Autumn
For the most part (although this is always a little bit flexible based on where you live and the variety of garlic you choose to plant), it’s best to sow your garlic in autumn, from April through to June. However, don’t feel the need to be too strict: those dates are a human convenience construct only. Here’s how I plant:
Early season crop (Turban variety) in April
Mid and late season crops (Creole, Artichoke, Marbled Purple Stripe and Standard Purple Stripe varieties) in May and June (staggered for convenience)
First, prepare the soil
If you didn’t already do this at the end of summer, now is the time. If you’ve left soil improvement until right before planting, that’s ok: just ensure you dig in well-aged manures or pelletised forms of manures and compost so that you don't 'burn' your plants. Test your soil’s pH before you add anything, and before you plant out. Aim for a slightly acidic to neutral pH of 6.5-7.5.
CHOOSING CLOVES
The better the quality and health of your ‘seed’ cloves, the better outcomes in your crop. We can’t access true garlic seed in Australia (that’s a whole other story) so we grow garlic vegetatively, ie from replicating the parent plant by planting cloves. Because of this, any disease or virus the parent plant has, is also present in the cloves.
I recommend sourcing fresh Australian grown ‘seed’ garlic bulbs because imported garlic is sprayed to stop sprouting and has been fumigated with rather nasty substances. Plant out the best ‘seed’ cloves that are the largest, have no dents or dings, mould of any colour, or shrinkage. Diseases and viruses will still be present but you stand a better chance of producing a decent sized bulb in 8 months time.
I use my own seed cloves but every couple of years I re-invigorate my crop buy bringing in fresh and different garlics. Seed garlic is more expensive than culinary garlic because the grower is (should be) selling you their BEST garlic. So the bulb you buy to eat (culinary) and decide to grow from (seed) are 2 different beasties. Should you find yourself with a great tasting culinary bulb, save the best cloves for seed and eat the rest but please accept your crop may not replicate as well.
When to sow
The ideal time to plant garlic is when the clove has a shoot that is two-thirds of the way up the clove. You can only know this from cutting a clove open, comforted in the fact you can eat it later, so nothing is wasted. From my experience, waiting until the shoot is bulging out the top won't produce the best bulbs, but it is still useable. Plant the largest cloves in the bulb. The bigger the clove the greater your chances of a good sized bulb. Keep the small cloves for eating.
PRE-SOAKING
I treat my cloves by soaking them in a weak fish emulsion and molasses solution for a couple of hours before planting. I have soaked them for longer but I found it loosened the skins on the cloves and small shoots sprouted. This was exciting at the time but I think such small shoots are easily damaged at planting, and a loose clove skin can slip off at planting, exposing the clove to attack or disease, so I avoid extending soaking now if I can.
That said, life can get in the way. Please don't worry, garlic is a tough plant.
SOWING THE GARLIC
Plant the cloves with the pointy end up, about two to five centimetres under the soil. You need a bit of soil on top to weigh the clove down and encourage it to put down roots. The growth energy is so strong that a clove planted too close to the top of the soil will pop out and become susceptible to opportunistic mischief-loving birds, or dry out or freeze.
I plant my cloves 10 to 15 centimetres apart, because I am aiming for a good sized bulb. You can plant 10cm x 10cm but the bulbs will be smaller. This may work for you.
All going well, the cloves will sprout in a week to 10 days, and I wait until they are about 10cm to 20cm tall before mulching heavily to suppress weeds and protect the soil from moisture loss and drying out.
TWO WEEKS AFTER SOWING…
Now your garlic is in the ground, the next steps are all about ensuring good root and shoot development before the cold of winter, when growth will slow dramatically or even stop, depending on where you live. Give your garlics a feed approximately two weeks after planting. I recommend mixing the following into a 9L watering can:
a half-dose of Seasol
25 mls molasses
50 mls Bokashi compost liquid (or some other beneficial microbial mix)
The goal is to have 4-6 leaves on garlics before winter arrives, and a healthy root mass to ensure maximum nutrient uptake by the plant. Once the shoots are out of the ground by about 10cm, apply mulch to about 5cm to minimise weeds and protect the soil.
Photo credit: Em Callaghan