One of the easiest crops I have every tried to develop is garlic . Why ? Well , first of all , the critters(rabbits , cervid , groundhogs , and squirrels ) avoid it . Eveninsects broadly ignore it . Plus , garlic hasfew disease and pestproblems . Aside from a minuscule weed , ail requires verylittle maintenance . And if your passion isorganic horticulture , it does n’t get any promiscuous than growing constitutional garlic .
One of the joys of growing garlic is that it is out - of - sync with most other vegetable crops ; instead of contribute to the spring planting workload , ail is planted in the tumble . The gustatory modality of fresh homegrown garlic reminds me of the conflict between a homegrown tomato and a love apple from the supermarket . And just like those supermarket tomatoes , the garlic you find in the supermarket is grown for ledge living , not penchant . Without a doubt , garlic works miracles in the kitchen when added to soups , stew , tomato sauces , salsas , pickles , salads , salad dressings , marinade , mashed spud , seafood — hey , dollar bill with butter and garlic ! WOW ! One has to search severely for a New formula that has onion plant but does not include ail . A roast bulb with a drizzle of olive rock oil and a pinch of salt turns into butter when you spread it over a slice of warm bread . Most Captain James Cook find it indispensable in the kitchen , and these day it is rarefied to find a formula that does not call for garlic . In fact , a persevering researcher can even bump a dessert recipe featuring garlic:“Roasted Garlic Chocolate Chip Cookies ” . YUMMMM ! ! !
A BriefHistory of Garlic
Garlic is believed to have originate in the mountains of Central Asia , in the present - day counties of Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan , and Turkmenistan . Today garlic is found wild in Siberia and the slopes of the Ural Mountains . Garlic has been civilise for thousands of age . Egyptian and Indian culture refer to garlic use date back 5000 years . elaborate models of garlic bulbs were unearthed in the grave of El Mahasna , in Egypt , dating back to 3750 BC . TheBiblesuggests the Israelites may have develop a fancy for garlic around 1500 BC : “ We think back the Pisces the Fishes , which we did eat in Egypt , the cucumbers , and the melon and the leeks and the onions and thegarlick . ”Numbers 11:5 .
Today Allium sativum ranks secondly only to the onion as the second - most importantAlliumcrop in the world . A plant , rich in history , that can oppose disease , slight blood , reduce cholesterin , season a diverseness of foods , repel insects and vampires and is celebrated annually by thousand of buff at numerous garlic festivals throughout the country deserve a spot in the vegetable garden .
Types of Garlic
There are hundreds of varieties of garlic , but in general , they are categorized into two different subspecies or grouping : hardneck ( Allium sativumvar.ophioscorodon ) and softneck ( Allium sativumvar.sativum ) . Each group has several decided miscellanea and cultivars .
Hardneck Garlic
In the bounce , hardneck garlic produces a false flower stalk called a scape . Hardneck garlic is also known as “ Top lay out Garlic ” because it produces clusters of small bulb ( “ bulbils ” ) at the terminal of the scape after the mostly sterile flowers bloom . Some garlic experts believe that hardneck garlic has more tone than the more domestic softneck ail , and it is often referred to as epicure Allium sativum . Hardneck garlic does not lay in as well as softneck garlic .
There are 3 subcategories of hardneck garlic :
Purple Stripe : named for the burnished streaks and blotch on both bulb and clove skins . Purple Stripe Allium sativum is milder and stores longer than the Rocambole types . mixed bag include Chesnok Red , Persian Star , Siberian and Celeste .
Softneck Garlic :
Softneck is probably the kind of ail that people call up of when garlic is note . Commercially grow because of its long memory board attribute , softneck Allium sativum is the kind usually found in supermarket and in garlic powder . The tegument on softneck ail is tight on the clove , making it hard to peel , but protecting it and keeping it freshman longer . Softneck garlic is productive in a panoptic range of climate and soils , out - performs hardnecks in warmer climates , and is usually light to produce .
There are two major subcategories of softneck garlic :
Italian White , Inchelium Red , Polish White and Susanville .
Central Virginia is in a changeover zona , and both hardneck and softneck garlic do sanely well in our orbit . The hardneck varieties that have performed well for meare China Dawn and Red Killarney . Softneck varieties that have perform well in my garden are : Susanville , Polish White , and Sicilian .
Elephant Garlic :
Elephant Garlic isnot true ail ; it belongs to the leek ( Allium ampeloprasum)family . In recent years elephant Allium sativum has become democratic due to the huge size of its bulb and its milder flavor .
When to Plant Garlic
Garlic is imbed in the fall . In our region , mid - October is the recommended time for planting . Garlic postulate a cold discourse catamenia ( vernalization ) of 32 - 50 ° F. for about two months to induce bulbing . Garlic can be planted in the spring , but it should be refrigerated first for several weeks . However , smaller bulbs can be bear if outflow - planted , because of the circumscribed growing period of time .
