How To Grow Garlic - The Definitive Guide For Beginners

probably one of the easiest crops to

grow

certainly one of the easiest fall crops to

grow

is

garlic

. I have grown

garlic

for 10 seasons in a row from the same material I originally planted a decade ago. The trick to growing garlic successfully is to understand its life. Cycle Once you understand your basic needs to complete this, planting, maintaining and harvesting garlic is quite simple, so today let me show you how to grow the most successful garlic you will ever grow, regardless of where you live or what it is. growing and start right now the path to a successful garlic harvest is based on the preparation of both the preparation of the garlic and the pot or bed in which you are going to grow, let's start with the easy and preparing the garlic preparing the garlic is so easy it's already ready to plant, so I know that for many of you who have done this thousands of times before, this part will be a little redundant, but if you have never grown garlic, it is important.

To learn about the life cycle of garlic, next year's crop of garlic is grown by taking the cloves from this year's bulb and overwintering them fully planted, each clove of garlic has everything it needs to become a full bulb of six to 14 cloves. New ones for next summer our job is to simply remove the outer layer of paper, only this layer of paper is what essentially holds the bulb together. Once we remove the outer paper sleeve, we can separate the individual cloves for planting. It's important to note here that garlic cloves also have a papery layer.

Don't remove this. Leave that layer intact. It's a pretty easy thing to do and most bulbs will give you about eight individual cloves. Let's go ahead and close another one so you can see it. again this one seems a little smaller with a few less cloves follow the same process, although try not to separate the garlic too much if one clove feels too stuck, move around the bulb and find one that is easier, eventually they will all come loose. This bulb only had six cloves, although they are nice and plump, which is easy enough. Ok, with the garlic preparation, let's go ahead and set up the area in which we are going to grow it.

I grow garlic in both containers and raised beds and each one is done a little differently, so let's go ahead and look at the garlic in the container first. Garlic isn't too picky about container size, it's all about space. Anything that drains well and is at least six inches deep is perfectly fine. I love roasting my garlic in four foot herb pots so I will first grab some from the wall for our planting, these pots are built just for garlic and having about 40 inches of growing space along the length means I can have about 10 plants in each one.

I line them with newspaper for each new planting to help prevent soil from spilling out the bottom, it's great. because it allows water to pass through but not soil, perfect for garlic in a container. I plant them a little upside down, filling them first with two or three inches of fresh compost. You can put compost on top without any problem, but I think it works better. as a base with your premium potting mix on top, the soil we will use to fill all of our garlic containers is the same soil we will use to plant the garlic beds, so now is a perfect time to talk about it, you can buy your own potting mix at the store and it will work perfectly fine.

I make my own and will post a link to that in the description below. Basically, garlic needs light loose and well-drained. Soil mix with neutral ph so if you can make it yourself it's great if you have to buy it well that's also great. However, there is one thing I do extra and that is I add about five percent sand. Garlic really likes good drainage, so I add a few cups. It is highly recommended to add sand to your mix, mix everything well and we are ready to plant. The best way to plant garlic in a container is to simply fill the container to the top and then take each clove and push them down with the corresponding space.

If you are using the right soil mix, this should be a piece of cake. Potting and container soil mixes are a dream to work with because they are so lightweight, filling your pots takes no time and even less effort, although I will say that it is a good thing that garlic has fairly shallow roots and that we can use such low pots, otherwise Otherwise we would feel that these types could be quite expensive. Another good way to save a few dinars is to watch the video where I explain how to perfectly reuse spent potting soil. In the case of our garlic container, when the pots are full, you'll want to compress them about 20 percent to really pack in the soil mixture, go ahead and add a little more mixture afterward to bring that level back up.

Garlic cloves have a top and bottom, roots coming out the bottom, obviously, but unlike most seeds, garlic bulbs have a hard time reorienting themselves after you plant them, so be sure to plant them. root side down now with the ends of the garlic, root side down, just bury them in that soil. mix about an inch deep, space them three to four inches apart and work your way down into your preferred containers, make sure those tips are buried, the sprouts will find their way to the surface, no problem, don't worry, so you can see the real thing.

Planting these guys is incredibly fast, it all depends on the preparation. The same goes for raised beds, which we'll get to in a minute, but everything you do to prepare these guys is what makes planting so easy. 32 more of these guys to make. I'm going to go ahead and make them right now and then we can talk about the final steps to prepare these guys for the long winter, in fact before we do that let me show you what it would look like if we put the garlic in a regular pot or container like this , using a pot, we fill it to the bottom, compress it to compact the soil and then complete it with round pots like this one.

