Preparing the Garlic for Planting
It's time to plant my next crop of garlic.
Although garlic can be planted in the spring as soon as the ground can be worked, fall planting is recommended for most gardeners. This allows extra time for the bulbs to grow and become more flavorful for the summer harvest. Every year, I plant a big crop of garlic from Keene Garlic, a family owned farm in Madison, Wisconsin. Yesterday, my head gardener Ryan McCallister prepared the garlic for planting.
Here are some photos.
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- It’s always exciting to get a delivery from Keene Garlic filled with bags of fragrant garlic bulbs for my garden. I have been planting Keene Garlic for several years and am always so pleased with their growth and taste. Here’s my box containing several different varieties for planting this year.
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- Keene also sent a bag of Keene Garlic Fertilizer and Bioactive Liquid Biology Bundle to treat and feed the garlic before planting.
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- Here’s Blackie, my Greenhouse cat, inspecting the garlic that arrived. He’s the perfect feline helper on Halloween.
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- Remember the terminology – a head of garlic and a bulb of garlic refer to the entire structure that contains multiple individual segments.
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- And each of those segments is called a clove. A typical garlic bulb contains about 10 to 12 cloves, but this can vary depending on the size and variety. Some larger varieties may have only four cloves, while smaller bulbs can have up to 15 cloves.
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- Ryan works with one variety at a time to keep them organized. Each bulb is carefully broken to separate all the cloves. For the best results, plant the largest cloves from each bulb and save the smaller ones for eating.
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- Ryan is careful to keep each clove intact as he is separates. He also leaves some of the papery peel, called the skin, on the clove.
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- Some of the garlic I am planting this year include Amish Rocambole, a robust and very hardy type. It grows well in Northern States, and has large impressive bulbs with flavor that’s deep, full bodied, and medium hot.
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- The Romanian Red Porcelain garlic is best for medicinal purposes because it is high in allicin. It is known to be very hot with a tanginess that tends to linger.
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- The German Extra Hardy Porcelain garlic is large-sized and medium flavored. Because of its large root system, this hardneck is extremely hardy and often withstands freezing and thawing cycles when other garlic varieties don’t.
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- The Music Porcelain garlic is easy to grow. Raw, this garlic is very hot-flavored, but it mellows when it is baked or roasted.
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- Asian Tempest – Asiatic is very hot when eaten raw and sweet when baked. It tastes rich, garlicky, strong, and robust with easy to peel jumbo cloves.
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- Northern White is very strong, hot, and potent. It also has easy to peel jumbo cloves. It’s a great all-purpose garlic for mincing, baking, and grilling.
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- And, Elephant Garlic is actually a leek that resembles garlic in growing and in appearance. It has a very mild flavor. It is most commonly found in grocery stores. It is also larger than the other garlic varieties.
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- For the preparation process, Ryan uses the Bioactive Liquid Biology Bundle, which contains two easy-to-use concentrates that help produce larger, healthier bulbs and improve nutrient absorption.
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- While this can also be added to the planting soil, Ryan uses it as a pre-planting garlic soak.
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- First, he pours one tablespoon of each concentrate into a trug bucket of cold water.
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- The garlic is soaked one variety at a time, so as not to accidentally mix them up. This is Chesnok Red – Purple Stripe. The Chesnok Red garlic is an heirloom variety. It is loved for its rich flavor as an all-purpose cooking garlic. It’s also well known as a superb baking garlic.
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- The garlic is placed into the soaking solution. Ryan uses two buckets – one solid and one designed as a colander for draining. Soak the garlic for at least 30-minutes or up to overnight.
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- Then the garlic is thoroughly drained.
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- It is also rinsed several times with water and drained thoroughly again before drying.
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- Once all the garlic is put through the preparation process, the cloves are returned to their mesh bags. One bulb is left whole and kept with its variety bag in case needed.
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- Ryan continues to prep all the garlic for planting. It takes a while to get through all the bags, but it’s the perfect project for a very rainy day here at the farm. If you love garlic, try growing it yourself.
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