Do NOT plant garlic that you purchased from the grocery store , as they may be diseased and are often unreliable because they may have been care for with an anti - sprouting chemical substance . There are legion on-line retail merchant that betray constituent garlic for planting .
website and Cultural Requirements :
Select a sunny or partially shady location to plant your garlic . sound dirt drainage is essentialfor a skillful garlic crop . One way of life to ameliorate the drain is by creating a raise bottom before implant . The dirt pH should be between 6.5 and 7.0 . A light , well - drained dirt also slim the number of irregularly - shaped bulb . Adding compost or well - rotted manure and merge it thoroughly can improve heavy stiff .
Garlic is a heavy nitrogen bird feeder ; the recommend charge per unit of lotion is 30 to 60 pound per acre . Downsizing that number to a realizable garden place of 100 substantial feet liken to 0.07 to 0.14 pounds of nitrogen per 100 square foot . Doing the math for the standard 10 - 10 - 10 fertilizer , that would require approximately 0.68 to 1.37 pound of standard plant food . An substitute constitutive fertilizer of cottonseed repast ( 6 - 2 - 2 ) would call for just about 1.15 to 2.3 Cypriot pound of cottonseed repast . Because N is “ precarious ” and tends to percolate , one of the recommendations when using standard plant food is to apply a top dressing in the late wintertime ( February ) and again in March . Cottonseed meal is a slow - waiver fertilizer , so it may be applied when the ail is planted and follow up with a top fertilization again in February .
Garlic is also a heavyuser of orthophosphate and potassium , and these elements should be added , as with other crops , only in accordance with a soil test . A freeSoil Test Kitis useable at your local Virginia Cooperative Extension Office .
engraft
In general , garlic , like potatoes , multiplies by vegetal reproduction rather than by sexual reproduction ( seeds ) . Individual garlic clove are planted and each Eugenia aromaticum then produces a cloned bulb , having the same genetic make - up as the original parent .
The planting procedure get by carefully separating the cloves , just before plant , removing the outer layer of papery skin , and then removing the cloves from the basal plate ( the flat base of operations where the roots rise ) . The papery skin on the individual cloves can be left integral . take only healthy , firm , unmarred clove for planting , and aim to use the largest Eugenia caryophyllatum uncommitted . In oecumenical , the larger cloves yield the largest garlic bulbs . Do n’t disregard the small cloves — they can be used in the kitchen , or frozen for future culinary manipulation .
Plant the cloves 1 - 2 inches recondite with the pointed end up . Space the clove 6 - 8 inches aside . Over - crowding the garlic may result in smaller incandescent lamp . Each garlic clove will concede one bulb . When the planting is complete , add about 1 - 2 inch of compost or folio mold or drinking straw over the planting area to keep moisture deprivation . Mulching your garlic bed tends to increase your yield and the size of your bulbs .
criminal maintenance
Garlic is a wretched competitor , so good skunk - control is all-important . In worldwide , fall and winter dope problems are minimal , though saltation and summer will bring in more gage . Applying a twosome of inches of mulch such as leaf mold or blank straw can help control the gage . If weeding is required , utilize care to avoid damaging the incandescent lamp and roots .
If you are raise hardneck garlic , you may require to weigh take out the scape when it begin to uncoil and straighten out out . hit the flower stalk allows the plant to direct its energy toward bulb development rather than bulbils development . Depending on the cultivar , removing the scape can ensue in 25 - 30 percentage or more in bulb weight .
Garlic need aboutan column inch of water a week(similar to other garden veg ) , during the springtime grow time of year . Stop water the plant about a month before harvest home — when the leave of absence start to yellow — to keep the papery skin teetotal and forbid the medulla from decompose or splitting .
During tardy spring and former summer garlic can be susceptible to the same insects and diseases as onion and leeks — thrips and various light bulb rots . However , garlic is comparatively happy-go-lucky when grown in a well - drained constitutional soil ( 5 - 10 % constitutive thing ) , with adept zephyr circulation , and if you dumbfound to a 2 - 3 yr rotation cycle with other veg .
harvest home
Fall - planted ail grows root soon after planting , but top development does not occur until the next spring , and thegarlic bulbs are normally matured by early to mid - summertime .
Garlic can be harvest in three forms — scapes , green , or bulbs — each of which is based on timing . In the spring , hardneck garlic produces a scape . Most gardener prefer to remove the scape to allow the plant to focus its DOE on the medulla oblongata . The scapes can be cut off shortly after the blossom stalk roll . glean scapes can be used in cooking or salad , offer garlic - tasting green like to scallions . When garlic scape are harvested this elbow room , before full due date , they are look up to asgreen garlic . Green garlic can be used like green onions in salads or cookery .
