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Grow Garlic at Home Like a Pro
123 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, we'll talk about how to grow garlic in your own garden. You'll learn about the best time to plant, the benefits of mulching, and how to harvest and store your garlic bulbs. Tune in and get ready to spice up your garden with this easy and rewarding crop.
Consider Planting Garlic for the Kentucky Garden
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@l.uky.edu
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Transcript
Introduction to Horticulture & Humor
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to Horticulture, where a group of extension professionals and plant people talk about the business, production, and joy of planting seeds and helping them grow. Join us as we explore the culture of horticulture.
00:00:16
Speaker
Please excuse any choking down your ear. I just inhaled a chocolate bar. It was delicious. And I'm supporting my local 4-H. So, you know. I thought you were choking someone else. I'm giving myself a chocolate-based pneumonia. I mean, it's fine. How else do you want to go on that? I've never seen the fluid be 100% melted chocolate before. No. I actually was born in the Willy Wonka factory. I'm not sure if any of you knew that about me. It's really the fastest way to do it. It's really the fastest way to do it. It's the fastest way to do it. It's the fastest way to do it. This bloodstream is to aspirate it right into the lungs.
00:00:47
Speaker
You
Seasonal TV Habits & Nostalgia
00:00:48
Speaker
all got any hot tips on any music or TV shows you've been watching lately? I've been...
00:00:57
Speaker
Yeah, I don't even know. I'm always fascinated by the turn into fall and it like changes up the vibe a little bit, you know, and you're like searching for something a little different, maybe. You know, hot boy summer is over. I mean, I feel like in the past with Antenna, you know, everybody was watching the same thing or cable, but what's everybody still is. We just started watching the bear, so.
00:01:21
Speaker
Oh, the bear's solid. I haven't watched it, but it's on the list. Heard. I don't know why, but Tyler's into it. And I can't figure out that's not his vibe, but he's here for it. And I asked him why and he goes, I don't, I don't know. It's like really intense. Like some kind of undiagnosed anxiety disorder like me, where it's just like, Oh cool. It's TV happening at the speed of my brain.
00:01:47
Speaker
I think there's just a lot of Chicago Bear references in it, so it draws them in. I see. Yeah, that's better than watching the Chicago Bears play actual football this year. Well, he draws doing that. He turns it off pretty quickly. This is the second episode we brought football in in the beginning, and none of us are big football people, so that's pretty weird. Speak for yourself. I'm the biggest football person.
00:02:12
Speaker
and mentally. I'm kind of shaped like a football. You're not shaped like the soccer ball chicken that Emily has? Shout out Emily. Last week's episode was so awesome with Emily. Yeah, it was good stuff. Look forward to that series. If you haven't listened to that episode, you should do that now. Just pause. Otherwise, this one won't make any sense. It will make complete sense because we're talking about garlic today. I should introduce the episode. Did anyone even say a single
00:02:38
Speaker
thing. Oh, you said you're watching the bear and then now we're ready to move on. No one else was able to share. No, nobody else gets to share. Tell me
Unexpected TV Show Choices & Joy
00:02:47
Speaker
about your life, Brett. What brings you joy? Brett, you are watching something on PBS. That's amazing. I have a feeling. Tell me what brings you joy. Now that you're asking, now that you say it like that, I don't want to share anymore. Oh my God. I'm putting this back in my pocket. I've been settling in, assuming that the kind of tandem strike with the writers and actors going on was going to continue. So
00:03:07
Speaker
I've been deep diving the back catalog and watching entourage, which I never saw. Oh man, turtle speaking of turtle. I don't think we've been speaking of turtle, but I'm always thinking about it. Turtle man. Ari, Ari gold. What an incredible care. I have not watched this. I haven't either. Yeah. There's some catalog is like.
00:03:30
Speaker
Huge and it's depressing now to the point where I add something to my watch queue and it's so
Spooky Season & Nostalgic TV Shows
00:03:36
Speaker
long that if I lived another hundred and eighty nine years, I still would not be able to watch. Well, you probably will because you are a vampire. Yeah. Hmm. I don't know. We just keep. We have certain teasers for garlic. And we do. Yeah, you're welcome. But I'm not ready for you. And it's spooky season coming up. So my TV is like
00:03:55
Speaker
classic 80s and 90s cartoons. I love animation, like we're talking like peanuts, like go out in a pumpkin patch, wait on a dream that's not going to come. He turns on after Reed goes to bed.
00:04:07
Speaker
Yes, yes. But how about it's spooky TV season. Yeah. Did you know, speaking of spooky season, you're familiar with the song Monster Mash? Yes. Yes. Within the world's strongest man and bodybuilder culture. Of which we are all familiar. Yeah. I don't have to tell you all, but for any listeners who want to- I'm in my bulking season. Yeah. Alexis knows all about what I'm about to say. There's this thing. I think it's mostly ground beef and rice.
