What You Need To Know About Growing Garlic | Part 1: Seed

This video will cover everything you need to know about garlic "seed" and how much you might need. From climate considerations, quantity of cloves per bulbs, and what to look for when purchasing garlic "seed." I also go over my plans for growing 600+ heads of garlic this year!

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[alexs]

As someone who prefers softneck garlic despite the smaller cloves here's a protip: if you separate all the cloves you plan to eat for that meal, just dip them in a small cup of boiled water (electric kettle or microwave is easy) for 20-30 seconds and the skins come off the cloves super easily. I've been making lots of confit garlic since learning this trick😆

[hankandgreta]

I plant hard neck garlic, which sends up scapes mid season. When I clipped them off, I blended them up in my food processor with a little olive oil to make a paste. I use a small cookie scoop to make pucks and freeze them in cookie sheets with parchment paper. When they are frozen, I bag them up and keep in the freezer. I am usually low or out of my garlic harvest from the previous year, so it a great way to add the flavor while I wait for the new harvest. They are not as strong as the actual garlic cloves, so I use more of them in each recipe to make up for it. They are great in soup, stir fry, garlic bread, or any place that would have used minced garlic. Each year I plant more than the previous year, and I still run out at around the same time of year. Growing about 130 this fall, last year was about 100. Maybe this will be the year I don’t run out!

[italianasc]

For several years, I've bought the largest heads I could find from the grocery store. No disease at all - please don't worry about that. A commercial grower isn't growing and selling disease-prone varieties. It wouldn't be financially beneficial for them to do so.
Sure, I don't know the particular variety I'm growing, but they are always delicious!

[HaylasCrafts]

Thank you so very much for doing this video. I am a high functioning autistic 30 year old woman and this helps me SO very much. I truly appreciate it.

[veronicadoggone]

How much garlic do you need?
I need, neh... i must have ALL the garlic!!! Every garlic! Give me garlic! 😂

[barbaradavidson]

So glad I watched this before planting. I need to space out farther than I planned. Need to clear another bed for garlic bulbs. I am only 2 more weeks away to planting.

[Qwrirq]

In very cold zones it can be helpful to mulch the ground above your garlic for insulation. I live in central Sweden where most winters gets colder than -30C (-22f) and I grow spanish morado garlic no problem. If I don't mulch there's a risk that most bulbs don't survive the winter or that the bulbs will be very weak come spring.

[mirror]

I just planted my Botanical Interests cloves in 6b yesterday. Looking forward to the harvest next year!

[FishingForLife]

I will be planting my garlic tomorrow. Was not planning on buying seed garlic anyway. Saved some bulbes to replant. Found a pungent, tasty hardneck garlic that works well in my climate on my first try growing garlic. Too bad I forgot the variety 😅
And tomorrow evening I will be eating homemade/homegrown pumpkin-chili soup 😁

[pagandragon]

I make my own spaghetti sauce so I live for garlic and tomato videos! Keene is literally 2 hours from me. The best thing is that it being close means that it's already in my area. And living in SE Wisconsin means I get that winter season. Keene also had fantastic customer service!! All of that being said, please do a video on crop rotation - why and how please. Any reading materials would be GREATLY appreciated!!

[MyFocusVaries]

Hot tip for folks who have 🦝🦝🦝. I planted my garlic in a 4x8 bed, and I laid a wooden trellis flat on the bed to stop the trash pandas digging up my garlic as they root around for grubs. I lined up the planting holes with the gaps in the trellis. Last year I hadn't noticed the 🦝 activity until they'd already pawed through the bed and disturbed the garlic.

[sharonknorr]

I am with you on using big heads in the kitchen. That said, I did get a couple of heads of softneck to plant this year - want to do braids again and the garlic does last longer. Over the years I have found, as you have, that using the largest cloves planted 6 inches on center gives the biggest bulbs. I didn't plant as much garlic last year for a variety of reasons and am now dealing with the hard choice of how many of my harvest from July to plant next week and how many to save for eating.

[blissmama]

I planted my first ever garlic about ermm 3 inches apart? 😆. I’m not yet stressing about the perfect garlic harvest, just playing around and want to experience tasting it at different stages. Hoping for some nice scapes but um don’t actually know if I’ve got soft or hard neck in sooo. Guess will see 😂. Today pulled the biggest one and thought at first it had rotted but pulled away the dirty outside and got some beautiful 😻 small (like the size of one clove but soft) and tasty little baby garlics! Had the best salad made with herbs and garlic from the garden and a couple kinds of lettuce plus arugula and one small but precious little carrot ❤❤❤

[maestoso]

Just in time. I just planted my first sets this past week. I’m excited about this experience. I am trying both a soft-neck and a hard-neck as we have mild-temperate winters.

[cherylmartin]

Hi Jacques. I love planting garlic. Such an easy crop! I'm super lucky in my part of Québec that there's a farm that I can order garlic from called Ferme Tournesol. There's even a garlic festival nearby at the end of August! Music is a very popular variety here. I bought that plus Chesnok Red this year. Have also planted the Rocambole in the past. Can't wait to see what your garden looks like next year! Thanks for all the great tips!!

[aimeepeltier]

Keene garlic is in my state, and I ordered some last year. I pretty much saved all my bulbs that I grew last year to replant this year. I definitely recommend Keeene garlic. Those cloves pack a punch. I ate one plain and regretted it. But, in cooking, it's 👍

[Donna_G]

I have not grown garlic successfully since I first started trying to grow it three years ago. This year, one of the other gardeners at the community garden gave me two garlic bulbs from her garden. I asked her if I could try growing them and she said that I could certainly try. After the bulbs dried out, separated the cloves and used the biggest ones to put in the garden. I don't remember how many I planted, 6, 8, or 10. It was about two weeks before the expected first frost, which did not happen when it was expected. I used chopped up plant stems as mulch since that is all I had. This time of the year, it's not possible to find garlic bulbs for sale anywhere in town; except, maybe in the produce section at the supermarket.

[new_friends_]

I love how your videos are kind of like nerding out with a fellow gardener who knows and cares about garlic this much, haha. I love Keene Farms as well. Unfortunately we had a medical situation and I didn't get to plant mine last fall. I'm debating an experiment where I put it in the ground now (February), but my yard is postage-stamp sized so I have to weigh the use of space. We go through so much garlic, though, and home grown is so good.

[suekuly]

Just planted my garlic today October 14th, zone 3b, Manitoba Canada. 8 degrees Celsius here, 46 F. Hands were frozen when finished, but happy it’s done. Now to wait. 😊

[silverfwn]

I really appreciate your calculation. That made it so much simpler to plan out my garlic beds. I'm planting over 200 cloves and it's my first time planting garlic. Yes, I went a little crazy but wanted to try different varieties and soft and hard neck so that I could figure out what I want for next year.