Right about now is the time that some of us are looking at getting our garlic cloves into the ground for next summer’s harvest. It really is a pretty simple crop to grow but it seems like seed garlic is getting more and more expensive to purchase. I generally save the best specimens from this year’s harvest and plant it in the fall, but our bulbs this year were far from impressive, none of them really worthy of saving (remember, we save the best and eat the rest) and I found myself having to order a lot of seed garlic this year. So on this episode of Just Grow Something I’m digging further into the idea of a perennial garlic bed.
This is something I explored a couple years ago and that I did unintentionally in my garlic bed from last year. So, I’ve gone down a rabbit hole of different ways to get a perennial harvest from one bed of garlic. It’s not as foolproof as, say, asparagus, where you plant it once and then just continue to harvest for the next 30 years. But, there are a whole host of ways to enjoy that garlic flavor we love while also protecting ourselves from the inflation that seems to be happening with seed garlic. Just one more way to become more self-reliant in our own gardens. Ready to tackle garlic as a perennial crop? Let’s dig in!
Resources and References:
Ep. 67 - When and How to Plant Your Garlic, Plus Tips for Warmer Climates
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This is positively farming media right about Now is the time that
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some of us are looking at getting our garlic cloves into
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the ground for next summer's harvest.
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It really is a pretty simple crop to grow, but it seems like
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seed garlic is getting more and more expensive to purchase.
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I generally save the best specimens from this year's
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harvest and planted in the fall, but our bulbs this year were far
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from impressive. None of them were really worthy
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of saving. Remember, we save the best and
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we eat the rest, and I found myself having to order a lot of
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seed garlic this year. So on this episode of Just Grow
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Something, I'm digging further into the idea of a perennial
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garlic bed. This is something I explored a
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couple of years ago and that I did unintentionally in my garlic
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bed from last year. So I've gone down a rabbit hole
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of different ways to get a perennial harvest from one bed
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of garlic. It's not as foolproof as, say,
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asparagus, where you plant it once and then just continue to
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harvest for the next 30 years. But there are a whole host of
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ways to enjoy that garlic flavor we love while also protecting
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ourselves from the inflation that seems to be happening with
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seed garlic. Just one more way to become more
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self reliant in our own gardens. Ready to tackle garlic as a
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perennial crop? Let's dig in.
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Hey, I'm Karen and I started gardening 18 years ago in a
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small corner of my suburban backyard when we moved to A5
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acre homestead. I expanded that garden to half
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an acre and I found such joy and purpose in feeding my family and
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friends. This newfound love for digging
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in the dirt and providing for others prompted my husband and I
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to grow our small homestead into a 40 acre market farm.
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When I went back to school to get my degree in horticulture, I
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discovered there is so much power in food and I want to
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share. Everything I've learned with as
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many people as possible. On this podcast we explore crop
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information, soil health, pests and diseases plant.
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Nutrition, our own nutrition, and so much more in the world of
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food and gardening. So grab your garden journal and
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a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow.
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Something now I did a full episode on garlic way back in
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episode 40, and I will link to that in the show notes.
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But let's do a quick overview on how we generally plant garlic as
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an annual before moving on to talking about it as a perennial.
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Garlic is a cool season crop, being planted very late in fall
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or early in the winter and not harvested until about six months
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later in the late spring or early summer.
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Since planting is done in the fall, the early to Midsummer is
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when you're going to end up ordering your seed garlic.
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And let me tell you, I saw some astronomical prices on seed
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garlic this year, and for the third year in a row it seemed to
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be in shorter supply than before.
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Now your first garlic crop should come from certified seed
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garlic. So this is just to make sure
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there are no diseases or anything coming along for the
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ride when you plant. But once you get your first
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crop, it is OK to cure the best ones and use those as your seed
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garlic for the next season, just so long as there hasn't been any
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kind of indication of disease. But if you're starting from a
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very small amount of seed garlic, it may take you a year
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or two to kind of build up the size of your crop to be able to
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hold back enough to plant and also have enough to eat until
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the next batch is ready. So there are two different types
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of garlic. There's hard neck and soft neck.
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The most obvious difference between them is their
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appearance. The hard necks are called that
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because they have a long flowering stem that grows
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through the center of the bulb and it is very hard.
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This flowering stock is called the scape.
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Now generally the scape is removed from the bulb to force
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the energy into the bulb growth rather than allowing it to
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flower. This is important information
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for us to know for later, so hold on to that.
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Soft neck cultivars, on the other hand, yield A generally
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larger bulb and a larger number of clothes than the hard neck,
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and these are the types that you generally are going to see in
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the grocery store. This much higher number of
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cloves is likely a reproductive compensation for the lack of
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that flowering stock. Soft necks do not usually
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produce escape. Now, under stressful conditions
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they may partially bolt and they'll grow a short pseudo stem
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which will subsequently produce a smaller number of bulblets.
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But this is the exception rather than the rule.
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So generally if we want scapes, we want hard neck garlic.
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Now, generally speaking, hard neck varieties tend to grow
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better in areas with more severe winters because they require a
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greater period of vernalization than soft neck cultivars.
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So vernalization is the number of hours beneath a certain
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temperature that it will need in order to be able to produce a
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crop the next season. So a prolonged period of cooler
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weather is ideal for hard necks. Soft necks, on the other hand,
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tend to perform better in areas where the winters are milder.
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So where I am in zone 6A, we can grow both hard neck and soft
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neck. We're kind of right along that
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line, and I usually do grow both just to make sure that I get
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something because we can have some really brutal winters
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sometimes and then sometimes it's pretty warm.
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I did plant both last fall and just all of my bulbs performed
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poorly this year. But I think that was more of a
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lack of moisture than anything else and maybe a problem with my
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soil composition in that bed. So let's talk planting.