00:04:37
Speaker
And they refer to it as monster mash. Crown beans and rice. Cause they just eat like so much of it to get big, you know? Yeah. I do that on the screen. And it's dry rice and raw ground beef. They make it into little balls. They throw. Monster mash. Wow. This took a turn. I mean, that's not other ordinary, but this took a turn. It's usually brown rice, unfortunately, as well, which is like,
00:05:06
Speaker
You had a brown rice person? I'm not brown. No, I only, Jasmine Rice says what I pick over brown rice. Wow. Elite. Wow. Elite. The rice that was originally bred for Thai royalty.
00:05:19
Speaker
It's only what Alexis eats. Obviously. I guess I'm going to see that. No off point. Don't let this guy make you feel bad. I can't do a brown rice thing. It's just I can't. I don't like it. We're
Music Preferences & Emotional Impact
00:05:34
Speaker
going to get into some weather food preference stuff here in a little bit.
00:05:36
Speaker
So, Brett, what are you watching? Oh, I haven't been watching really much of anything. Honestly, I've been watching... You were looking for ideas. Guys eating Monster Mash. Yeah, a guy eats Monster Mash. It's mostly shorts, though, so it doesn't last long. It's real. 3.2 minutes.
00:05:51
Speaker
I'm also been watching Wheel of Time. I don't know if you were looking for a recommendation. Oh my gosh. Rosamond Pike. Oh yeah. Oh, intense. Dreamboat. Oh, she is amazing. She's scared me ever since Gone Girl. Did you ever see that? I love to be afraid. I like beer. It's a spooky season after all. Our friend Chelsea referred to Annie, my wife, as my hot goth wife.
00:06:18
Speaker
And she is goth, it's a little, there's some fear. She's got some spook in her, yeah. Definitely. I love it. Definitely. That's what I love about her. Yeah, she's a spooky season, spooky season fan. Spooky reads, spooky season. I've been called back to some of the music that I listened to when I was a little younger and
00:06:39
Speaker
Sesame Street. No, no, it's email. Are we on like I would say Elmo or like older country like Townes Van Zant. Oh, yeah. Don Williams. Don Williams is eternal. Yeah. Oh, my God. His voice, some of his albums. I'm like, when did this come out? Because it sounds like it could have come out in 2010. That is one of my wife's ultimate favorites. She's a music like old Western Western snob. And Don Williams is at the very pinnacle.
00:07:09
Speaker
of that genre for her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Love it on the way. Jen's also an amazing advocate for local music scene. So shout out to her, you know. Yeah, she does all the support. I immediately went, I don't know why, because I don't really consider this like old country, obviously, but I immediately said that I was like way down south on the Jax. Oh yeah. Well, on Jax, I'm sure. I don't really just imagine you singing that, like out in the garden.
00:07:37
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, you could do some weeding to that. I could see that the cadence is, you know, peppy enough. Yeah, but I don't know musical taste of mine. Very, you know, and it was weird and I do this once a year and I, and I never know when it's going to hit me, but Vivaldi four seasons, I'm not a highbrow. I am not, but I crank that up as soon as leaves look like they're changing here in central Kentucky, in much of Kentucky, not because of the weather per se, even though we're getting close to October.
00:08:05
Speaker
It's more so it's very dry here, but when the leaves start to get crunchy on the trails that I walk, I want to hear some classical, particularly starting with Vivaldi Four Seasons. I think, you know, you talk about the high brownness of it and we will get to a horticulture topic, but humming Four Seasons is a horticulture topic, right? It is, yes. Covers all four. I think just that like...
00:08:27
Speaker
The highbrow conception of both that and jazz really means that a lot of people who might try it out sometime don't. And for me, it's just the emotional experience of listening to it, the way that it moves and the timelessness of those particular pieces, the Four Seasons. Yeah.
