So you love garlic, and you are ready to take the leap into growing garlic on your own.
This culinary staple is easy to grow and has a long shelf life, to keep your kitchen stocked all year. Look no further than this article for the basics of growing garlic, along with some tips, tricks, and recipes.
Varieties Of Garlic
有几十种大蒜可供选择,你花园的最佳选择取决于你住在哪里。大多数种子目录和在线种子商店会在种子描述中注明哪种气候最适合哪种种子。If you are buying garlic from a local garden store, they should already be stocking varieties that grow well in your climate.
Hardneck Garlic Vs. Softneck Garlic Vs. Elephant Garlic
Garlic falls intotwo main categories: hardneck and softneck. The difference is exactly what it sounds like – hardnecks have a firm central stem, while softnecks have a leafy top.
Hardneck varieties grow better in colder climates, and have slightly stronger, spicier flavors. The cloves are larger but contain fewer per bulb than their softneck cousins. The biggest difference, however, is that hardneck garlic produces a flower stalk, called a scape, which has to be trimmed before maturity, and which is a delicious culinary ingredient in its own right.
You may have heard of elephant garlic. Fun fact: It’s not actually garlic. Elephant garlic is much more closely related to leeks and has a mild allium flavor compared to the more potent flavor of “true” garlic. No matter what variety you choose, there are some general tips for growing garlic that applies to both soft and hard neck garlic.
The Best Soil For Growing Garlic
Get to know your soil before planting. Like all root vegetables, successfully growing garlic requires light-weight, well-drained soil, the sandier the better. Heavy, clay-filled soil will stunt your garlic’s growth and if it is too wet, it can even start to mold. Prepare your seedbed the same way you would for any planting.
Till and amend your soil as needed. Most agricultural extension services offer soil testing for low or no cost. This will give you an accurate reading of your soil’s pH, and nutrient levels. There are also home kits, which offervariable and unreliableresults.
对你的soil’s pHis more important than getting a precise read on the nutrient content. Most plants want slightly below a neutral pH of 7 for optimum growth, but a soil’s natural pH varies widely from place to place, and naturally adapted varieties will have some tolerance for the indigenous pH. In the Pacific Northwest, we have acidic soils, but just a hundred miles away on the other side of the Cascade mountains, the soils are basic.
As far as nutrients go, the big three arenitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, or NPK. Other “micronutrients” are also necessary but needed in such small quantities that they are difficult to add on a small scale. If you are amending your soil with manure or with an NPK fertilizer, your bases should be covered. Assessing micronutrient levels is a good troubleshooting strategy when pH and NPK seem normal and your plants are still having problems.
Planting Garlic
When you buy seed garlic, it will likely come in whole bulbs—the way you buy garlic to eat. Before planting, each clove—the parts that make up the bulb—has to be separated, butnotpeeled. The larger the clove, the larger and hardier the bulb of garlic that will grow from it, so don’t worry about the tiny sliver-shaped cloves at the center of the bulb.
分离丁香很耗时。人多好办事,这对于长途汽车旅行、看电影或让坐立不安的孩子们忙个不停都是一项伟大的任务。
Garlic is planted in the fall and harvested in mid-summer the following year. Planting time depends on how warm your climate is. A good rule of thumb is to plant garlic the same week as youraverage first frost date, or slightly before.
Garlic is easy to plant. Push the cloves into the soil, pointy tip up, just like tulip bulbs or daffodils. They don’t need much space—they can be planted about six inches apart. Once the cloves are in the ground, spread mulch to help trap moisture and heat, and to suppress weeds. Most people use straw, but you canmulch with leavesorgrass clippings. Beware of introducing weed seeds with your mulch—garlic doesn’t compete well with weeds.
Keeping Garlic Plants Healthy
Throughout the winter, growing garlic shouldn’t require much of your attention. In some climates, it will germinate in the fall, but especially in cold areas, you don’t want shoots to grow before the frost, since the cold weather will damage them.
春天来临时,你需要在大蒜周围除草。当天气干燥时,你需要开始浇水。If you are growing garlic that are hardneck varieties, you will notice itgrowing a scapesometime in late spring or early summer. The scapes should be cut off after the bud at the end forms, before the plant goes to flower. Cutting the scape redirects energy into the bulb and gives you a harvest of delicious vegetables. But as far as growing garlic that has a soft neck, you won’t need to worry about scapes.
Garlic Scapes
Scapes have mild to medium garlic flavor and can be eaten raw or cooked. In the summer, my friends grill scapes on the barbecue as a side dish for—anything really, but my favorite way to eat scapes is pickled with vinegar and chili peppers. They pack a real punch in the winter when you are missing the strong flavors from the garden.
Scape season is only about two weeks long, so keep an eye on your hardneck garlic. If you miss the window, not only will you miss out on a culinary treat, but you will end up with scrawny garlic bulbs.
Pickled Scapes Recipe
Experiment with cloves, coriander, dill, and other spices. Some people add sugar at the same ratio as salt for more sweetness.
Your scapes should be shelf-stable and ready to eat as a garnish, seasoning, or palate cleanser throughout the year.
Ingredients
- Fresh garlic scapes, with the ends trimmed. The bud is the tenderest part.
- Brine made of equal amounts apple cider vinegar and water, enough to fill jars
- 2 tablespoons of pickling salt per 3 cups of brine
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon each of white and brown mustard seeds and whole peppercorns per jar
- 1 or 2 whole hot chilis per jar
Directions
- Bring brine to a boil.
- Pack your jars with scapes, chilis, and spices, and pour the vinegar/water/salt brine to fill.
- Followinstructions for hot-water-bath canning in our article on canningfrom here.
Harvesting Garlic
Your garlic should be ready to harvest between the beginning of June and the end of July, within about a month of scape season. Pull up one bulb to check the size and development. Garlic is ready to harvest when it has clearly differentiated cloves, even if it is not very large.
Garlic can be hard to clean, depending on your soil texture. Don’t wash the bulbs with water. Getting wet will cause them to spoil. Generally, garlic should be kept dry.
Once dry, the dirt can be brushed off, to some extent. That said, I have seen professional farmers sell dirty garlic. A little dirt won’t hurt you, and you will peel it before eating anyway.
Curing Garlic
There is a difference between fresh garlic and the stuff you buy at the store. Fresh garlic has a milder flavor and is easier to peel, but it won’t keep.
To store garlic without spoiling, it first has to becured. Curing involves hanging the garlic in bunches in a dry, dark place for several weeks to a month. They will turn fully brown, and the skin will get flaky and papery.
Once cured, garlic can be stored for several months, although I can never quite get my garlic to last until June. After your summer harvest, you can put aside some of the biggest bulbs to plant in the fall. By saving the biggest to plant, you are selecting for larger and larger garlic.
大蒜是我最喜欢的厨房主食之一,种植大蒜总是有益的。我和我的伙伴每年秋天都种一种作物,在我们的气候条件下,这是一种低维护性作物。不要让细节压倒你。最好的方法是在地里放几瓣丁香,看看它们长得怎么样。
If you found this helpful, check out other titles in our series on growing veggies.
Leave a Reply