Millie shares her tips for planting out one of the most rewarding of home garden crops, garlic (Allium sativum cv.). For a small investment of good-quality bulbs you can grow hundreds of dollars worth of garlic!
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If you are gardening in temperate or cool climates, anywhere from Tassie to Southern QLD, autumn is the time to give garlic a go!
Like growing any veg, it is important to avoid growing garlic in the same soil, year after year. Millie plants hers in the bed where she’s just pulled out the last of the tomatoes.
TIP!! Make chutney from any green tomatoes or hang the plant upside-down in a shed – those remaining tomatoes may still ripen!
Bed prep for alliums:
They like well drained, well-composted soil.
Go easy on the fresh manures or nitrogen heavy fertilizers – this can lead to soft, foliage growth that will attract aphids – and possibly cause rotted bulbs. If easier, grow garlic in a big pot!
Check the pH – garlic likes a relatively high pH, between 6-7.5 is perfect. If below 6, add a dusting of dolomite lime to sweeten the soil & unlock the soil nutrients that they need.
If possible, leave soil for a week to settle.
Choosing garlic:
There are around 1000 garlic cultivars in the world, which are grouped by flavour, habit, ability to store and of course, preferred conditions. Chat at the local farmers market, seed-saver group or nursery for varieties that perform well in your climate.
Millie plants 3 different varieties: 2 purples known as hard necks, which form a delicious flower spike called a scape just before you harvest, and a white soft-neck variety.
Planting
Gently separate the bulbs into individual cloves and pick out the biggest and best; save the little ones for later use (see below). Reject any that are bruised or rotting.
To give the cloves a head start, soak in a weak liquid fish solution overnight.
Because they are not good at competition, you need to give them space. Plant about 15cm (a handspan!) apart and 2cm deep. Millie plants in a grid through the whole bed, using sticks & pegs to mark out the varieties.
Water in.
TIP!! The tiny cloves need not be wasted; these can be mass-planted in a single spot or pot near the back door; while they are unlikely to develop into big fat bulbs, the leaves can be cut for fresh garlic flavour in the kitchen while the main crop is still in the ground.
Maintenance
The shoots should be up within weeks. Rotting in the ground is the biggest risk at this point, so keep them moist but do not over water.
If the bed is well prepared, they will not need any extra food until they are growing strongly. Late in the season, a weak monthly liquid feed will be appreciated.
Beds need to be weed-free. Alliums hate competition!
Harvest
Garlic will continue to develop for around 6 months; different cultivars mature at different times.
Ripeness can be indicated in different ways – by the leaves yellowing off, leaves simply bending over or lots of flower scapes forming.
Harvest on a dry day, and hang in a shady dry spot for a week or two
When dry, clean off dirty layers of skin, plait and give away!
Filmed on Taungurung Country in Central Victoria
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19 Comments
I planted 10 garlic today and also going to hang up my tomato plants!!! Great timing!!! Xxxxx
Literally planted mine this morning
My soft necks popped up in a matter of days. Still waiting for hard necks to show some green tips.
Can you add subtitle or at least activate the autogenerated subtitle for non-native english speaker like me? It will help a lot. Thank you.
I planted about ten cloves in a pot in February and they have all produced shoots around twenty cms long. I have had to shade them from the hot Melbourne sun. According to what Millie said in the video, they won't produce full bulbs as they are in a pot and I am meant to use the stalks during autumn for cooking. Is that correct? I would like to produce full bulbs in spring. Now that tomatoes and other summer plants are out of a large raised bed, can I transplant the cloves in the pot into the raised bed or will they suffer setback from being transplanted? Anyone have any suggestions?
So after I harvest do I put them straight back in for the next crop or dry them first?
Thanks made that mistake of planting garlic with shoot from the shop hopping they will make it. How can I plant shop garlic since they are treated?
Mine did not have flowers last yr and the bulbs were small too. Had tried it for the first time. Will be planting one today.
Thanks for the show and the tips Millie. My last garlic planting didn't go as well due to weeds brought in by all the birds who nest in our Palm tree, nightshades were really bad. Just about to plant my garlic today so here we go. Cheers from Adelaide SA.
Only a week ago did I pull the tomatoes and put in the garlic, most of them have now popped up. Another trick I have learnt is after you plant your crop put some in a pot to grow, if for some reason some of the ones in the ground fail to start, you can replace them with the potted ones.
The next task for me is to prepare the capsicums for overwintering.
Niceeee ❤👊🌱
at 1:29 in the vid what is that red plant in the background?
cause i have a similar looking plant and i have absolutely no idea what it is
scratch that time cause there all through the vid
Is it helpful to add manures to the garlic bed over the growing season? I'm finding I don't get large bulbs and wondering if I am not feeding them enough. I live in a temperate/arid zone.
Thank you for upload naka^^
I planted supermarket garlic last season and I'm just about to harvest the second generation from those bulbs. First generation were big, juicy and full of flavour. Oh, and they were a punnet from the discount bin, so if you're short of money, just chuck some cloves in the dirt and see what happens, I've gotten 2 generations (plus the small cloves from the original punnet) for $3.25.
Garlic leaves (scapes) are delicious!
friend gave me some garlic to plant and they were already shooting as it was late already …to my Suprise I did have
a great harvest some were very big bulbs …Last year I planted no far from the first spot ….plenty sun light and cow manure
…Thigs were looking really good till September come when I realized my beautiful garlic were attacked by little insects
that destroyed all my garlic …I looked for advise on internet one said to use home remedy ,which I did but it didn't work ….
Next year I am going to grow them again and hope to not get the same bad result of this year …providing someone will
advise me what kind of spray to use —–thank you