How Long Does It Take To Grow Garlic

Caren White is a Chief Gardener and teacher at Home Gardeners Schoolhouse. She has been associated with Rutgers Gardens for over a decade.

Garlic has been used equally both nutrient and medecine for more than seven,000 years. Information technology is easy to grow and stores for months. When yous harvest your garlic, salvage the largest cloves to constitute for next year.

What Is Garlic?

Garlic (Allium sativum) is a fellow member of the allium family which includes onions, leeks, shallots, chives and the ornamental onions that we grow in our flower gardens for their spectacular flowers. It is native to central Asia and Iran but has spread and is now grown all over the world.

All parts of the institute are eaten except the roots. The leaves have a mild garlic season and tin can be substituted for chives. The flower, also known as the scape, is considered a effeminateness. Actualization in the spring, they are removed from the plants to encourage them to direct their energy into the bulbs. The scapes are eaten either raw or cooked.

The almost commonly used function of the garlic is the bulb which is covered with layers of newspaper pare. Each seedling is divided into sections known as cloves. Each clove is besides covered with layers of paper skin. The skins should be left intact until you are ready to use the cloves.

Soft neck garlic foliage is often braided so that the bulbs can be hung in storage which saves space. — Soft neck garlic foliage is oftentimes braided so that the bulbs can be hung in storage which saves space.

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What is the Departure Between Hard Neck Garlic and Soft Neck Garlic?

The two most common types of garlic are soft neck garlic and difficult cervix garlic.

Soft neck garlic refers to the fact that the central stalks of the foliage are soft and tin can be braided for storage. Soft necks best grown in warmer climates. They are not as hardy as hard neck varieties. The flavor is stronger and more intense than hard neck. Each bulb yields more than cloves than hard necks. The plants likewise do not produce scapes. Soft cervix garlic can be stored for upwards to 8 months.

Hard cervix garlic, as its proper noun implies, has a hard central stalk effectually which the cloves grow. The central stalk produces the scapes. The bulbs have fewer cloves than the soft necks, merely the cloves are larger. The flavour is milder than soft neck varieties. Professional person chefs prefer hard neck garlic considering the cloves are easier to pare and the plants produce scapes which can be used in many different dishes such equally pesto or cooked and enjoyed on their own. Hard cervix garlic grows best in colder, northern areas. Information technology stores for up to half dozen months.

Elephant garlic is a type of leek. It only half a dozen cloves or less.

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What is Elephant Garlic?

Elephant garlic is not a true garlic. It is a type of leek. The flavor is closer to onion than garlic. Each bulb has 4 to 6 big cloves. The bulbs will store for up to eight months like their cousins the soft neck garlics.

How to Set Your Garden to Plant Garlic

Garlic is planted in the fall, half dozen weeks before the ground freezes. Depending on your growing zone, this will exist onetime betwixt September and Nov. I plant my garlic at the end of October in my zone 6 New Bailiwick of jersey garden. The idea is to plant it early on enough that the cloves will have a adventure to develop roots before the ground freezes just late enough so that they volition non produce leafage earlier the frost.

In your sunny garden, prepare a bed past loosening the soil to a depth of one foot. You lot may add up to 1 inch of compost. If your soil is acidic, a layer of ash is recommended.

Tin Garlic be Planted in the Spring?

Garlic is unremarkably planted in the fall so that the cloves will take a adventure to develop roots before winter. Every bit soon as the soil warms in the spring, the cloves will immediately be able to send up leaf and then a few weeks afterwards, begin growing their bulbs.

Planting garlic in the leap will result in smaller bulbs and milder flavor because the cloves will not have had a run a risk to develop roots the previous autumn. Without roots, the cloves will non exist able to abound the foliage so the bulbs immediately in the spring. The plants will take a later start in the jump considering they volition need time to grow roots. They will not take as much time to develop their bulbs equally fall planted garlic.

How to Found Garlic

Break apart your bulbs into individual cloves a few days before you found it. Do not disturb the paper covering to avoid rot. Institute the cloves with the point upwards. The roots volition grow from the apartment end. Establish them 4 inches deep and 8 inches apart. Then cover with a thick layer of mulch at least 4 inches deep to protect the bulbs during the winter. If greenish shoots announced, cover them with mulch to prevent freezing.

In warmer climates, garlic tin exist planted in the late winter or very early jump, February to March. Found them the aforementioned way and mulch heavily to protect from sudden cold snaps.

How to Grow Garlic

Make certain that your garlic is protected by that thick layer of mulch all winter but in the spring, as green shoots appear, you may move the mulch away from them leaving the mulch between the plants. Leaving the mulch is important because it suppresses the growth of weeds which will compete with the garlic for water and nutrients. Garlic does non grow well when it has to compete for resources with other plants so it is of import to keep your garlic patch well weeded.

Garlic will need at least an inch of water each calendar week until June when the bulbs start to form. After that you can cut dorsum on your watering. If watered likewise much while the bulbs are growing, the paper roofing will begin to rot. The paper skins protect the bulbs and cloves so without them, your bulbs will also rot.

