry, well-ventilated area to cure for about two to three weeks. This curing process allows the outer layers of the bulbs to dry and harden, extending their shelf life significantly.

Using a stiff brush, remove any remaining dirt or dried foliage from the bulbs. Do not wash the bulbs, moisture can promote rot.

Trim the roots and cut off the dried stems, leaving about an inch above the bulb. Then store the garlic in a cool, dark, and well-ventilated area, such as a pantry or cellar.

Do not store garlic in the refrigerator, it can cause the cloves to sprout or become rubbery. Depending on the cultivar, when stored properly, garlic can last for as much as 6 months to a year in storage. A brown paper bag with holes punched into it helps keep them fresh when stored in a cool dark place away from fruits and vegetables that off gas gasses that cause ripening like potatoes. For long term storage I like to make pickled garlic or garlic confit with my home-grown garlic.

See my garlic recipes here at Instructables:

https://www.instructables.com/Garlic-Confit/

https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Pickled-Garlic/