Growing organic garlic

Garlic can be grown successfully and relatively easily in most areas of the United States. It doesn’t matter whether you have a veggie patch in Texas, a raised bed in Bozeman, an Alaskan kitchen garden, or a window box in the Bronx.

Our farm is situated in growing zone 4b, at 5200’, in Southwest Montana. We have been successfully growing garlic here for 10 years. Winter temperatures can sometimes drop below -30F, and summer highs often reach the mid 90’s. Our average snowfall is around 48”

Preparation

Garlic grows best in well-prepared, well-drained and nitrogen-rich soil with a pH of around 6.5. It thrives with full exposure to the sun. To improve our garlic fields, where the ground is relatively poor, we till in a healthy dollop of well-rotted manure each year before planting in the fall. We also heap the soil up into “raised beds” which helps reduce the amount of bending over during planting and weeding.  Raised beds also help with drainage in the event of “water-logging” during the heavy spring rains.   

Planting

In Montana, garlic is planted in the autumn before the soil freezes. We plant ours from early October. Carefully break the cloves apart from the bulb stems. The largest cloves from the largest bulbs will tend to beget the largest bulbs at harvest time. Double cloves or others deemed to be too small, deformed or a little soft are better employed in the kitchen. Cloves should be planted a minimum of 6” apart and 2.5” deep. To make the holes we use an old-fashioned dibber (ie a broom handle with a piece of tape around it to mark a depth of 2.5”). Make sure that the pointed end of each clove is up and the root end down. Along each of the raised beds we plant three rows of garlic. This makes it easy to reach across while both planting the cloves in the fall and when weeding in spring. Cover the cloves with soil. We overlay the planted beds with up to 6” of mulch. You can use grass clippings, leaves, wood chips or even cardboard. We use chopped-up, aged straw which is cheap and plentiful around here but be aware that it can contain lots of unwanted seeds. If you don’t keep up with the weeding, you might end up with a prize-winning field of wheat! In windy places, such as ours, you may have to find a way of holding the straw down so it doesn’t blow away. We use sheep netting laid over the top and held down with stakes.  Once the garlic appears in the spring, the netting is removed carefully to avoid damaging the young shoots.

Growing

Garlic will start to poke up through the mulch in early spring. In our area this means the earliest varieties will appear towards the end of March. We leave the mulch in place to hold moisture in the soil when the hot, dry summer weather comes in. It also helps to both suppress weeds and keep the soil at an even temperature.  Once the garlic begins to appear, the weeds will be sure to follow and these will need to be kept well under control to prevent them from “choking” your crop. We fertilize our garlic by spraying the leaves with organic “Alaska Fish Fertilizer” a two or three times in early spring. This product is widely available in hardware stores and nurseries. It gives the plants a shot of nitrogen and is also packed with nutrients and minerals.  Garlic needs to be kept moist throughout the growing season. In our location, the flower stalks (known as scapes) begin to appear at about the third week in June. They form interesting, spring-like coils before straightening out and pointing skywards. If left on the plant, these will eventually produce a clutch of small bulbils. Scapes should be snapped off at the curly stage in order to avoid taking energy away from the plant and thus reducing bulb size. They can be eaten raw or cooked and can be used in soups, stir-fries or pesto. About a month after the appearance of the scapes, it will be time to get your garlic out of the ground.

Harvesting

High summer is the time to lift your garlic, when the leaves begin to turn yellow.The optimum time for harvesting is when 5 or 6 mostly-green leaves remain on the plant. The window for lifting garlic is short so be sure not too begin too late!  If the bulbs remain in the ground too long, the skins will start to thin, cloves will begin to split apart from the stem and your garlic will not store so well. On the other hand, if you lift them too early the bulbs will not have had time to fully swell. We like to loosen the soil first with a fork before pulling them up. Be careful not to leave them lying in the sun and get them quickly into the shade. We hang ours using twine in bundles of ten from the rafters of a dry, shaded and airy lean-to.  Be sure to have plenty of air flowing between and around the bundles. We use a couple of fans to keep it moving. Once hung, hardneck varieties will take about 3-4 weeks to cure. Softnecks may take a little longer. Garlic is easily bruised so handle it with care at all times and avoid any contact with water which can lead to later problems with mold.

Storing

Once the papery skins are thoroughly dry, the garlic can be taken down and have their leaves and roots trimmed off. We trim the leaves to about 1” inch above the bulb. Try to avoid removing the papery wrappers any more than necessary, as these will keep your garlic fresh while they are stored. The roots should also be trimmed to about 1/2”. This is the time to sort them out and pick your biggest “seed” bulbs for the fall planting. If you are growing different varieties of garlic you should take care to keep them separate and mark them accordingly, as many varieties look very similar. Store them either in shallow trays or hanging in net bags in a dark and airy place. An even temperature of 50-55F and a humidity of about 50% is ideal. We find that our well-ventilated basement works well for storage and our garlic easily keep for 6 months or more. 

Garlic can be divided into hardneck and softneck varieties. Most of the varieties we grow are hardnecks which produce large, plump, easy to peel cloves with a wonderful flavor. Softnecks produce a larger number of smaller cloves per bulb but are better “keepers”. Generally speaking, the softnecks don’t produce scapes. If you want to try your hand at braiding then you will want to use softneck garlic.

Local information

You can usually obtain information on growing zones and cultivation in your area from your home state university.

We hope you will find this growing guide both helpful and interesting and wish you success and fun growing this ancient, health-giving and delicious plant.