The shoots that appear from your difficult neck garlic are called scapes and are a culinary please on their own. Harvesting and eating them helps your garlic by forcing the plants to concentrate their energy in growing the bulbs rather than the foliage. You lot may begin harvesting your scapes when they achieve a height of 4 to 6 inches. You tin can eat them raw or cooked.

How to Harvest Garlic

Although related to onions, garlic is not harvested when its leafage has completely died dorsum. Rather, information technology is best harvested when about a third of the foliage is brown. This is especially of import when harvesting soft neck garlic if you intend to complect it. The foliage needs to be soft then that you can braid it. Foliage that is completely dead is as well brittle to braid. Harvest is ordinarily July through August depending on the variety and the climate.

Garlic bulbs should be advisedly "lifted" from the soil to avoid impairment. Using a garden fork, gently loosen the soil around the bulbs, so carefully pull them out of the soil. Try non to damage the paper coverings which protect the cloves.

The bulbs must be cured before you can store and use them. Cure them by hanging them in a absurd, nighttime place that is not humid. Curing will take about two weeks. Your garlic is fix when the wrappers are dry like paper and the roots are dry. Castor off excess soil, but do non clean completely until you are fix to use the cloves.

Exist sure to save your biggest and all-time cloves to plant in the autumn for next year'southward crop.

How to Store Garlic

After y'all have cured your garlic, cut off the roots and the stems. If you are storing soft-neck garlic, you may want to get out the foliage so that you tin can complect it and hang your bulbs. Alternatively, you tin can shop your bulbs in baskets or hanging in mesh bags. Storage should be in a cool, dry identify that is 50°F to 60°F. Do not store your garlic in your refrigerator which is too common cold.

Caren White (author) on July 06, 2020:

Garlic volition blossom one time and then the plant dies. I don't know if information technology volition regrow the following yr because I ever harvest my garlic. I don't leave it in the ground. I don't know of anyone who does leave information technology in the basis. Garlic is a vegetable. It is meant to be eaten, not displayed.

Eric Caunca from Philippines on July 05, 2020:

...Only, my aim about planting garlic is to display them but, non for consuming.

Caren White (writer) on July 05, 2020:

Garlic should never exist allowed to flower. It is grown for its seedling. If information technology flowers, it will put all of its free energy into growing the blossom and the seeds instead of growing its seedling. Equally presently as you see the flower buds, called scapes, remove them from the institute.

Eric Caunca on July 04, 2020:

How long earlier garlic bloom a flower and how long it will bloom over again afterwards its first bloom?

Caren White (writer) on July 02, 2020:

Garlic cannot be grown in water considering information technology is an underground bulb. It cannot be submerged in water because it will rot.

Eric Caunca from Philippines on July 01, 2020:

How to grow garlic in water without soil?

Susan Trump from San Diego, California on January 31, 2015:

Everyone seems to take a passion. It'southward acting on them that counts.

Caren White (author) on January 31, 2015:

Susan, my philosophy is "I breathe therefore I garden". I've even gardened on a burn down escape when I had no yard! Thanks for reading and commenting.

Susan Trump from San Diego, California on January thirty, 2015:

I'M SO IN. I PLANT WITH THE Conventionalities....IF YOU REALLY WANT TO Live Hither YOU'LL GROW... It has non been working out.

I'll try to learn.

Anne Harrison from Commonwealth of australia on Oct xv, 2014:

Living on the other side of the world, I always plant my garlic by St PAtrick's Day. I love buying different types of garlic to purchase - the flavours vary so much, so different from the blanched types for sale in the vegetable aisle. Thanks for an intersting hub.

Caren White (author) on October 15, 2014:

Anne, I hold. People who don't garden miss out on so much variety in their food and their flavors. Thanks for reading and commenting.

Caren White (writer) on Baronial 01, 2014:

No rush, KL. You lot have some time yet. You can wait until a few weeks before your first frost. It's hard to save the biggest cloves to plant because it's so tempting to utilise them to cook with. Thank you for reading and commenting.

Krissa Klein from California on August 01, 2014:

I've got a bunch of cloves saved from my last crop...got some really nice big ones. I approximate I should be thinking about where I'm going to put them, soon!

Caren White (author) on July 29, 2014:

You're admittedly right, Dragonflycolor! I didn't include that in my hub because I volition exist discussing it in another hub that on IPM (integrated pest management). Thanks for reading and commenting.

dragonflycolor on July 29, 2014:

I've likewise seen garlic in companion planting to decrease the corporeality of certain bugs eating up the garden. Love garlic!

Caren White (writer) on July 28, 2014:

You're timing is perfect, Flourish. In that location are so many varieties to choose from. Choosing which to grow is so much fun. Thanks for reading and commenting.

FlourishAnyway from USA on July 28, 2014:

I've never considered growing garlic, however I use a lot of it in recipes and would love to attempt. With Fall just around the corner it seems like its a good time to attempt new things!