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The way we plant our initial crop is going to be the same
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whether we plan to grow it as an annual or a perennial.
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And it's relatively simple. Separate the cloves and leave
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the skin intact. Space the cloves 4 to 6 inches
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apart in rows spaced 12 to 18 inches apart.
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The cloves should be planted with the pointed end up and the
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blunt end with the roots down. Push each clove one to two
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inches into the ground, firm the soil gently around it and that's
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basically it. If you're gardening north of
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zone 7, you'll want to heavily mulch your garlic to avoid frost
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damage and frost heave. A good four to six inches of
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straw or chopped leaves is a great mulch for garlic.
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It will slowly flatten out as the winter progresses, and it
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will not only protect the garlic cloves, but also provide a great
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weed barrier in the spring when the growth starts again.
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You know if you're in a climate that doesn't see a lot of heavy
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freezes, the mulch may not be necessary, but I still recommend
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at least a thin layer to help with the weeds and to help
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retain moisture. Depending on when you plant, you
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may see a little growth begin in the late fall and that's okay.
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Frost damage on the early green growth that pops up isn't going
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to be detrimental to the plant. The plant will go dormant and it
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will begin growing again in the spring.
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Now, if you want to be sure there isn't any above ground
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growth in the fall, just plant as close to your Persephone
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period as possible. That's the period where the
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daylight hours drop below 10 hours per day.
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Just make sure you plan to get the garlic in the ground before
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it freezes solid or you'll be planting in the spring, which is
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a good point. If you miss the planting dates
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in the fall or you don't get your seed garlic ordered in
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time, you can absolutely plant in the spring.
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Just know that the bulbs won't get nearly as big as they would
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if you plant in the fall. But hey, any crop of garlic is
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better than no crop. So now that it's planted, how do
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we turn our annual garlic crop into a perennial?
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Well, first we need to be sure we're using hard neck garlic.
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Remember, hard neck garlic produces a scape, and we remove
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that scape before it opens in order to focus the plant's
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energy into creating a nice sized bulb.
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But if we leave that scape intact, it produces an humble
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this is the flower, and it's actually a terminal pod that
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produces bulbs or bulblets. Those bulblets are little clones
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of that same garlic bulb that's growing under the surface of the
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soil. It's not a seed.
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It's literally a tiny little clove and there can be anywhere
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from 20 to 200 of these little bubblets in each humble and
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that's on just one scape. So these tiny little cloves can
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be removed from the scape and used in the same way we use the
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garlic cloves that we grow underground.
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The flavor is very similar, they're just smaller.
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But if we leave them on the scape for longer and we harvest
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them when they're mature, well, now they can be planted in the
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same way as the individual cloves.
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They need at least two seasons and sometimes a little bit more
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before they produce an actual differentiated bulb like we're
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used to seeing. But that's a lot of return from
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one garlic scape 20 to 200 cloves.
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So that's just one way that we can get a bunch more garlic out
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of our initial planting. The 2nd is to just leave some of
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that garlic unharvested in the bed.
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This is what I did unintentionally last season, and
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this spring I had a bunch of garlic clusters sprouting up
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where my garlic was last year. So what happened was each clove
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of each of those forgotten garlic bulbs sent up a new
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sprout in the spring. So when you plant garlic, you
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plant those individual cloves, but these were never separated,
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so they just came up as a dense patch of garlic shoots.
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Just leave these alone. After a few years, that one
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single garlic clove is going to have dozens of garlic shoots
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sprouting in these small patches of soil in the garden.
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These individual shoots can be pulled off of that cluster
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anytime and used as green garlic.
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This is similar to how we would use a green onion.
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The flavor is less garlicly than a full size clove, but it's
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definitely there. And then whatever we leave in
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the ground, whatever remains of that clump of garlic is going to
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produce scapes later in the season.
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So then we can harvest those and use them as our regular garlic
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scapes, or harvest only some of them and allow the rest to
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produce those moblets. So as they dry, they may drop
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off the plant and reseed themselves right next to the
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clump that's already growing and you have a separate clump
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starting the next season. So it's self seeding, it becomes
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a perennial. You can also pull these clumps
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up in the spring and separate out those individually sprouted
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cloves and then replant them in the typical 4 inch spacing apart
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from each other and allow them to grow the rest of the summer
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to be harvested as those differentiated bulbs.
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They'll take a little bit longer to get to maturity than fall
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planted cloves and they may not get as big, but they will be
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bulbs of garlic just like what you would expect.
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There are lots of options here. And yes, I said that if you're
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in a warmer climate you likely need to plant soft neck
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varieties, but that's if you're determined to get those big
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differentiated bulbs. You can absolutely plant hard
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neck as a perennial in warmer climates and allow them just to
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remain in the bed. You'll have green garlic to
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harvest practically year round, and choose to plant some soft
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neck alongside them for those bigger bulbs if you want to.
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I think growing garlic as more of a perennial crop solves a
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couple of problems for us. If what you're going for is the
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flavor, you're definitely getting that, even if it's not
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from what we would consider a traditional clove.
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The bulblets are full flavored and can be harvested and dried
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very easily, and they're super easy for grinding into garlic
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powder. Allowing the garlic to grow in
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clusters takes a lot less effort on the part of the gardener, and
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allowing some of the scapes to remain intact gives us an almost
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endless supply of seed garlic without ever having to buy
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another bulb again. I'm going to move those clumps
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from last season into a more permanent home at the same time
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that I'm planting my fall garlic next week.
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I'll let those clumps do their thing in their own bed, and I
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will have a nice little perennial patch from here on
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out. Let me know if you plan to try
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this too. Until next time, my gardening
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friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden and we'll talk
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again soon. You.
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Just finished another episode of the Just Grow Something podcast.
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friends keep learning and keep growing.