Spring
Once the weather warms up to daytime temperatures above 16 degrees Celsius, new growth will be picking up so it’s a good idea to start feeding your bulbs.
Harvest green garlic
Depending on the type of garlic you have in your patch, mid spring is the time to start enjoying the luxury of fresh and green garlic. Green garlic is fresh uncured garlic that is pulled before the papery skins on the cloves and bulbs start to develop. Garlic can be pulled from just before bulb formation right up to full size with cloves visible. Garlic greens refers to the above ground part of the plant, including the scape or flowering stem.
When selecting which whole plants to pick, I start with those with the thinnest stems. This ensures you are getting an entirely edible plant with tender leaves and stem. Leave the larger plants to develop good sized bulbs (and hence cloves) for pulling fresh or leaving to cure.
Some varieties of garlic, and depending on where you live, and the weather conditions that growing year, may throw up flowering spikes called scapes. These too are edible, best when harvested at 10-20cm long so they stay tender. You can leave them to grow flowers that produce bulbils. These are teeny tiny cloves that can be grown into bulbs, in about 3-4 years. Or you can eat them as tasty garlic bombs sprinkled onto salads.
Rarely available at any market, access to green garlic is a wonderful benefit to growing your own. Fresh garlic is something we are just not used to seeing in Australia. Mild, crunchy and sweet, it offers a different flavour layer and dish options to chefs and home cooks alike. Because the whole plant is tender you can halve them lengthways and char-grill creating a creamy central heart or slice and throw into a stirfry as the hero green. Fresh and green garlic will last about three weeks if refrigerated.
feeding your plants
When growing garlic in the kitchen garden it is much easier to keep the garlic well fed and watered than out in a paddock. Consequently some of this may not apply because the soil is already vibrant and teeming with goodness.
As the days start to warm I like to start a weak feeding regime, applied every 2 weeks by foliar spray (not a watering can!). I do a quick soil pH test (10cm down) to ensure the soil is still within the range of 6.5-7.5pH. Soils within this range will make available all the nutrients to the plants. I feed the garlic plants micronutrients and fulvic acid (for roots and shoots development) at 50% dilution. I feed the soil with a sprinkle of a low nitrogen organic pelletised fertiliser and water in a soil conditioner at 50% dilution.
Watering can become important at this time of year as spring can bring all sorts of weather. Aim to keep the soil cool, moist (at the bulb site) but not wet. Garlic hates wet feet so be careful not to overwater.
vigilance
The warming weather is prime growing time for both the garlic and the pests and disease that can strike. Strong healthy plants grown in good soil are the best way to grow quality food organically. Keep an eye out for aphids, be prepared to apply an organic pest spray and signs of plants loosing their vigour. Sudden yellowing of the leaves ahead of schedule or the plant keeling over is a sign there is something going on underground. Be brave, pull a few plants to see if the bulb is forming well. Ideally the bulb will be uniform in colour with no mould, no smell, and has good root development with no root dieback.
If you’d like to learn more about potential pests and diseases (and how to look out for and avoid them), this article in Organic Gardener magazine is helpful. It was written by Penny Woodward, who also wrote the only book on growing garlic in Australia and a good one on tomatoes too.
Photo credit: Em Callaghan