Grow Bigger Garlic! 10 Common Garlic Growing Mistakes To Avoid

there's almost no crop as straightforward and easy to plant as garlic but it's a long one to grow to harvest and in that time even small mistakes are compounded into well small results it's garlic planting season and today it's my goal to help you avoid nine months from now the dreaded small bulb syndrome there's 10 mistakes to avoid and despite the wind we'll cover them all today so that your next garlic harvest is your best one yet [Music] people that watch garlic videos or at least those of you watching this right now fall into a range of categories from planting garlic diligently every year to try it a couple of times you know with some mixed results to maybe this is your first time and you're watching this video as a tutorial well first up i'm going to suggest that you watch this video here as an all-encompassing guide to growing garlic it's an in-depth look at growing garlic start to finish and i highly recommend it however for the sake of this video and to bring everybody up to speed so that we're all on the same page here's the quick garlic refresher that you never knew you needed garlic is a cool weather crop planted in temperate regions at the onset of fall a single clove from a harvested bulb is planted not very deep and left in a semi-dormant state all winter the next spring the garlic sprouts with gusto and if looked after properly for the next four to five months it's harvested in the early summer cure the bulbs for about two weeks in a dry space and they'll keep for up to six months but don't rest for too long because the whole process starts all over again in about two to three months after the harvest [Music] okay so now that we're all up to speed let's zero in on those 10 things that stand in your way to a garlic utopia if you're right here like me bulb in hand and ready to plant you gotta think about spacing suggested spacing historically has been four to eight inches apart clove the clove six inches apart is where i plant and is the sweet spot for most varieties garlic hates to compete even with itself and planting too close together will most assuredly result in a smaller harvest and on the flip side spacing any further apart from that is kind of a waste of usable growing space keep it to six inches and you're good to go and since we're here we might as well take the opportunity to talk about planting depth the consensus is that one to three inches deep is ideal for planting your cloves too far down and the cloves are going to expend unnecessary energy to try and emerge from the depths in the spring resulting in those small bulbs and too shallow you run the risk of the freeze thaw action of the soil's top layer heaving the close to the surface exposing them to the full force of winter resulting in no bulbs two inches deep is ideal not including mulch getting the spacing and planting depth right is great but if what you're planting in is wrong it could be moot garlic always prefers a rich sandy loam that drains well as an allium it does not perform well in poor drainage or compact clay type soils incorporate fresh compost into your beds or pots and when possible plant on the surface adding fresh potting mix around the cloves to give it that extra ideal soil layer you know directly around the immediate growing area garlic will always perform at its peak when its soil requirements are met or exceeded finishing off the soil related issues we have nutrient levels garlic is actually quite a heavy feeder and it'll reward low nutrients and poor fertility with equally poor results i avoid animal manures from my garlic and i stay away from nitrogen heavy fertilizers in general too much nitrogen and your garlic will be focused on vegetated growth of its shoots rather than actual bulb production this is why compost is so ideal keep the nutrient load balanced slow release and you'll enjoy better results garlic comes in two varieties hardneck and softneck these two groups of garlic differ in a few ways 1. hardneck garlic sends up a flowering structure called escape in the late spring hardnecks also tend to have larger bulbs with fewer cloves and their taste is often more flavorful and complex than that of the softnecks the most important difference however is and always will be climate preference generally hardneck varieties are grown in more northern or temperate regions and planted in the fall before the onset of winter softnecks however give us that option of planting garlic in warmer climates where they're planted in the coldest part of the year and harvested more quickly than hardnecks that same summer most definitely picking the right variety for your climate is going to be a contributing factor to your garlic success one surefire way to perpetuate small bulb syndrome is to plant small cloves in the case of growing garlic if you start small you're going to end up small pick the biggest and best cloves possible from the previous season if you want to maximize the next season's harvest like we touched on earlier garlic hates competition so when you're planting out a fresh bed of garlic remove all the weeds garlic is a loner and it just hates neighbors there's no way around it keep the beds clear not only in the beginning but also throughout the life cycle of the crop it really does make a difference now this one's for you hard neck growers out there you gotta cut your scapes the escape is a flowering head and just like any flowering structures they're a drain on the plant in the case of garlic scapes they're a real drain they're big bulky and solid no question they're stealing resources from the bulb so if you want the best bulbs eliminate the scapes as soon as they appear cut them down where they meet the first whirl of leaves easy peasy now i'm not joking with this one make sure you're planting your garlic cloves root side down garlic cloves appear somewhat homogenous top to bottom but rest assured there's a right way to plant them when you break a full garlic ball apart you'll see that the growing tip end of the clove is slightly more pointed than the blunt root end it's subtle but as you see more and more cloves you're less likely to make the mistake of planting one upside down which is good because if you do quite likely that garlic bulb won't even grow so while kind of humorous in its simplicity it's obviously very important to get it right and lastly we come to our most important aspect of growing garlic and that's timing the single biggest factor that i've seen in failed garlic crops and grower frustration over and over is the incorrect timing of planting the garlic all too often a new gardener will plant their garlic cloves in the spring with the rest of their traditional crops and then they're left wondering what the heck happened when the garlic is the only crop with less than stellar results like we said garlic is a long crop especially the hardneck varieties when they're literally planted the calendar year before that summer's harvest it's a difficult concept for new growers to wrap their heads around that garlic actually overwinters in the ground sprouts in the spring and is harvested anywhere from eight to ten months after the initial planting some of these garlic planting mistakes can be fixed and the crop salvaged timing is not one of them without a doubt planting garlic at the wrong time will always yield poor results always if you can avoid these 10 garlic planting and growing mistakes you're almost assured of an unbelievable bounty come harvest time garlic is a long crawl and mistakes get compounded because of this but dodging the 10 things that we talked about today will make sure that your garlic growing experience is a fruitful one hey thanks so much for watching guys i appreciate the support more than you know and if you're getting value from these videos please like and share them to spread the word and help your fellow gardener to grow better

Channel: The Ripe Tomato Farms

Views: 276,251

Keywords: growing garlic, how to grow garlic, planting garlic, harvesting garlic, how to harvest garlic, when to harvest garlic, garlic, garlic harvest, how to grow garlic at home, the ripe tomato farms, the ripe tomato farms garlic, storing garlic, curing garlic, drying garlic, growing garlic from cloves, growing garlic at home, growing garlic at home indoors, garlic planting, garlic plant care, garlic plant problems, planting garlic bulbs, growing garlic from store bought garlic

Id: AWqgRhVDK4g

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021

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