Fall Garlic Planting

We tend to associate Fall with harvest, and it is dominated by reaping the fruits of our labor, but for one crop it is planting time. Garlic requires exposure to cold temperatures in order to grow large bulbs, so it is planted in the fall for a summer harvest. Garlic is grown from individual cloves, which put out roots before the ground freezes. It goes dormant for the winter, and sends out shoots in the spring. I enjoy tucking the cloves into the earth while the rest of the garden is slowing down or dying back. And seeing the little green stalks poking out of the ground first thing in the Spring is a treat after a long winter.

We planted six varieties at Bowers this Fall - two hardneck varieties and four softneck varieties. Softneck garlic has a longer storage life and can be braided for decoration and storage. Hardneck garlic tends to perform better in colder climates, has a shorter storage life, and produces garlic scapes, which can be harvested for cooking before the bulbs are ready. We will assess how each variety does this coming year and choose our favorite varieties to grow next year.

Since garlic is grown from the clove, it is easy to set aside bulbs from the harvest for seed for the following year. Over time, by choosing the best bulbs for seed, we can develop garlic that is particularly well adapted to our microclimate.

By Kate Debs, Production Garden Lead