Garlic

Finally, I get to write about one of my favorite crops to grow!

I love any vegetable that is low maintenance and has multiple functions in the garden such as pest control and garlic fits these criteria very well.

On top of that I’m a huge fan of how long garlic stores for and how versatile it is to use culinarily and medicinally.

Let’s see what we can learn:

Plant Profile:

Scientific Name: Allium sativum

Preferred Habitat: Nitrogen rich soil with high organic content.

Edible Parts: Scapes, bulb, stem, leaves

Harvest Season: Mid to late summer

Nutrition: (Per clove)

• Calories: 4.5

• Fat: 0g

• Sodium: 0.5mg

• Carbohydrates: 1g

• Fiber: 0.1g

• Sugars: 0g

• Protein: 0.2g

• Vitamin C: 0.9mg

• Zinc: 0.04mcg

Medicinally garlic also has the following benefits:

• High in manganese

• Good source of Vitamin B6

• Very high in Vitamin C

• High in Selenium

• Good source of fiber

• Protects against colds and flus

• Reduces blood pressure

• Lowers bad cholesterol, raises good cholesterol

• Lowers risk of heart disease

• High in antioxidants

• Compounds prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s

• Strengthens compromised immune systems

• Reduces oxidative stress on the body

• Improves exercise performance

• High doses of garlic detoxify heavy metals

• Improves bone health

• Antimicrobial properties

• Antibacterial properties

• Antifungal properties

Uses

Most of you are familiar with garlic, but I’ll go over the basics of what it’s used for anyways!

Garlic is an allium that is used as a spice, blended with salts, roasted, used in sauces, soups, to season meat, fermented in honey, added to oxymels, paired with fats (like butter and olive oil), used to flavor pasta dishes, breads, and cheeses.

The garlic scapes (the green curly top that forms a flower) are used similarly to green onions and have a mild fresh garlic-y flavor. These are often pickled as well as dried and powdered into a spice!

In addition to using garlic to cook, we like to infuse honey with garlic and use it as a medicine.

Growth Habits

There are two classes of garlic: hardneck, and softneck. The grocery store mostly carries imported soft neck, but hardneck are easier to grow in a colder climate.

Hardneck garlics grow what’s called a “scape” (a flower) that grows up on a tall stem and curls before opening. Softnecks do not typically have a scape but instead have softer leaves that lend themselves well to garlic braiding.

Garlic is a fairly heavy feeder, so it requires a lot of organic matter in the soil as well as plenty of nitrogen.

My best garlic crops have been when I plant peas as a nitrogen fixer leading up to planting, then cut it and plant garlic into the bed. This past year was one of the best years we’ve had for garlic!

When planting garlic, it’s important to know that it needs to be planted in late summer or fall and harvested the following midsummer. For my region, this looks like planting in late September, leaving it to grow through the winter, and harvesting in July. For hardneck garlics, we also cut the scapes in June as soon as they start to curl into a loop.

Some tips: separate the cloves, and make sure to place them point UP! They need to form roots and send shoots in the right directions; this will give them a better chance at growing correctly.

Secondly, an old Amish trick: if you have to plant later in the year (especially when it starts to get cold and wet) make sure to sprinkle a little bit of organic sulfur (or something high in sulfur). This keeps the cloves from molding or rotting out before they can sprout.

Additional Information

Note that garlic has been bred in a way that has largely made them “seedless” in the true sense (they produce mini cloves after flowering, but not true seed therefore every garlic is a clone of the original plant).

This has some benefits and some major drawbacks.

Hardnecks are far more likely to produce seed at all, but the seed has either low germination or is sterile. This is a problem a handful of plant breeders are working on in order to improve garlic varieties, breed more disease resistance into the plants, and bring back some level of biodiversity.

I think this deserves more effort so if you’re interested in plant breeding, this is a great opportunity for a plant that is integral to the culinary world!

Cultivars

There are a number of great garlic cultivars. While I have only grown a few myself, there are plenty that I’d recommend generally:

Hardnecks

• Romanian Red - A porcelain garlic with pungent flavor and large bulbs as well as long storage.

• Music - A purple stripe porcelain garlic that is a great multi-purpose garlic, very easy to obtain and a classic for a reason.

• Purple Glazer - An easy peeling variety that is excellent for baking, a purple stripe variety.

• Georgian Fire - One of the best rated garlics in terms of flavor, a very popular variety for.

• German Red - A Rocambole type variety that has less of a spicey flavor and more of an earthy tone, beautiful red color that people love.

• Armenian - A great Porcelain variety that performs amazingly in the Midwest, very hardy, easy-peeling variety that has a robust and rich flavor.

Softnecks

• Early Italian - A long-storing variety that is great for hot summers and braiding. Typically does well in Southern and Western states.

• Silverwhite - A mild flavored softneck that is also great for braiding and roasting.

• Nootka Rose - A strong-flavored long-storage variety for baking and roasting.

Follow me on social media for behind-the-scenes videos and seasonal photos!

Leave a comment to show the algorithm how legit we are!

Thanks for reading The Naturalist. Please share on social media to support the work!