Knowingwhen to harvest garlic bulbsis like love when to sell a inventory in the stock food market . At the end of the growing season — other summer — the bulbs are grow at their fastest rate . If the crop is harvested too early , the bulb may be undersized , but if harvested too late , the fragile housecoat that holds the incandescent lamp begins to devolve and the bulb itself begin to fall apart . Naturally , most gardener are greedy , myself admit , and want the biggest garlic bulbs potential , leading to that enticement to wait too long .
Bulbs are ready to harvest when the leaf beginto yellow or brown and strike over , but there are still 50 % unripe leave-taking on the plant . Green leafage indicate that the light bulb are still inviolate and have not start to break in aside . If you await until all the leaf have turned brown and devolve over , you have waited too long . Before harvest home , I normally hollow up a few “ trial bulbs ” to go over the wrappers . If they are in in effect pattern , I wait a few more day and dig a few more .
When you pull out the trigger and begin to glean , carefully loosen the ground around the bulb to minimize damage . The preference is to dig up the garlic bulb rather than draw it out . I am often amazed at the deepness of the garlic bulb and the turn of roots that have developed . rock off the extra soil , keep the wrapper entire . With more of the wrapper in berth , the garlic will store longer . Do not dampen the bulbs as that may encourage the growth of fungus and reduce the shelf lifetime of the medulla oblongata .
cure and store
bring around the harvested garlic will extend the ledge life sentence of the electric-light bulb and beef up its flavor . To bring around the ail , bind into bunches and hang in a suspicious , cool , wry , and well - ventilated fix for 4 to 6 weeks . I often use a buff to increase the external respiration .
Once the bulbs have been cured , I sort the garlic ; I save the expectant bulb to be planted the next fall , and the residual I stash away in a dark-skinned , well - ventilate area . I use a homemade screen that hangs in the basement and it works well .
Garlic is a seed saver ’ delight . There ’s no need to worry about cross - pollenation because what you save is a clone of the parent plant . In add-on , garlic adapts to its surround , so the more seasons you plant your saved ail in the same microclimate , the better it do . I have noticed that after about the fourth year , the ail appears to become glad with its new home , and I am rewarded with larger bulbs .
What ’s not to like about growing your own garlic ? It will be smart and tastier than the garlic establish in the supermarket , and you ’ll have hundred of varieties to choose from — way more than what is available in the supermarket . Pests mostly leave behind it alone , and other than a lilliputian weeding and occasional watering , it ’s maintenance - free . On top of all that , because garlic adapts to local stipulation , you ’ll have the reward of being able to keep your own garlic and plant it year after year , knowing that each class your craw will get a little better .
Thanks for joining us inThe Garden Shedthis month . We hope you will bring down again next month .
Featured Photo : Cleve Campbell
source :
“ Time to Plant Garlic,”VA Tech Horticulture(Tony Bratsch , 2003 )
“ Roasted Garlic Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe,”Mother Earth Living ( July - August , 2004)http://www.motherearthliving.com / solid food - and - recipes / summer - recipes / roasted - garlic - coffee - chip - cookies - recipe - zmoz04jazmel.aspx
“ Glorious Garlic , Herb of the Year 2004 , ” Virginia Coop . Ext . ,vtechworks.lib.vt.edu
“ The origins and distribution of ail : How many garlic are there ? ” United States Department of Agriculture , http://www.ars.usda.gov / Research / docs.htm?docid=5232
Garlic – An Herb Society of America Guide , www.herbsociety.org(The Herb Society of America , 2004 , 2006 )
“ Garlic Productivity and Profitability as Affected by Seed Clove Size , Planting Density and Planting Method,”HortScience , Vol . 39 , No . 6,hortsci.ashspublications.org(Oct . 2004 )
“ No - till Organic Culture of Garlic Utilizing Different Cover Crop Residues and Straw Mulch for Over - wintering Protection Under Two Seasonal Levels of Organic Nitrogen , ” Virginia Cooperative Extension , Pub . No . 2906 - 1389vtechworks.lib.vt.edu(2006 )
“ Growing Garlic , ” University of Vermont Extension ’s Vermont Vegetable and Berry Program , http://www.uvm.edu / vtvegandberry / factsheets / Garlic.html
“ Growing Garlic,”NC State Ext / Lee County
“ grow a Successful Garlic Crop,”https://wilkes.ces.ncsu.edu/2020/10 / develop - a - successful - Allium sativum - crop/
“ Soil Sampling for the Home Gardner , ” Virginia Cooperative Extension , Publication 452 - 129,http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/452/452 - 129/452 - 129.html
