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've grown garlic for 10 straight seasons now from the same stock i originally planted a decade ago the trick to growing garlic successfully is in understanding its life cycle once you grasp its basic needs to complete this the planting growing maintenance and harvest of garlic is actually quite simple so today let me show you how to grow the most successful garlic you've ever grown regardless of where you live or what you're growing in and it starts right [Music] now [Music] the path to a successful crop of garlic is based on preparation both the preparation of the garlic itself as well as the pot container or bed that you're going to be growing in let's start with the easy one and prep the garlic prepping the garlic is so easy it's 95 ready to plant already so i know for many of you that have done this a thousand times before this part is going to be a little bit redundant but if you've never grown garlic it's important to know the life cycle of the garlic next year's garlic crop 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 grow into a full bulb of six to 14 new cloves for next summer our job is to simply remove the outer layer of paper only this paper layer is what essentially holds the bulb together once we remove that outer paper sheath we can then separate the individual cloves for planting it's important to note here that the garlic cloves themselves also have a paper coating don't remove this leave that layer intact it's pretty easy stuff and most bulbs will give you around eight individual cloves let's go ahead and zip through another one so you can see it again this one seems a bit smaller with a few less cloves same process though try not to force the garlic apart too much if one clove feels really stuck move around the bulb and find one that's easier eventually they're all going to come loose this bulb only had six cloves albeit nice plump ones pretty easy stuff right so with the garlic prep let's go ahead and set up the area with which we're going to grow it i grow garlic in both containers and raised beds and each is done a little bit differently so let's go ahead and look at container garlic first garlic isn't too picky about container size it's all about the spacing anything that drains well and is at least six inches deep is perfectly fine i love to grill my garlic in four foot herb planters so i'm first gonna grab a few off the wall for our planting these planters are just built for garlic and having about 40 inches of growing space lengthwise means i can get about 10 plants in each i line them with newspaper for every new planting to help prevent the soil from spilling out the bottom it's great because it lets the water through but not the soil perfect for container garlic i plant them a bit in reverse by first filling them with two to three inches of fresh compost you can put your compost on top no problem at all but i find it works better as a base with your premium potting mix on top the soil that we're going to be using to fill all of our garlic containers with is the same soil that we're going to be using to plant out the garlic beds so now is a perfect time to talk about it you can buy your own potting container mix from the store and it'll work perfectly fine i make my own and i'll throw a link to that in the description below essentially garlic needs a loose light well-drained ph neutral soil mix so if you can make that yourself great if you have to buy it well that's great too there is one thing that i do extra however and that is i add about five percent sand garlic really likes good drainage so adding a few cups of sand to your mix is highly recommended mix it all up nicely and we're ready to plant the best way to plant container garlic is to simply fill your container all the way to the top and then take each clove and push them down spaced accordingly if you're using the right soil mixture this should be a cinch potting and container soil mixes are a dream to work with because they're so light filling up your planter boxes takes no time at all and even less effort i will say though that it's a good thing that garlic is quite shallow rooted and that we can use such low planters otherwise feeling these guys could get quite expensive another good way to save a few dinars is to check out the video where i explain how to reuse spent potting soil perfect scenario with our container garlic when the planters are full you're going to want to compress them down about 20 percent to really pack that soil mix in go ahead and add a little more mix after to bring that level back up again garlic cloves have a top and a bottom to them the roots come out the bottom obviously but unlike most seeds garlic bulbs have difficulty reorienting themselves after planting so ensure that you're planting them root and down now with your garlic ends root and down simply bury them in that soil mixture about an inch deep space them three to four inches apart and work your way down your preferred containers really ensure that those tips are buried the shoots are gonna find their way to the surface no problem don't worry so as you can see the actual planting of these guys is lightning fast it's all predicated on the preparation the same thing goes with the raised beds which we'll see in a minute but everything you do to set these guys up is what makes the planting so easy now i've got 32 more of these guys to do i'm gonna go ahead do those right now and then we can talk about the final steps of setting these guys up for the long winter actually before we do that let me show you what it would look like if we potted up the garlic in a regular pot or container like this same thing using a pot fill it up all the way compress it down to pack the soil in and then top it off with round pots like this i work my way around the circumference and space the garlic about three to four inches apart and you're going to want to keep it about two inches away from the sides of the pot it's probably a little bit tight but i'm gonna go ahead and squeeze one right in the center again make sure all the garlic clove tips are buried the final steps that we do when planting garlic in containers is much the same as any other crop that we do at the farm it's always mulching and watering but given the circumstances of time of year we're heading into winter very very quickly here and we're planting a brand new bulb that hasn't sprouted yet so this step is ultra