Plant garlic!

A little over 10 autumns ago, I planted my first garlic bulbs. About ten different varieties, for the pure pleasure of discovering them. My conclusion at the time was, and still is, that it’s really easy to grow garlic in Quebec. I didn’t understand why grocery stores offered garlic from China or Spain.

It’s great to see that things have changed for the better in this area. Garlic producers are now all over the province, and it’s super easy to get hold of beautiful, large, fresh garlic bulbs between August and December. You can even find them as late as March. What about garlic flowers, which are actually flower stalks, harvested at the end of June. With their milder flavor, they add flavor to meals while waiting for the new bulb harvest. Easy to find, yes, but also easy to grow at home, in a small vegetable garden. Cloves are planted in October, they grow the following spring, and you can harvest them towards the end of summer.

Garlic and its cousins

Garlic ( Allium sativum ) is part of a very large family that includes onions, chives, leeks, and shallots. Cultivated since immemorial times, its medicinal properties have also been known for just as long. Its beneficial effect on cancer prevention, its antiseptic properties, and its beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system have all been corroborated by recent studies.

Garlic is divided into two main categories: soft-stemmed garlic and hard-stemmed garlic. The soft-stemmed variety is used to make the famous garlic braids. However, this group is less cultivated in Quebec, as the hard-stemmed varieties are more hardy and more productive. Garlic is further divided into 11 groups, based on genetic characteristics. The most popular and easiest variety to find is ‘Music’, which is part of the Porcelain group. The Purple Stripe group follows closely behind with the beautiful purple bulbs of ‘Persian Star’. In short, hundreds of varieties exist, and as with any edible plant, they bring their share of diversity in terms of flavor.

Plant what?

As mentioned earlier, garlic planting takes place in fall, between mid-September and the end of October. When it comes to garlic, the saying “you reap what you sow” has never been truer. To get a good harvest, you have to choose your candidates carefully. First, find garlic grown in Quebec. Forget the poor foreign offerings at the grocery store. These are often less hardy and sometimes treated to prevent germination. It’s not necessary to specifically buy cloves for sowing. You can buy bulbs at the market and pick the most interesting cloves. A large bulb contains several cloves, and the bigger cloves are the ones that are put in the ground. The larger the clove, the more likely you are to have a nice, large bulb at harvest.

How many garlic bulbs to produce?

The calculation is quite simple and based on monthly garlic consumption. For example, an average family that cooks a lot uses about two garlic bulbs per month, which means 24 bulbs per year. To this, we add a few extra bulbs to produce seeds. One bulb can produce 5 beautiful cloves to replant, so we will add 5 additional bulbs (for a total of 25 cloves) for seed and one extra bulb to compensate for losses. In short, with 30 bulbs, a family can be self-sufficient in garlic year after year. All this in less than a square meter!

Where to plant garlic?

Any good, loose, well-drained soil in full sun is suitable for planting garlic. It’s important to emphasize the importance of drainage, as a bulb growing underground is very sensitive to overwatering. Organic matter can be incorporated, but garlic thrives in moderately rich soils.

The best cloves are buried two or three inches deep, with the pointed end upwards. Leave 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) between plants and 30 cm (12 inches) between rows. Then, when the cold sets in and frost arrives, cover the plantation with straw, especially in regions where snow accumulates little or in windy regions. This winter protection should be installed as late as possible and removed as early as possible in the spring. Indeed, garlic is very early in spring.

In summer, watch it grow! A little watering if the weather is really dry, fertilizing every two weeks with a seaweed concentrate. Then, keep an eye on garlic’s arch-enemy, the allium leaf miner (Phytomyza gymnostoma). The latter lays its eggs on the foliage and the small larvae make their way inside the stem. If we detect the insect early, we can save the day by removing the larvae manually or by pruning the infested parts, when possible. Otherwise, we turn to Btk, an insecticide recognized in organic farming as effective in controlling the population of young larvae.

June is also when the garlic flowers appear, on varieties with rigid stems. It twists like a corkscrew before standing up. Cut it off when it begins its second turn, otherwise it becomes too hard. There are two good reasons to cut it early. First, cutting the scape allows the bulb to accumulate more reserves and grow larger. Second, the garlic flowers are edible and come at a great time during this period when our Quebec garlic reserve may have been depleted since the end of April. Everything that can be cooked with garlic, we cook with the garlic flowers. It can also replace chives or shallots in recipes. Store it in the refrigerator in a plastic bag. It can keep for more than two months like this… just in time for bulb harvesting.

If the garlic flowers are not harvested, they will produce bulblets that can be harvested to increase production. It will take 2 or 3 years for a small bulblet planted in the fall to produce a worthwhile bulb.

When to harvest garlic?

Finally! The leaves are starting to turn yellow. This is a sign that in three weeks, it will be harvest time. The bulbs are then pulled up and placed in a ventilated area away from direct sunlight. You can choose to cut the stem, for varieties with rigid stems, or leave it on the plant. This has no impact. After two or three days of drying, you can proceed to clean them, removing as little skin as possible. Those outer skins are vital to a good long-term conservation. The cleaned bulbs are then let to dry in a fairly warm place (20 to 25°C) for about three weeks. Drying is of great importance, as it will influence the bulbs’ shelf life.

The precious garlic reserve is then stored in a slightly cool place, around 15°C, and moderately humid. The warmer it is, the faster the bulbs will dry out. The refrigerator is also avoided.

From that moment on, you have reached the point of no return! Because, when you’ve cooked almost a full year with Quebec garlic, you never want to go back. And garlic production becomes an annual routine!