Time to Prepare a Bed For Garlic Planting

Garlic is traditionally planted on the shortest day, but can be planted any-time from late May until August. It needs a period of winter chill to stimulate growth.

Prepare a bed before planting. Garlic is a long-term crop, taking about six months to mature, so choose a position where it can be left to grow and mature. Choose a warm, sunny well-drained site and work fertiliser into the soil. Garlic does not do well in poorly drained soil.

Incorporating compost and animal manure enables better water retention and is an important addition as garlic requires nutrients early in it’s development to start plumping up the cloves.

Each garlic bulb is made up of several cloves, encased in white, pink or purple paper-like sheaths. Select large, clean, healthy-looking cloves. Keep a few of the fattest outer cloves from healthy home grown bulbs to use as the seed cloves. A continuous process of selection means you will end up with cloves that suit your local climate.

Chilling the bulbs before planting at a temperature below 10° C for 4 to 6 weeks, improves leaf growth and the resulting cloves will be a more even shape and size.

Plant the cloves 5cm deep (finger depth) and about 15-20cm (a hand spacing) apart with the pointy tip pointing upwards.

Plant garlic in rows as it is easier to weed. Apply a mulch like straw to insulate the soil and reduce weed growth.

If  the soil is very wet or very cold, start garlic off in punnets of potting mix. Transplant before the roots grow too long.

Make sure the soil doesn’t dry, out especially as the bulbs are forming.

Keep on top of any weeds so they don’t take nutrients away from the garlic.

Shoots take 4-6 weeks to come through the ground.

Garlic stems are strong and stand upright. When mature the foliage starts to yellow and eventually turns brown when the garlic is completely ready for harvest. 

History:

Garlic is originally from Central Asia, and it has been cultivated in the Mediterranean for over 5,000 years. Gladiators ate garlic prior to battle. Egyptian slaves consumed it to give them strength to build the pyramids.