The only time I ever grew garlic nothing happened. The following year I was interviewing a local artist for my newspaper column and he and his wife grew giant cloves of garlic that they sold to the locals in their area. After I wrote the article about him I decided to do some research to find out where I went wrong and what I did wrong.
I had just bought some garlic sets from my local garden center. I later learned there are almost 600 varieties of garlic and it can become a very good cash crop for those of you who are looking for profit from your organic gardening.
I discovered there are two types of garlic, the soft-neck garlic being the Silverskin and the Artichoke which we generally find in our grocery store and the hard-neck garlic with the Creole, Marble Purple Stripe, Asiatic, Purple Stripe, Rocambole and Porcelain being the most popular ones grown by the garlic loving home gardener.
You don't even have to send away for the Silverskin or the Artichoke, just separate them and plant them, but do not break them up and separate them until your ground is ready to accept them for planting for they must be planted immediately. Make sure you remove the paper and plant only the large and medium cloves. You can use the small cloves back in your kitchen for cooking. The rest of the hard-neck varieties and probably upwards of the 600 varieties can be found and purchased on the internet.
At this point in my research I discovered my biggest mistake. I planted the garlic in the spring since I picked up the garlic package in the spring and garlic, like my tulip bulbs; need to be planted in the fall at least six weeks before we get our first major frost here in Zone 6 so what were they doing out with the spring stuff. Perhaps left over from last fall?
At any rate plant the cloves as stated above since they need that last bit of warm weather in the soil to germinate and to allow their roots to form. Should you see some green shoots as you see once in awhile with the tulips, do not worry as garlic is a hardy bulb and will endure sub-zero temperatures.
Prior to planting find a space in your garden that is well-drained and here in Kentucky Zone 6 we have the kind of soil Garlic enjoys which is sandy-clay that crumbles easily when you work the soil between your hands.
Double dig or rotor till your garden with some of your well-composted manure since your garlic likes to send its roots deep into soil that has been well worked before planting. Without sounding dumb make sure the tip is up and the base is down and the clove is planted about 2 inches into your soil. You can plant them about 4 inches apart which will give them room to grow and perhaps discourage any weeds between the spaces and make your rows about 2 feet apart so you can work and walk between them.
My local artist/garlic grower says he puts the last of his fall grass cutting on his garlic and he also finally covers them up with straw to protect them through the winter. He waters the rows in the fall and even in the winter since we do not get much snow here. If you get lots of snow you will not need to do that. Eventually he continues watering through the spring and finally sees his shoots coming up. I discovered he stops watering in June to let the bulbs mature without risking mold development and he harvests in July.
He checks his garlic by pulling up one and if it is full with cloves bulging through the paper parchment it is ready to harvest. He then digs them up and takes them inside because he says leaving them out in the sun is not good for them.
Next comes storing and curing and once it is cured garlic will store for up to eight months. He pulls up the whole plant, bulb, leaves and all and ties a dozen of them in a bunch to hang in his garage which happens to be a well-vented location. I learned that if one does not have space to hang garlic then you can put them loose in a ventilated box such as the kind that bananas come in to dry for 12 to 14 days. Never wash garlic before curing as it will cause mildew and your garlic will not cure properly.
When the garlic is dried then chop of the tops leaving about two inches above the bulbs and take a pair of shears and trim off the roots. Don't refrigerate you garlic or it will start to take root again and the garlic taste will change, just take a paper bag, never plastic, and store them where the temperature will be between 60 and 70 degrees such as your basement. I suppose one could try to braid them as I see garlic whenever I visit Italy or Spain. Then happy cooking!
