Garlic is one of the easiest crops to grow, and learning how to grow garlic is simple. Even better, once you've grown it, you can regrow garlic year after year from your own bulbs.
When you plant garlic, you plant individual cloves, but since these were never separated they'll come up as dense patches of garlic shoots. After two or three years, a single garlic clove will have dozens of garlic shoots sprouting from a small patch of ground.
Growing garlic as a perennial means less maintenance, year-round harvests and never buying seed garlic again. Growing garlic as a perennial is pretty simple. Just plant garlic as you normally would in the fall, and then ignore it for a few years.
And again, garlic is very winter hardy; cold weather doesn't bother it one bit. In fact, the taller the sprouts are above ground at Christmastime, the better the plants will do over winter.
If left in the ground too long, the over-mature bulbs can split open, leaving them susceptible to molds and dehydration. Perhaps somewhere there are soils loose and loamy enough to enable garlic to be pulled out of the ground by the tops without tearing or breaking any stems.
Unfortunately, the only thing you can do is avoid growing garlic in the same place for three years; there's no cure for rust. Garlic can also be affected by white rot, which decays the roots and eventually the bulb. Again there is no cure apart from crop rotation.
What happens if you leave garlic in the ground too long? In mild climates, garlic left in the ground for too long will resprout and grow again. Underground, the bulbs will start to split. You can still eat this garlic, but it won't store as long.
Unpeeled, a head of garlic can keep up to six months, while a single, unpeeled clove will last about three weeks. However, taking the skin off means that it'll go bad much faster—a peeled clove will last a week in the fridge, while chopped garlic can go bad in as little as two days.
Garlic will only grow roots and shoots from specific places in its clove. When planted upside down, the shoot will go down and force it's way to the sky despite, making way more work for your garlic to thrive. This also makes it more challenging to harvest, cure and store your garlic.
The answer is a resounding yes. Garlic is pretty versatile when it comes to freezing. You can freeze raw whole unpeeled bulbs, individual cloves (peeled or unpeeled), or chopped garlic. You can also cook or process garlic into various forms that make meal prep a breeze.
Each clove, if planted in early spring or autumn, will produce a new head. If left to its own devices, garlic will eventually form a small clump as its bulbs spread over the years.
Garlic, like potatoes, is multiplied by vegetative reproduction rather than by sexual reproduction (seeds). Individual garlic cloves are planted and they each produce a bulb in which the cloves all have the same genetic makeup as the original clove.
In climates with long growing seasons, peppers and tomatoes also are good candidates for planting after garlic or onions. In cooler climates, Chinese cabbage or bok choy may be the perfect choice.
Tie the top of the stalks with string in bundles of five to ten and hang them bulb down in a dark, dry and well-ventilated place for about three weeks. You can hang bundles from a sapling as shown in the pictures! Alternatively, lay them on a screen or an aerated shelf.
Garlic will adversely affect members of the legume family (peas and beans) and also Asparagus.
It is not mandatory that you soak garlic before planting. In fact, there are plenty of successful garlic growers that do not do this step and plant the cloves right into the ground and have a wonderful garlic crop.
Garlic can also be stored in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. However, cold garlic will start sprouting a few days after it is taken out of the refrigerator ( 2 ). Though sprouted garlic is edible, it's not ideal and offers a more bitter taste.
Garlic can be stored in the refrigerator, but it won't last as long. The refrigerated garlic will only last a few weeks, as opposed to months in a cool, dry cupboard. That being said, if you must store your garlic in the fridge, keep it in the main part of your fridge rather than the crisper drawer.
Side Effects of Bad Garlic
Consuming bad garlic can cause botulism. Foodborne botulism is extremely rare but can be serious and potentially fatal. Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism, forms normally inactive spores that can be found in low-acid vegetables like garlic.
Too much water can also cause the garlic bulbs to rot. Early to mid July is the time to stop watering until it is time to harvest.
Don't wash the bulbs, no matter how dirty. They need to dry, not get wetter. Dirt will dry and drop off. Put the bulbs gently into buckets to shade the bulbs.
Too little water can stress plants, and too much water can cause bulb rot. In soil with ideal drainage, garlic requires between a half-inch and one inch of water per week. If it rains less than a half-inch in a week, make up the difference with supplemental watering. It is best to water deep, but infrequently.