Growing garlic

[aaytay]

71 garlic bulbs = "Safe garlic levels"

 

[digger]

I've gotta ask! LOL
WTH do you do with that much garlic?

 

[kmcconaughey]

LOL, I give a bunch away to family and friends and we use a bunch of it in various dishes throughout the year. Oh and a bunch of it I save as seed to replant for next year.

 

[digger]

LOL,
I was gonna say, you've never smelled like you sweat garlic anytime I was around ya!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Charlie, while I do eat a bunch of garlic,

I don't eat that much.

 

[aschumacher]

Kraig, could you send a couple cloves of garlic out east here? Saw 3 bats flying around my back yard last night!<font size="-2">Actually they were little ones catching bugs but my wife likes to cook with garlic. </font>

 

[tcbusch]

Kraig,
I lost my crop last year due to bad weather I think. This year a few decided to regrow and I might be able to keep the garlic growing by just replanting and now consuming. One thing about the garlic is it doesn't last long. I wish there was a better way to preserve the garlic. Usually by spring the garlic bowl is all dried out.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Terry, how are you curing it before storage? I place the garlic in the drying racks that I built. I then set the drying rack(s) out every morning in a shady spot on saw horses, unless rain is forecast. I do this for about two weeks, putting it back in the shed every evening to keep dew off of it. After a few days I cut the roots off and then after the two weeks I cut the tops off. It will store a lot longer if it is cured. Also I store it in baskets in my basement with good air circulation around the baskets.

 

[dcharette]

Looks good Kraig!
Do you always harvest when the tops are still green?
My tops have just died back like onions do.I think i'll pluck mine from the ground tonight.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Dave, thanks. I harvest them when the tops just start to yellow and flop over. Mine flopped over about a week early due I think to a storm that had gone through here but the leaves had slightly started to turn yellow around the same time. You can let them go a little bit longer but if you wait to long the individual cloves in the bulb will start to separate. If I was growing only to replant them as I would if I was growing strictly for seed garlic I would let it go a bit longer as I would be separating the cloves and planting them in a few months anyway. However if you intend to store a bunch of it for use over the next year they do not store as well if they start to separate.

 

[dcharette]

Thanks for the info Kraig.
I harvested mine the other night and have it hanging to dry.
I am planning on keeping some to replant this fall.
May mince and freeze some as well. The rest will stay as whole cloves.

 

[kmcconaughey]

I planted my garlic yesterday and thought it might be a good idea to photo document the process. A couple of weeks ago I built a new raised planting bed so I could increase my planting. The new bed is made of 2 x 8 cedar and is the same size as the old bed, 3' wide and 8' long. The bottom of the new bed, like the old bed, has 1/2" galvanized hardware cloth (wire mesh) stapled on to prevent pocket gophers from eating the garlic.

First thing I do is prepare the beds by working the soil to loosen it up and add in some compost. I did that last weekend. Next I prep the garlic by separating the bulbs into individual cloves.

Next I rake the planting beds smooth and then using a homemade dibbling tool I make evenly spaced planting holes. I made the dibbling tool out of a handle from a broken shovel. I like to plant the cloves about 6" deep.

Then I place a garlic clove in each hole, making sure to place them root end down. Each bed has 14 rows of 5 for a total of 70 cloves per bed. I spaced them a little bit farther apart than I did last year with just the one bed.

Then I finish up by raking the planting holes shut. The photo does not show how aggressively I rake as I was using one hand to take the photo. The cloves are deep in the soil so it's safe to rake several inches deep.

After the ground is frozen I add a mulch of some sort. My preferred mulch is marsh hay but that is getting hard to come by so I have been using leaves in recent years.

 

[jbaker]

very cool Kraig, ours went in 2 weeks ago.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Jeff, thanks. I've described this process many times over the years here and elsewhere and I thought it was time to photo document it..

 

[kmcconaughey]

I harvested my garlic on Saturday. I have not counted the bulbs yet but it was a good harvest!

 

[jbaker]

Kraig, Sherri pulled one of hers yesterday and plans on pulling the rest. Mine is dirtier than yours but about the same size,,lol

 

[jbaker]

well she pulled them today, total count 66

 

[kmcconaughey]

Jeff, nice harvest!

 

[kmcconaughey]

My garlic is just about finished curing so I trimmed off the leaves today and finally counted the bulbs. I got 70 bulbs per bed! That means I got 100% yield.

I believe this is the first time I got 100%.

The bulbs on the left side of the curing racks are for eating, and giving away. The bulbs on the right side of the curing racks are the larger bulbs that I'll save for replanting. I will likely be moving more of the bulbs to the replant side.

 

[jbaker]

nice job kraig, Sherri planted 72 and we got 66 not to bad