By Bev Johnson

Master Gardener

If you want nice fresh garlic, plant your own. Fall is the best time to plant garlic. You can plant it in the spring, but the bulbs will be smaller, and if you plant it too late, you may not get any bulbs at all. Garlic, like some of our other cold weather plants, needs a cold treatment to start making bulbs.

In general, garlic in Minnesota should be planted within one or two weeks after the first killing frost-32 degrees. This is usually mid-October; however, our weather has been so bonkers lately that you may be out there the first week in December!

There are two types of garlic that can be planted, soft neck that doesn’t produce a flowering stalk and hard neck that does. Hard neck is recommended for our climate because they are more winter hardy than the soft necks. Don’t bother planting the garlic you get from the grocery store. One doesn’t know what variety they are and may not live through our winters. You will probably end up with no sprouts, and garlic mush in the soil.

Garlic doesn’t produce true seed. You need to plant individual cloves. Most good seed catalogs carry various varieties. If you can find one, local garlic growers are an excellent source of bulbs, and they will know which varieties do best here.

The University of Minnesota has a list of the garlics that do best here. Some hard necks on their list are Music, Northern White, Chesnok Red, German Red, and Spanish Roja. If you want to experiment with soft necks, they suggest you try: Inchelium Red, New York White and Polish soft neck.  How much to buy? One pound of garlic bulbs will contain anywhere from 20 to 80 bulbs depending on the variety and the size of the bulbs. Larger cloves will result in larger larger bulbs.  

Now, how and where to plant the stuff. Garlic likes well-drained soil high in organic matter. To that end, dig in some well- rotted compost to the area before you plant. Planting is a breeze, that is if you can still get down on your knees. Poke a hole in the soil about 4 inches deep and drop your clove in pointed tip up. You should have 2 to 3 inches of soil on top of the clove when you do it right. Plant them about 4 inches apart. Now cover with 3 to 4 inches of leaves. This will help deter weeds next spring and keep your babies from frost heaving. 

Hard necks will start to flower in mid to late June. To ensure your bulbs reach their maximum size, cut the flower stalks off. The curly thing on the flower stalk is called a scape and can be eaten raw or cooked. It’s considered a delicacy. Garlic is ready to harvest when about half the leaves turn brown, about mid-July or early August. Dig with a pitchfork or potato fork. Shake as much soil off as you can by shaking, tie bunches of about 10 plants together and hang to dry in a cool dry place for about three to four weeks. To store, cut the stalks down to about an inch and trim the roots off. They will store in open containers in a cool dry spot for several months.

For larger bulbs, leave the bulbs in the garden for one more year.  If you want garlic next fall, immediately plant some of the larger cloves as you harvest. If you forget to cut all the flowers off, they will produce a clump of tiny garlic cloves on top. Planted, they will produce good sized cloves in 3 years.