Planting Garlic - The Definitive Guide

no other crop comes full circle quite like the planting of our fall garlic yes for sure we look forward to the future Harvest of the hundreds of tomatoes and peppers and other crops that we plant each spring but nothing compares to the cyclic nature of getting garlic cloves into the ground at the end of a long season and that's mostly due to two things first it's Autumn so most of the garden has quieted right down and not much else is going on but the main reason is garlic is a long crop probably the longest crop you'll ever grow planted well into the fall overwintered in the ground and then harvested the following summer it feels like we just pulled these bulbs up and we're already planting them back into the ground and today's video is all about that planting the weather may be nice but make no mistake about it fall and winter are coming so today let's cover everything that you need to know to get your hard neck garlic tucked away before that winter hits that way next summer you'll be enjoying your best garlic Harvest ever [Music] foreign [Music] all of our favorite crops hit the spring running producing their harvests as the summer progresses it's why garlic confuses so many people because its life cycle is so unique not to mention it's also long garlic is planted in the fall enters a winter dormancy period that stimulates the bulb production and then it's harvested the following somewhere upwards of eight to ten months after we first plant them it's an amazingly self-sufficient crop that literally regrows from itself over and over but you know growing garlic does require some patience don't get me wrong it's very easy to grow and it's relatively Pest and maintenance free however I think that the long rolling cycle over a winter dormancy is what confuses and turns people off of growing their own garlic but you know what we can change that even though garlic is an 8 to 10 month crop if you're nearly half of that the plants are dormant completely out of sight not to mention they get planted what almost all of our other crops are done for the year and as if that weren't enough at Harvest time there's often enough summer left to still plant another crop in their place so yes garlic is a long crop there's no question about that but the time of year when it's actually grown and the fact that it's relatively maintenance free means it's totally worth it and if that weren't incentive enough we also need to remind ourselves where the bulk of grocery store stock is coming from garlic is light it stores well and it keeps for a long time that means it's pretty easy to ship so the next time you're buying grocery store garlic take a look at where it's actually coming from and it's because of this realization over 10 years ago that I started to grow my own garlic and I've never looked back so let's go over everything that you need to know to grow your own garlic successfully and plant a few hundred cloves in the process doing back there okay like we mentioned a new crop of garlic is grown from the individual cloves of your already harvested bulbs if you're in a pinch you can use grocery store stock yes but starting with name varieties that grow well in your area is the best way to go prepping the clothes for planting is super easy just separate each one carefully from the main bulb one at a time don't pull too hard though or you could actually damage them just take your time and work your way around the ball trying to find that loose one once one of them pops off the rest will follow easily and don't worry about taking that papery coating off we actually want to leave it on CE you've gone through a few bulbs separate out the larger cloves from the smaller ones as these are the ones you're going to want to plant uh garlic actually comes in two distinct types hardneck and soft neck each specialized to grow in slightly different climates for the northern grower hardneck is the Garlic of choice more winter hardy these garlic varieties tend to produce bigger cloves that peel easier and are often more flavorful not to mention these guys produce a delicious distinct flowering stock that comes up every spring known as Escape for warmer climates without a true winter soft necks are the ones you want these guys store well have more clothes per head and they require less of a winter chilling period to stimulate that balming up to make it easy though both the hard necks and the soft necks are planted the exact same way mostly yes the depth orientation and spacing are identical but the timing is slightly different that's because in warmer climates if you're using a soft neck variety you can get away with a traditional spring planting for a summer Harvest that way you're skipping the winter dormancy altogether and you're growing in that familiar spring summer window like all your other crops for all other plantings including the one that we're doing here today you want to plant your garlic about four weeks before your first fall frost date for most people that's going to be September October or even November here where I am in zone 9B early to mid-october seems to work the best the individual garlic cloves are usually planted one to three inches below the soil surface point the end up now this can be done a couple different ways you can either dig a trench place the cloves inside and then fill back in with some soil or if your soil is loose enough and easily worked you can simply push the cloves down either way keep the paper coating on point the end up root side down now that range of depth that we just mentioned is going to depend entirely on the severity of your winter here our Winters are quite mild so I simply plant my garlic an inch deep if you have longer harsher winters however it may be wise to go a bit deeper not too deep though three inches is pretty much the maximum if we need more winter protection we can always pile on more mulch which we'll get to in a bit for spacing garlic needs four to six inches apart between each clove this is important because garlic really hates competition especially from itself if you ever wanted to stunt your garlic into producing tiny bulbs then don't give it enough space check this out here's what happens when you plant a whole garlic bulb with no spacing between the cloves pretty crazy after seven months this doesn't even resemble garlic so want bigger bulbs give them the space they need like all alliums garlic is a full sun plant requiring at least six hours a day of direct sunlight more if you can give it the growing bulbs do best in a rich loose pH neutral soil that's free of debris and impediments and while your garlic can tolerate low water conditions for certain periods of time it's definitely not immune to drought and on the flip side it also can't survive poor drainage so moderate but consistent moisture but never actually standing in water all right we now know when to plant how deep to plant and how far apart to space each clove let's go ahead and plant some garlic well right away we got our work cut out for us running a small garden plant business a few years ago these sets of beds here were used as a storage area so I haven't grown anything in them in about four years [Music] I'm convinced that the soil below is still good so let's get into it planting garlic is 90 bad prep and 10 actual planting with the state that these beds are in