important almost all the organic mulches work very well with garlic you can use straw grass clippings shredded leaves or combinations of all of them lay it on thick at least two inches this is going to be the garlic's blanket all winter long your mulch will help to mitigate the extreme temperature swings as well as to prevent moisture loss or the reverse too much moisture guys don't skimp here the mulch layer can be the difference between a good garlic crop and a great one give your planters a good soaking and you likely won't have to water again until the spring if you're pressed for space there's no reason that you couldn't easily grow hundreds of bulbs of the most epic organic garlic purely in containers alone go ahead and put the planters back in their permanent spot and wait for next summer's harvest it's just that easy this 10-foot wall of just four herb planters will house 40 bulbs of garlic and still be planted after summer harvest with fresh herbs for the rest of summer all right so planting and growing garlic in containers is pretty straightforward so let's move on to preparing an established raised bed or plot to grow some epic garlic the first step to growing garlic in raised beds whether you grow no-till style or not is unequivocally to clean and prepare the bed if you're observing no-till methods cut all weeds off right at the root collar and level the old mulch lightly with a hard rake end of summer cleaning is always the most labor intensive but the no dig method of gardening certainly mitigates that work so it's not the prettiest it never really is this time of year but now is when the magic happens with your beds all cleaned and prepped let's make our garlic rose spacing rules still apply three to four inches between each bulb and two to three inches from the sides if you're growing in a raised bed using that same potting mix simply lay down a two inch or more thick row if you have the space like i do here put in another row i do try to have about six to eight inches of space in between rows so keep that in mind lay them down right on top of that old mulch simply no need to dig here why make work for yourself when it's so unnecessary i'm doing an 8 foot bed and i usually get about 20 to 24 cloves in the center of each row pretty awesome use of space for a bed that would otherwise lie dormant all winter again plant your clothes root end down only now you see that i'm not really burying them this is where the plot or raised bed planting differs from the containers our two inch row of new soil isn't enough to bury these guys so for this step we're content with simply setting up the cloves with the correct orientation as before it goes really fast and an entire bed won't take but a few minutes now taking that same potting mix go ahead and bury the rose one to two inches deep is perfect i admit it is an extra step but doing it this way ensures that we can still observe no dig practices the time consumed is a little bit more but the labor involved is quite which really is the motto of no dig gardening extra care but not really extra work with the rows all done we can continue on the process as before and start mulching really lay it on nice and thick here trust me it'll serve your garlic well i cover the whole bed and not just the rose but if you're conserving mulch for whatever reason you can start with covering the rose first and then fill in the rest of the bed with whatever you have left as with the container garlic before finish off your planting with the watering to end all waterings really soak them good here awesome stuff i really love the winter garlic beds aesthetically and mentally it gives me that optimism that something is growing in there even in the dead of winter as you can see growing the best garlic is all based on preparation and timing speaking of time here's the two long didn't watch obligatory recap in 40 seconds prepare your garlic by peeling off the outer layer of paper only and then separating the individual cloves next prepare your container pot or raised bed to start planting the garlic using a neutral ph well-drained fairly loose potting mix garlic gets planted at least six weeks before your 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 make sure to mulch with your favorite loose organic mixture one good watering and your garlic is set for the coming winter and subsequent harvest next summer garlic really is a set it and forget it type of crop which is often what we need this time of year both for our bodies and our minds hey if you have any more garlic growing tips share it in the comments down below also if any of you are on facebook head on over and join our gardening group called growing better the group has grown phenomenally fast yet it will never lose its sense of community or its welcoming feel if you're passionate about growing epic organic fruits herbs and veggies for you and your family the growing better group is a great place to hang out share learn and grow hey thanks for watching guys if you're getting value in this and the other series that i'm doing on youtube hit those like share and subscribe buttons if you'd be so kind and i'll see you in the next video

Channel: The Ripe Tomato Farms

Views: 2,506,444

Keywords: garlic, growing garlic, how to grow garlic, growing garlic from cloves, growing garlic from store bought garlic, growing garlic at home, growing garlic at home indoors, how to grow garlic at home, the ripe tomato farms, garlic planting, garlic plant care, garlic plant problems, planting garlic, planting garlic bulbs, fall gardening, planting bulbs

Id: UgbWxSqpqws

Length: 18min 9sec (1089 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 11 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/V1ncemeat]

40 second summary at 16:16

[u/slutwiththepinkhair]

Can you do this with any old bulb of garlic that you buy at the grocery store?

[u/[deleted]]

[removed]

[u/Onlybegun]

I literally watched this video on YouTube a few days ago. All info was very helpful!

[u/tawhuac]

I live in the tropics but 2500m altitude. Pretty constant temp year round, days can be hot, nights fresh to cold but no freezing ever

I have tried planting garlic but they never develop. One thing I learnt here is I need better mulching.

How long should I leave it to grow? Is outside better than greenhouse? If greenhouse, it needs watering as the sun can dry up everything pretty quickly...that seems like different to what you seem to do.