We started our farm with 7 pounds of garlic brought from an organic farm I had worked on in the summer of '98. Now we grow over 40 thousand head a year. As co-chair of the Mohawk Valley Garlic Growers and the Mohawk Valley Garlic and Herb Festival it is my duty to spread the word about this amazing,crop, herb, food, and medicine. Thank you for your interest!

What Shane Badger Thinks He Knows About Garlic

Revised March 2010

 

Introducing….Garlic

Garlic (Allium sativum) is a 5000-year-old currency, vegetable, herb, pesticide, and medicine that has been traded the world around. Much like soccer, its consumption in the USA lags far behind the world standard. Average annual consumption in the USA is reported at around 3 pounds per person while Asian and European countries report rates breaking 50 pounds per capita. Also like soccer, Americans are just awakening to the wonders of having garlic in their everyday lives.

Garlic is a cash crop largely cultivated, mechanically harvested, and processed by commercial growers in the Northwest and California.  However, its hardiness and varietal allure make the crop a perfect fit for market gardens and sideline operations of the Northeast’s small farms. What follows is a compilation of the knowledge and experience I have gleaned from my twelve years of growing and researching the crop. The information includes a lot of facts and figures that have been passed from potluck to potluck and cloned repeatedly (much the way we cultivate our seed).  As farmers, we are obliged to experiment and share our knowledge with the next generation, just as we benefit from what was learned before us.

While I may not give credit here to all who have contributed to my obsession, I do want to recognize Bob Dunkle and Dave Stern of the Garlic Seed Foundation for all the work they do disseminating the information and collecting the growers.

Varieties and Characteristics

USDA genetic testing has identified at least 19 groups of distinct varieties derived from close to 300 named breeds.  However, garlic is basically divided into two main types.   

“Top set” (also known as hard neck) produces a hard bulb with between 4 and 14 cloves and sends a small pod of asexual seeds to the top of its stem. 

“Bottom set” (also known as soft neck) produces a large bulb with many wrappers, between 12 and 20 cloves, and keeps smaller cloves tightly packed in the center. 

Typically, the hardier top set varieties grow best in our region of cold and heavy soils. Traditionally, the top sets have been coveted as the gourmet varieties due to their rich flavor and high starch content. However, bottom set varieties like Inchelium Red, rediscovered on a reservation in Washington State, are growing in popularity and have been reputed to rival many top sets. The soft necks also have the distinct advantage of storing for a longer period of time.

Choosing a Planting Variety

So how do we choose a variety to grow? Garlic is a diverse crop with a long and traveled history, having been able to adapt over time to almost every place that supports human life.  We, however, have but a few short decades to enjoy this crop.  Therefore, it is always best to choose the garlic that grows best for local farms  and appeals to those in your local community.

Garlic is affected by soil, altitude, latitude, climate, and cultivation. So much is garlic affected by these micro-climates that the same variety grown just thirty miles apart can over time seem to be a completely different cultivar. Local festivals are a great way to test drive your garlic before you buy.

Creating Optimal Growing Environment- Dirt first?

We are all aware that a soil with well balanced nutrients and high organic matter grows the best crops so I am not going into that here.  However, garlic does require a few special considerations.  The plant does not tolerate competition; there is little leaf face to compete for sunlight. Garlic will not stand for wet feet either. If you have standing water, you will need to raise the beds.  Garlic grows well at 6.3-7.5 PH.  (Speaking from personal experience, the soil at my old farm measured 6.3 and we had hot garlic!) Also, calcium and sulfur are important nutrients as it is sulfur that creates the wonderful compounds we value, and calcium is known to prevent watery cores.   I read somewhere that garlic can become soft and rot in poor soil. I believe the calcium was low in these instances.  Finally, while garlic is a heavy feeder, commercial fertilizers are not needed in large amounts.  Choose organic nutrient sources that are too often wasted in our society.