though 99 of the work is gonna be the prep but you get the idea [Music] after just a few minutes the Clutter from one of the beds is completely gone revealing the soil below when planting garlic you always want to start out with a nice level bed it just makes it easier it simplifies the spacing and it also helps to get those picture-perfect neat rows okay the soil looks great but it is a bit dry there's no transplant shock with garlic as the cloves are still technically dormant but it's the moisture that triggers them to sprout so I always water the soil first to give them a good landing pad looking good I think we're ready to plant and as we saw before there's two ways to do it you can make the pre-dug depressions or trenches to the depth that you need or if the soil is loose you can just push the clothes down today we're gonna do both now this soil here is definitely not loose so let's do method number one first the easiest way to make big long rows nice and neat is to use a hard rake on edge all right like we demonstrated before I've got my nice big pile of individual cloves all carefully pulled apart pointy Side Up root side down simply place the garlic into the middle of the trench four to six inches apart when the green garlic shoots finally Sprout out of those cloves they do it out of the pointy side so it's imperative to orient these guys properly work your way along that trench planting the cloves with that perfect spacing it's really easy and you can see why this part is only 10 percent of the whole process if I'm doing more than one row I try to make them at least a foot apart because the garlic foliage once it's fully grown actually fans out quite a substantial amount when you see a garlic patch fully grown it actually looks like small corn to consolidate the planting you can fill back in the trenches with that display soil it's pretty easy what I like to do though to give the garlic an extra boost to give it an edge is to use a nice organic potting mix for a bed like this with old dry soil that could really give it a boost [Music] easy stuff the entire bed was planted in less than four minutes once that bed prep was done the garlic does get watered at this time but let's go ahead and mulch first if we don't that soil is literally gonna get blasted everywhere possibly unearthing those cloves [Music] you can use straw leaves grass clippings whatever you have the most common mold used is clean straw it's easy to work with and the young garlic has no trouble pushing it shoots through once it sprouts where I live we have pretty mild Winters so I'm going to go with a mulch layer that's about one to two inches thick if you have a harsh or prolonged winter you can double that or even triple it okay all snug finally we can water look at how that mulch layer barely even moves not only is that going to help with any overhead watering it's also going to protect those clothes from the crazy fall and winter storms garlic below the soil soil below the mulch just like nature does okay we mentioned that there was two ways to plant the cloves here I got some seven gallon fabric grow bags and they're going to be perfect to demonstrate the second method first I'm going to fill them up level to the top with a quality potting mix looking good level it off and Pat it down slightly now just like before take your individual cloves pointy Side Up root side down and push them down into the loose soil to the desired depth as you plant each one observe the same spacing rules as before four to six inches between each clove two to four inches between the sides for the seven gallon pots I do six around the perimeter two inches from the sides and then a final seventh one in the center it's easy work and as always my little golden inspector is here to supervise some of my best harvests have come from container garlic truly if your cramped for space or maybe you only have a patio to grow on give garlic and pots a try it's really an easy way to get a Great Harvest all right like before let's mulch the soil before we water a nice thick one inch layer works great for me but again if you're in a colder climate go a little bit thicker do note though if you're in a really cold climate garlic and pots may not be for you anything that we grow in containers has a greater degree of exposure and that's going to have a greater risk of perishing over a harsh winter so if you live in zone 7 or colder it's something to think about okay one big watering to consolidate the planting and that's not only the second method of planting garlic demonstrated but also an example of container garlic as well good stuff although fairly straightforward taken as a whole that was a lot of info the worst thing that could happen would be to commit 8-10 months of growing garlic only to get a subpar Harvest next summer foreign this was just one bed of 20 cloves out of 15 beds I still have left to plant so while I'm doing that how about we reinforce the main points of planting your own garlic depth space and time while it may seem like the plot elements of a sci-fi movie these are the three main factors governing your garlic planting success starting four weeks before your first fall frost date garlic is planted anywhere from one to three inches deep below the soil surface the severity of your winter is going to dictate where you fall in this range now no matter where you grow though garlic is best based four to six inches away from the next clove and two to four inches away from the sides of the better pot [Music] for the actual planting of the cloves there's usually two methods that are used either digging a trench or depression placing the clove in pointy side up and then filling back in with either the loose soil or some extra potting mix foreign the second method works best when you're already starting with a loose soil such as you would when planting in pots or containers with this method you simply push the clove down pointy side up to the desired depth basically it eliminates a step regardless of the method used after planting you'll want to mulch heavily with straw leaves grass or a combination and give the garlic a good soaking some people do fertilize their garlic at this time but really it's not necessary within about four weeks that garlic should be entering dormancy there are cases where your garlic may or may not Sprout before winter but this is not an indication of how successful the planting is as long as you've got the right depth the right amount of spacing and you planted them at the right time of year you're going to be successful with the garlic the great thing about garlic is it's one of those set it and forget it type of crops but that only works if you set it up right the planting stage of the individual cloves is the most Hands-On that we're going to get with this crop for its entire life cycle all right hopefully today I've shown you everything that you possibly need to know to plant your own garlic successfully this fall and I look forward to hearing from all of you guys next summer come Harvest time when you get to pull up that amazing Bounty because you grew your own garlic 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 [Music]

Channel: The Ripe Tomato Farms

Views: 29,769

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

Id: Hj0Sy-2FpTY

Length: 19min 27sec (1167 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 16 2022