Work around the circumference and space the garlic about three or four inches apart and you'll want to keep it about two inches from the sides of the pot. It's probably a little tight, but I'm going to go ahead and tighten one right in the center again. Make sure all the tips of the garlic cloves are buried. The final steps we take when planting garlic in containers are very similar to any other growing we do on the farm, it is always mulching and watering, but given the circumstances of the time of year we are in. We are approaching winter very, very quickly here and we are planting a new bulb that has not yet sprouted, so this step is very important.

Almost all organic mulches work very well with garlic. You can use straw grass clippings, shredded leaves, or combinations of all. of them, place it at least two inches thick. This will be the blanket for garlic all winter long. Your mulch will help mitigate extreme temperature changes and prevent moisture loss or the other way around. A lot of humidity. Don't skimp here. The layer of mulch can make the difference between a good garlic crop and a great one. Soak your pots well and you probably won't need to water again until spring. If you're short on space, there's no reason you can't do this.

Easily grow hundreds of bulbs of the most epic organic garlic in containers only, go ahead and place the pots back in their permanent spot and wait for next summer's harvest. It's that easy, this 10 foot wall of just four herb pots will hold 40 bulbs. of garlic and will still be planted after the summer harvest with fresh herbs for the rest of the summer, so planting and growing garlic in containers is quite simple, so let's move on to preparing an established raised bed or plot to grow a little epic garlic, the first step to growing garlic in raised beds, whether you grow no-till or not, is unequivocally to clean and prepare the bed.

If you are looking at no-till methods, cut all weeds right at the root collar and level the old mulch lightly with a hard rake. End of summer cleanup is always the most labor intensive, but the no-dig gardening method certainly mitigates that work, so it's not the prettiest, it never is this time of year, but now is the time. Magic happens with your clean and prepared beds. Our garlic rose spacing rules still apply three to four inches between each bulb and two to three inches from the sides. If you are growing in a raised bed using the same potting mix, simply space a two-inch row or thicker if it has the space like the one I do here placed in another row.

I try to have six to eight inches of space between the rows, so keep that in mind, place them right on top of that old mulch, there's just no need to dig here, why do the work yourself? when it's so unnecessary, I'm making an 8 foot bed and usually put 20-24 cloves in the center of each row. Pretty impressive use of space for a bed that would otherwise sit dormant all winter again. Plant the clothes root side down. Now you'll see I'm not really burying them. This is where plotting or raised bed planting differs from containers. Our two-inch row of new soil isn't enough to bury these guys, so for this step we're content with just laying them out.

Raise the cloves in the correct orientation as before, it goes very fast and won't take up an entire bed, but a few minutes now, taking the same potting mix, go ahead and bury the rose an inch or two deep, it's perfect, I admit which is an extra. step, but doing it this way ensures that we can still observe no-dig practices, the time consumed is a little more, but the work involved is quite a bit, which really is the motto of no-dig gardening, extra care but no extra work with the rows already made. We can continue the process as before and start applying mulch, put it nice and thick here, trust me, it will serve your garlic well.

I cover the entire bed and not just the rose, but if you are keeping mulch for any reason, you can do that. Start by covering the rose first and then fill the rest of the bed with whatever is left like with the garlic container before finishing planting with watering to finish all watering. Really soak them well here. Incredible things. I really love winter garlic. aesthetically and mentally, it gives me that optimism that something is growing there even in the dead of winter, as you can see, growing the best garlic is all about preparation and time, speaking of time, here are the two I haven't seen in a long time , mandatory summary in 40 seconds prepare the garlic by peeling just the papery outer layer and then separating the individual cloves, then prepare your pot or raised bed to start planting the garlic using a fairly loose, well-drained potting mix with neutral ph, Garlic is planted at least six weeks before the first fall frost date and about one to two inches below the soil surface, space those cloves three to four inches apart to give them room to grow and be sure to cover them with your favorite loose organic mix, a good watering and the garlic is ready.

For next winter and subsequent harvest next summer, garlic really is a set-and-forget type of crop, which is often what we need this time of year for both our body and mind. Hey, if you have any more tips for growing garlic, share them in the comments below also if any of you are on Facebook, join our gardening group called growing better. The group has grown phenomenally fast, but you'll never lose your sense of community or your sense of welcome if you're passionate about epic growth. organic fruits, herbs and vegetables for you and your family, the Growing Better group is a great place to hang out, share, learn and grow.

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