We now have seed garlic available for sale in our farm store. 

They are $3.00 per bulb and in stock now.

 

General Info

The variety of garlic we grow on our farm is Music.  Music is the most popular hardneck garlic.  The flavor is rich, garlicky, strong, robust and pungent with easy to peel jumbo cloves.

The best time to plant garlic is 2 - 4  weeks before your soil freezes.  You don’t want to plant them earlier than that because you only want them to put down roots in the fall.  If you plant them too early, they’ll start to sprout from the top and you want to prevent that from happening for the best results of growing garlic.

Preparation

A day or two ahead of planting, break apart the garlic bulb into individual cloves. Do not remove the skin from the individual cloves.  That skin will help protect the clove when planted.  Each clove will produce one garlic plant/bulb next spring.

Prepare your garlic bed by loosening your soil and working in compost and fertilizer to prepare it for planting.

Use your finger to poke a hole in the soil and plant each clove 2” deep with the pointy side pointing up. The flat end puts down the roots. Space them about 6” apart.  Rows should be at least 6” apart.

Cover the cloves with soil and add a 4” to 6” layer of mulch. You can use grass, leaves or straw.  After the threat of hard freezes pass in the spring, if the garlic hasn’t pushed up through the mulch, you can remove some of it so the soil warms up.  Leaving the mulch between the rows not only breaks down to nourish the soil, but will also inhibit weed growth.

Growth

To maximize growth, you’ll want to side dress them with fertilizer as needed throughout the growing season. A 20-20-20 applied every 3-4 weeks should work fine.  Read manufacturer instructions for amount per square foot for application.  You don't want to over fertilize and burn the plant.

Around June/July the garlic will put up scapes.  Scapes are the flowers that garlic plants produce.  They'll start out as curly stems emerging from the center of the plant.  You’ll want to cut them off once they start growing so the plant puts the energy back into growing the garlic bulb.  Once you cut them off, bag them and refrigerate them.  You can use them for cooking where you’d like to add garlic flavor to your favorite dish. There are lots of of ideas online when you look for garlic scape recipe ideas.

Harvest

You may begin harvesting the garlic once the bottom three or four leaves are dead on the plant.

To harvest, simply pull the garlic plant from the ground, carefully shake off the dirt, and place in a cool, dry place to cure for a couple weeks.  You'll want to make sure it's well ventilated and the garlic is single stacked on a drying rack to prevent mold growth.

After garlic has cured, you can cut off the roots and the leaves of the plant and they are ready for storage.  Do not refrigerate them for storage.  Keep them in a cool dry place and make sure the storage area is well ventilated.