00:08:47
Speaker
And others too, it's just like, I don't know. We don't have to turn everything into this brain exercise where it's like really crazy. It can be this much more human basic experience. I think that kind of type of music is much more approachable because it invokes a feeling. And if you ask children, it's amazing. And Jennifer's done activities with this and she's got the research to back it and all this. But one of the activities she's done
00:09:09
Speaker
in the past, she'll play like classical music and ask children, you know, what feeling that gives them. And almost invariably they tune into the feeling that the composer wanted to convey. I mean, just like a music aficionado would have conveyed the, the feelings that are in the songs, a four and five year old will do the same in their own words. And it's amazing. And so that makes music particularly approachable to me. But yeah, that's a, that's a,
00:09:35
Speaker
was a great question, Brett, because in the seasons, my musical tastes do change. I don't know, I'd get reflective in the
Music, Gardening Joy & Garlic Planting Tips
00:09:42
Speaker
fall and winter, getting ready for the long days of winter. So maybe my musical tastes get a little darker. Oh, those kind of classical pieces, right? Like one of the roadblocks, I think, I think a lot of people do enjoy classical music, but then they might not know the name of what they like, right? Like so many things are familiar to people. I think that's me. But they lack that kind of like,
00:10:02
Speaker
they might not know, you know, this was this composer, this was this, they just heard it, you know, dozens of times over the years. Yes, yeah. And even if you're like, if you want, because we refer to, you know, in the United States, we refer to classical as encompassing all of these different movements, when in reality, classical period is one of a variety of in the Western musical canon.
00:10:24
Speaker
And there's such variability within that, that like, you know, the idea of like Bach and Mozart, they're like such radically different feels and vibes. It's almost like the difference between
00:10:41
Speaker
I don't know what. Hank Williams and Hank Williams Jr. and Luke Bryan. They're just different things. Chris Gaines. Yeah, Chris Gaines. Oh man, I love the life of Chris Gaines for what it's worth. Shout out Garth.
00:10:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's like, you know, sampling the things that you like, and then realizing, oh, these like, I kind of like stuff from this period, it's a little more chill and low key and formulaic or something that's a little more expressive and wild and crazy can be Yeah, I think we do a lot of disservice to musical education, just like in the enjoyment of music, and art, and also sometimes of
00:11:23
Speaker
Horticulture, you know, watching seeds and watching them grow, planting seeds, watching them grow to your, in your eye, perhaps, you know, what doesn't change throughout the seasons. My love of garlic, indeed bringing it back around, bringing it back around. Well, it is spooky season. You said earlier, Ray confirmed vampire future show. That's a great idea. Horticulture superstitions needs to happen. It's going to happen. It's going to happen.
00:11:49
Speaker
I, uh, I measure garlic, like I measure vanilla. It's with my heart. I never liked what the recipe says to automatically four or more automatically get huge. I don't, I don't play around. Is that the, is that the amarese roots? That's Alexis made a name. Yes.
00:12:14
Speaker
I guess so. I don't know. It was always in the house. I don't know if I've ever not had garlic in the house in my entire life. Entire life. So do you want to start talking about eating it or do you want to start talking about growing it?
00:12:27
Speaker
Let's grow some first. What do you know, what's your feel? You have to plant garlic, uh, like with everything else. Right. Right. And the spring tension, you know, uh, not really. If you try to do that, you're not going to be, you know, this is Tommy. I have done that before though. I've planted garlic out of season and went against Jamie Docker and I, another horticulture agent in central Kentucky.
00:12:56
Speaker
Uh, and he's even has a, he has a video, I think it's still up on YouTube where he will say, do not do this, but you can try it. You probably not going to like the results. But, uh, if you plant garlic in the spring, that's out of season months too late, sometimes you can get some results are not going to be great, but you would be much better off here in Kentucky planting garlic. Last part of September, first part of October, October end of November for most varieties.
00:13:24
Speaker
That's a much better time because of the nature of garlic and the way that it grows. It's a fall planted crop and usually harvested sometime in the summer, the following year. So it's a little bit different. What a timely discussion. Yes, indeed. Are we hard neck or soft neck? Where's the crew at?
00:13:44
Speaker
Probably for me soft neck because goodness it keeps six to eight months and hard neck keeps three to five months. If I'm storing my garlic, soft neck all the way. Hard neck is usually more hardy, right? Going north, yes. In northern climates, they don't really have much for an option.
00:14:02
Speaker
And here in Kentucky, we're in a transition zone, so I've heard it recommended for here in parts of Kentucky, you will have a more consistent harvest if you focus all your efforts on hardneck, but softneck does pretty well most winters here in Kentucky. You've got a protected area or something. Yeah. You can use softneck really easily. And softneck, I've grown just a lot, never had any issues as long as it's well-drained and I've well mulched.
00:14:26
Speaker
I haven't ever had any issues with soft neck, but I know in theory. Are there functional differences between soft neck and hard neck? Why do I even care about the difference between these? I know you nerds have these distinctions, but is there something for us cool kids out here with practical considerations? Planting, if you're on a commercial scale, there's a big difference in yield and how many pounds to order and how many row feet you get out of because the bulb configuration is different with hard neck.
00:14:53
Speaker
And soft neck. So there's some considerations there on a larger scale, but as far as eating, I haven't, I mean, yeah, there's different, you know, tops of garlic that have different eating qualities, but yeah, I always relate hard neck to like more like intense varieties. I don't necessarily think that's like true for sure, but there just seems to be more hard neck varieties that are more intense flavor.
