Planting garlic on September 21, 2023 (Mark Torregrossa | MLive)
You might not think about planting in your vegetable garden at this time of year. If you love garlic, now is the time to plant it. Solo Garlic
Garlic is actually really easy to grow. With minimal effort, you will at least get some small garlic cloves. Those small cloves are just as potent and tasty as big cloves. There are a few things you can do to get bigger garlic bulbs.
Garlic is planted now. It will grow some until the snow flies, go dormant for winter and resume growing very early in spring. When your daffodils are emerging next spring, your garlic will also be growing. For those of you not familiar with how garlic grows, the tops grow through mid-summer and the bulbs grow underground from spring to late summer. Once the tops have died in August, your garlic is ripe and ready to dig.
Planting garlic on September 21, 2023 (Mark Torregrossa | MLive)
Start with some good “seed.” Buy some garlic cloves at a farmers market. Ask the farmer if the garlic was locally grown. If you have a hardcore vegetable gardening friend, he or she probably grows garlic. If you have some older garlic in the house and it’s starting to sprout, you could try to plant it. It’s not the best option. The best option is to find a garlic farm that will sell you some cloves they know will grow in Michigan. Here’s one garlic farm that I know has good seed. I got some from this farm last year, and you can see my results.
Work up your ground now. Add some organic matter if your soil is sandy. I like sphagnum moss. It holds water. Water-holding capacity of the soil is very important for garlic. It’s an important feature for most plants to flourish. You could also add composted manure or leaf compost. You could buy a few bags of top soil and put it right on the row where your garlic will be planted.
Here’s one warning though, so you don’t waste your money and time. Put your soil amendments right exactly where you are going to plant. Don’t till too deeply or you will dilute your good work so much it won’t make a difference. Rototill your garden. Add soil amendments right on top of the row and then lightly rototill the top 3 inches. Don’t go deep on this second tilling. You could also just mix the amendments and top 3 inches of soil with a hoe.
I put down an organic fertilizer when I re-planted my garlic yesterday.
Planting garlic on September 21, 2023 (Mark Torregrossa | MLive)
The clove has a bottom and a top. The top is pointy. Plant the clove about 3 inches deep with the point up.
Water the row of garlic now because the weather pattern looks quite dry for the next several weeks. You won’t have to water the garlic like your plants in mid-summer. A couple of waterings in the next month should do it.
Planting garlic on September 21, 2023 (Mark Torregrossa | MLive)
Now you wait until next spring for the garlic scapes to emerge. Scapes are the leaves of the plant. Those scapes also have a great garlic flavor. You can always snip off a few and take care of your garlic craving before the bulbs are ripe.
Next August, the green tops will turn brown. That’s a signal that you can dig up the garlic bulbs.
One mistake I made this year was I left the bulbs in the ground until now. I noticed yesterday during my harvest that the cloves started to grow. I guess it is good because we know these bulbs will be growing as soon as I plant them. But we will have to see if the early growth throws something off next summer.
Planting garlic on September 21, 2023 (Mark Torregrossa | MLive)
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