Regardless of the real reason, here’s a simple guide on how to grow and when to harvest garlic at home.
Haven’t you ever wondered why garlic is dubbed as a ‘vampire repellent’? In Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula, the protagonist Abraham van Helsing used garlic to keep Dracula away. There are some theories online offering the possible logic behind such.
One of them is due to the garlic’s very pungent smell. No one would normally like the smell of garlic, especially after having eaten a garlic-based dish. And, there are other plants that have a strong unpleasant smell, so it doesn’t completely justify the theory.
Another reason is the garlic’s insect repellent properties. Because vampires, like mosquitoes, are blood-sucking organisms, perhaps the logic behind it is similar.
Lastly, because garlic has countless health benefits, maybe the logic behind using it to ward off vampires is the same as the ancient belief that it wards off evil entities like illnesses and infections. Makes sense, right?
How to Grow Garlic in Pots
In learning how to grow garlic in pots, you will need a pot that’s at least six inches deep. If you’re planning to plant more than one garlic per pot, just make sure your pot is big enough to accommodate six inches of space in between plants. If you can’t find a pot with the right size, you can use a five-gallon water container with drainage holes punched at the bottom.
Your soil should be well-draining with lots of organic nutrients. Fill your container up to half with soil and then mix plant food into the soil. Plant the garlic bulbs with the pointed side upwards.
Water your plant to always keep the soil evenly moist. You can also choose to put mulch on top of the soil to help retain moisture.
Your plants will grow scapes within a few months, and then whole garlic bulbs a few months later.
How to Grow Garlic in Water
When learning how to grow garlic in water, all you need is a glass or a small vase and a garlic clove. It would be better to start with garlic cloves that are already beginning to sprout, as they prove the most effective in regrowing garlic in water.
Put enough water so that only the base of your clove touches the water. Submerging more than the clove base will result in plant rot. If you don’t have a shallow container, you can use toothpicks to hold the clove steady so that only its base touches the water.
Change the water regularly, especially once it starts to get cloudy or dirty. Place your container on a windowsill and you’ll be having garlic leaves after just a few days!
You can’t really have full garlic bulbs just by growing it in water, unless you use a hydroponic solution to provide the plant with the nutrients it needs. Until then, you can only keep harvesting shoots or scapes from garlic.
When to Harvest Garlic Scapes
When raised in the right conditions, garlic plants should only take about nine months to mature. If you’re wondering exactly when to harvest garlic, the straight answer is that it depends on the climate and the variety of garlic you’re growing.
The time frame for harvesting garlic also differs depending on which part of the plant you want to harvest. Since shoots and scapes typically grow a few months after planting, you can harvest them once they’re at their prime, while leaving out enough to still let your plant mature fully into bulbs.
Garlic scapes look a little like green onions. They’re not the garlic leaves that would usually get mistaken by amateur gardeners. You’ll know when to harvest garlic scapes once they curl into a spiral.
To harvest them, you will need sharp and clean gardening scissors to make a clean cut and avoid disturbing the plant, especially if you still want them to grow into garlic bulbs. Cut these scapes near its base.
If your scapes have straightened up, it wouldn’t be advisable to harvest them as they would only be tougher than prime ones and taste bitter.
How Long Does Garlic Take to Grow?
It’s good to learn about how and when to harvest garlic scapes as it allows you to direct the energy back into growing your bulb underground. If you’re not planting garlic again in the next season, you won’t need the seeds that form after garlic scapes have straightened back up.
So, how long does garlic take to grow? It usually takes about a month after harvesting the garlic scapes. If you’re not sure whether your garlic is ready for harvest, look for two dead and dry leaves at the base of your plant. If a third leaf is starting to dry up, that’s when the garlic is ready for harvest.
It actually varies for different types of garlic, but generally, the way to harvest them is by carefully uprooting them from the soil using your hands or a spade.
Before storing your harvested garlic, you have to ‘cure’ them by hanging them out to dry. Once they’re dry, clean them gently with your hands to remove residual dirt. Then, cut off their stalks and store them in a bowl or in an egg carton.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve learned how to plant as well as when to harvest garlic exactly when you need to, it’s time to actually go into your garden and start planting your own garlic.
Garlic has always had both culinary and non-culinary benefits and uses for people. Whether you want to enjoy garlic bread or cook your favorite garlic fried rice, it surely has earned its place in the kitchen, and rightfully so, as it tastes delicious whether used as a dish base or as garnish.
Garlic has been proven to have numerous health benefits such as lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, preventing dementia and memory loss, and strengthening the immune system to fight against cancer and other heart diseases.
Garlic is truly one of the crops you’d want to grow at home so that you won’t have to spend so much or spend time going to the supermarket just to grab a couple of produce for your meals.
Don’t forget to document the growth of your garlic plants and have all the fun with it. Happy gardening!
