New garlic growing method.

My brother has just become keen on growing veggies. He lives in suburbia, doesn’t have a lot of room. He decided raised beds were the way to go. He started with 2, progressed to 4 & now started growing in containers. He showed me this cool way to get garlic up & growing quickly.

Now I don’t believe in making things even more complicated, whenever I’ve grown it, I just push single garlic cloves into the soil & within a week or 2, they’re up & growing but this may work a treat for container growing. Take a look at this short video. Anyone ever grown garlic this way before?


Comments

  • kbmbillups1
    kbmbillups1 Posts: 1,390 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Interesting. I might have to try a few bulbs that way. I planted cloves like you said but a chipmunk or squirrel or something dug them all up and left them sitting on top of the soil. I stuck them back it. Hopefully, I'm not playing a game with some animal! 😁

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    Too bad they didn't show the end result with this. I would have liked to see how big the bulbs got with this method. Has your brother grown a crop from start to finish and how was his garlic?

    Seems a bit more work than just sticking cloves in the ground.

    In my area we plant garlic in the fall. I thought garlic needed a cold spell to properly form bulbs, especially for the hardneck varieties.

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,935 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Interesting way to start the cloves, also was that rice that was used in the soil to hold the water?

  • water2world
    water2world Posts: 1,177 ✭✭✭✭

    @JodieDownUnder I have not grown garlic quite like that---I separate a few of the cloves, do not trim them and place the end in water. The green shoots push through the peel and soon I harvest the "garlic chives". The more I cut/use, the more it seems to grow! It is amazing how fast garlic roots and shoots grow!

    I may have to try planting them is the dirt to see what difference it makes, but right now, I'm enjoying less work! lol

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @torey I don't think garlic needs chilling hours, as some fruits do. Fall planting gives the plant more time to grow and produces larger bulbs than spring planting.

    However, some books do suggest spring planting garlic.

    I think you'd have to garden pretty far north before garlic wouldn't survive fall planting, though. I routinely have 2 ft of snow on top of the garlic bed midwinter, and it's still one of the first things to sprout in the spring.

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    @torey this is the first time he’s had a go at growing it. Not sure how it will go, he does live in the tropics & can grow tomato’s this time of the year (winter in Aus) so time will tell.

    @Lisa K yes rice husks were used in that video.

    @kbmbillups1 I hope your garlic stays untouched. Animals are funny little characters.

    @VermontCathy I thought that garlic preferred cooler temps. Traditionally garlic is grown in Australia in cooler climates. So this will be interesting if he has some success.

    @water2world good to know about the shoots/garlic chives.

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,935 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @JodieDownUnder great idea using the rice hulls to lighten up and at the same time holding in the moisture!

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @JodieDownUnder The primary source of commercial garlic in the United States is California.

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,935 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @JodieDownUnder if you want to learn more about the climate to grow garlic from Calif.'s perspective, you can look up Gilroy's growing conditions which is consider Calif.'s garlic capital.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @JodieDownUnder Is it your brother that made the video? Please keep us updated as to his progress with this method.

    @VermontCathy There seems to be quite a bit of contradiction on various websites as to a cooling period; needed or not.

    It is called vernalization with regards to garlic, apparently, as opposed to chill hours for fruit trees. You can do this by putting your garlic in the fridge for a couple of weeks before planting, if you are planting in the spring.

    Hardneck varieties are said to need this for their bulbs to reach maximum size. A friend of mine planted garlic in the spring a couple of years ago but it must have been too late cause all she got was a large single clove from each one. When our local garlic farm starts selling their scapes I will ask about fall vs spring planting methods. I know they do all their planting in the fall.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think although we plant hardneck in our climate here, I'm gonna grab some soft neck and give this a quick try this season just to see what it does. We normally plant in fall here. Started my first round last fall, pulling mulch off today finally. But I would love to try some this way too and see results sooner, plus have the green tops available sooner.

    If I do this I will report on results.

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @vickeym I've had good luck with both hardneck garlics and Inchelium Red softneck. Some softneck varieties might not like my climate, but Inchelium Red is happy here.

    Softneck is a little more productive than hardneck per plant, because the central scape of the hardneck is replaced by additional (but small) cloves. But I continue to grow and use both.

    I'm impressed by the size of the elephant garlic cloves that I've been multiplying, but the flavor is weak. Elephant garlic is actually a leek, not a true garlic.

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    @torey he found the video on YouTube. Yes I will check in with him for updates.

  • marjstratton
    marjstratton Posts: 1,132 ✭✭✭✭

    That garlic video looks interesting. Could be useful when something happened to your regular crop. Fun experiment.