It's time to plant garlic.
Hi, I'm Tim. Welcome to the Shades of Green Show. It's October in North Texas,
which means it's time to plant your garlic. Why?
Because garlic takes eight to nine months to mature.
And if you want to be harvesting next summer,
you want to get it in the ground now.
Today I'll be planting a hardneck variety called Music and a softneck variety
called Early Italian. And when it comes to garlic,
you do have a choice between hardneck and softneck varieties.
The neck refers to the stalk that grows upward from the garlic bulb.
Hardnecks have an edible stalk called a scape that becomes rigid at maturity.
Softneck stalks consist of leaves and remain soft and flexible at maturity.
Hardnecks have more complex flavors than softneck varieties.
Softnecks have a milder flavor, better suited to a wider range of recipes,
and they can be stored for longer periods of time.
This Early Italian that I'll be planting can be kept for up to 10 months after
harvest. Softneck varieties typically do better in warmer climates,
whereas hardnecks tend to do better in colder climates. That said,
you can have success with both here in North Texas. Lastly,
softnecks usually mature more quickly than hardneck varieties,
but not in this case.
Both the hardneck Music and the softneck Early Italian that I'm going to be
planting will mature in 240 days. That's eight months,
meaning that by planting now I'll be harvesting in June of next year.
But before we can harvest,
we've got to plant and that begins with good bed prep.
Garlic is a heavy feeder and so you want to make sure you've got some compost
and some manure and some good fertilizer in when you plant,
because garlic is going to set roots in the fall so that it can pull up the
nutrients it needs to get through the winter. Now,
what I've done here is I've already amended this bed with two inches of
compost, fresh compost,
and then I've come back and added an inch of composted cattle manure. To that,
I'm going to add an organic fertilizer. I use,
like to use Garden Tone by Espoma.
I'm simply going to sprinkle this in here on top - like
this,
and then I'm going to amend this with Bone Meal.
Now Bone Meal is high in phosphorus,
which is a great source of food for a bulb plant like a garlic.
So I'm going to take this, spread it
here. Again, you can measure.
I just like to use my hands. I've done this enough times,
and then I'm just going to mix this into the soil.
You can use a trowel and flip it over. I'm just trying to mix the fertilizer,
the composted manure and the fresh compost into the soil.
I grew some tomatoes and some cucumbers in this bed during the warm season,
so I know I've got some good soil down here. I can feel it.
Mix all that in, and
then we're going to plant.
Now you want to plant your garlic about four to six inches apart.
That lets the balls reach a good size. And it's really simple. On your garlic,
you've got a, when you break apart your bulb,
you're going to have individual cloves.
There should be a flat end and a pointy end on your garlic.
And then we want to put that in the ground so that there's an inch of soil above
it. Now,
my fingers happen to be the perfect length 'cause I'm going to shove my finger
into the ground up to the hand. Then when I rest this garlic down here,
you can see there's going to be about an inch,
inch and a half of soil above the garlic.
So just push a hole into the ground and just drop that down in the hole.
Your soil is nice and loose. You may have to push it down a little.
That's all you gotta' do.
I'm going to be planting six rows of each of the two kinds of garlic
on this end of the bed. And at that end of the bed later in the year,
I'll be putting in my red onions.
So just make your holes four to six inches apart and get all your garlic in the
ground. Now, to break your bulb apart,
you should be able to do it with your hands just by squeezing tightly.
If you apply a little bit of pressure, the outer cloves should pop right off,
just like that. Just keep doing that.
If it's too tough for you, try using a potato peeler.
Avoid using a pocket knife,
'cause you don't want to cut the cloves 'cause that will probably cause them to
rot. Once they get planted in the ground. Do that,
then we want to get as much of this paper off as we can.
Just let it lay there in the garden. It'll add nutrients to the soil.
And once they're pretty much nice and smooth and have no paper on them,
they are ready to plant. Once you've got everything planted, just water it in,
you'll be good to go. Now, I love to put flowers in my vegetable garden,
so I've got a row of pansies separating my hardneck from my softneck,
but you don't have to do that. Do whatever you want.
And if you have any cloves left over, well, start using them to cook with.
I'm thinking something with pasta tonight. Now, when it comes to harvesting,
it couldn't be easier. Uh, as your garlic reaches maturity,
you'll start seeing that the lower leaves are going to start turning brown and
dying off. When you see about 50% of the leaves brown out,
stop watering for about a week and then you should be good to go on harvesting.
Now,
understand that people have been growing garlic for thousands and thousands of
years, and they've really got it dialed in. If it says 240 days to maturity,
you can pretty much set your calendar and be ready to harvest at that time.
But again, use the leaves to know for sure. When they start browning out,
stop watering, wait a week or so and then harvest. When you do harvest,
you want to take your garlic out of the ground. Um, set it in a cool dry place,
a garage or a covered patio or porch works great for this.
I like to lay mine out on a wire table so that it's got air circulation above
and below. And you want to let it cure for two to three weeks.
After you've done that, you can start using it to cook with,
put it in your pantry,
but do not put it in your refrigerator because it will start to sprout and
become bitter. That's all there is to it. So...
It's October in North Texas. Start planting your garlic. I'm Tim.
Thanks for watching the Shades of Green Show.