Getting Started

I’ve got seed…now what? Garlic is an asexual plant, and needs to be cultivated through cloning. Each bulb is broken into cloves and then planted separately. Most growers only re-plant the largest and healthiest of the cloves, thereby hedging for greater viability.

Garlic is in the ground nine months of the year. Our short summers do not contain the degree days needed to produce big, healthy bulbs of garlic so we plant in the fall. As a general rule, garlic should go into the ground approximately 6-8 weeks prior to the first killing frost. I have planted as early as the second week of September and as late as Thanksgiving Eve. Ideally, I shoot for the second week of October; however the weather will ultimately dictate actual planting times. The goal is for the clove to sprout and set roots before going dormant for the winter. This will ensure that the clove can stay put during heaving and have the head start it needs to get growing as the melting snow starts to permeate the soil. Garlic will break out the first day that soils reach 50 degrees; therefore it is advisable to mulch in order to protect against early thaws.

Spacing is a matter of great contention in the community.  Standard commercial spacing is a double row spaced 12-18” apart every 30-36” with seeds every 4-8 inches in the row. As a natural grower I prefer less land to be turned so I plant in beds on an 8-8” grid 4-6 rows wide with a one foot walk. With this spacing I achieve about 80 thousand heads per acre.  

Maintenance of the Crop

The number one key to successful garlic growing is that the plant sets the time table. Scapes (the top set) appear in early June and should be removed as soon as possible.  Growers in Washington State have completed tests showing as much as a 70% gain in bulb growth from topping, or removing the scapes.  Don’t discard or compost all of your scapes; you can enjoying eating this “green garlic” while you await the harvesting of your actual garlic crop!

Harvesting and Storage

Harvesting must take place within a two-week window for each variety. I generally look for my plants to be in 60% die-off. For example, on a nine leaf plant, six leaves will have wilted, and on seven leaf plant, 4-5 will have wilted. It is important to get each variety out of the ground and in the curing sheds as quickly as possible to avoid the breakdown of protective sheaths and to prevent the crop from being burned by the sun.

After 4-6 weeks in the curing shed you are ready for the hardest part of being a garlic grower- finding a market.  Long-term storage requires a steady temp of around 55-58 degrees and 55-60% humidity with constant air flow.  Because these conditions can be difficult to maintain, you want to find customers as soon as possible.

Marketing and Selling Your Garlic

Marketing is for me the biggest challenge.  However, I have found that a whole lot of honesty and a little cockiness go a long way. (After all, I do grow awesome garlic!)  Wholesale orders can be very helpful when labor is short, since they typically require less processing and packaging.  However, you also need to market to local re-sellers that can help create commercial demand for the unique flavor of your fresh garlic.  

Keep in mind that your garlic business does not need to be limited to selling product intended for immediate consumption.  Seed stock is now in more demand than table stock and often can command a higher price. If you do make the decision to sell seed stock, use caution.  There are several diseases that devastate a garlic crop and they are not always apparent during curing.  As a seed stock seller, you want to be sure that you are distributing disease-free cloves to other farmers.  Garlic is attacked by Leek Moth, Fusarium, botrytis, and penecillium. These bacteria and molds can be held in check through proper field rotation, clean practices such as removing the scapes from the field when clipped, and burning stem and leaf trash when cleaning out the shed.  Prior to planting, seed should be inspected for lesions and bulbs broken only just before going into the ground. Treatments with sulfer, wood ash, and bleach have all been reported to control disease. Like disease in humans, we can control the spread of garlic blight. Caution and care ensure a successful crop year after year.

Closing Comments

When someone buys my garlic, I want them to feel they have bought more than just a pound of roots.  I want them to know that they have purchased a product that was cultivated with dedication, care, knowledge, and pride.   I am not merely growing garlic at Walking Clover Farm; I am growing a community of people who will support the ground they walk on and the people they walk with. If I can spread that idea I believe I can make a living playing in the dirt.