00:15:19
Speaker
Yeah. And then it's like kind of smaller, more flavorful. Yeah. Less bulbs, but you don't need as much and it goes way harder. Right. Right. And like the store, most varieties I get out of the store almost always soft neck and that may be a function of where it's grown in the country more so than anything else. Fun fact. Do they all have scapes?
00:15:38
Speaker
I believe only hard neck. That was always my main distinction was the scapeage. Has anybody ever made a garlic scape pesto? Me, delicious. Oh yeah. Delicious. I think that's what I love also about hard neck is that it's like I feel like I'm getting double the product because I'm harvesting the scape and they're great in floral design. They have great movement. What is the scape? The flower stalk.
00:16:07
Speaker
Yeah, flowers start coming up. And that's going to come out in like late spring, early summer before... Yeah, June, May, May. Am I right here? What's that? First, what? Scapes? Scapes are usually around May sometimes. Yeah, the top growth converts around summer solstice, which next year is like June 20th. Okay, or June. So that's when you get... You start to get bulb growth at summer solstice, so you already have your finishing your top growth, which is around, yeah, May, June.
00:16:31
Speaker
And so if you have any ornamental allium in your yard, the family that garlic and onions are in is allium. And so those flower spikes on those things are obviously meant to look really nice. The ones on top of this, I think Alexis was going to say, you want to harvest them.
00:16:50
Speaker
Do you want to harvest the scapes once they kind of start to finish their curl, right? So they curl up into a circle and you want to harvest them. And the reason why is because you don't want it to actually fully bloom. You want to have the plant put that energy down into that bulb so that you get a good bulb there. I think it means literally just cutting it off where it comes out. Yeah. So let's back up and talk about the approachability of garlic for home gardeners. Would you guys,
00:17:15
Speaker
Kind of all agree that garlic is one of those crops. It's a bit different fall planted here in Kentucky. But would you guys agree that it's a pretty good, pretty, you know, pretty approachable crop for home gardeners?
00:17:29
Speaker
I think garlic's pretty easy. And like you said, I like that it's in the fall because even if you miss out on the spring or, you know, you're just, you're not sure what you're doing there. There's always like a rush in the spring to get things right. I feel like things are a little bit more chill this time of year. Uh, so the idea of putting in something and harvesting it in June is simple. I was surprised that there's not, I mean, I've seen plenty of garlic and home gardeners.
00:17:55
Speaker
plantings. But I think that's one of the reasons that I don't see it more because so many of us are such traditional spring gardeners. We don't think about putting stuff in the fall. I sometimes wonder why I don't see more garlic in folks.
00:18:11
Speaker
Gardens, and that's one of the reasons I guess why is because it's out of the traditional spring planting window. But I see that as a benefit, not a detractor for home gardeners. And I've had multiple garden classes there in Bourbon County. They're always great. But there's always a percentage of people that are attending those programs are kind of surprised that it's put out in the fall.
00:18:32
Speaker
And that surprises me a little bit, but I guess because of the traditional flow of things. It's like half this easy and you don't even have to worry about it. What could you want? What's better? And it does so well in raised beds. I love like, and I've been putting those in fabric containers, you know, garlic, you know, when I first heard of fabric containers, I wanted to try that as an easy crop. So I stuck it in there. It did fantastic. But that is one thing garlic needs to have. Of course, plenty of sunlight, but also,
00:19:00
Speaker
One of the most critical things is good drainage for garlic. And it even helps
Garlic Growing Essentials & Varieties
00:19:04
Speaker
if you're planting it in native soil is to mound that soil just a little bit. And that's one of the common fail points for garlic is a way that a hunter might fail. Yes, is bulb rot. Because remember, you're putting it in during the time of the year where you typically have two things, more moisture and cooler temperatures. And if you don't have a very well-drained soil,
00:19:25
Speaker
Bull broad is one of the most common issues that I see from home gardeners followed by
00:19:31
Speaker
felling to mulch, providing some kind of mulch on top of that to provide winter protection and temperature buffering throughout the wintertime. But if you can take care of those two points as a home gardener, I think you're going to ace growing garlic, well-drained, well-tilled soil, well-prepared soil bed, and then mulching. You're well on your way. And the third thing is realizing that it is an allium.
00:19:57
Speaker
which is an onion family, which means one thing, it's a heavy feeder. And fertilize, you probably should put down pre-plant fertilizer, followed by two applications in the spring, one application when the tops start to grow on garlic, and the last one in May. Do not in Kentucky fertilize past May, because then you're gonna create yourself some problems, bulbs that are too succulent, that don't dry off well.
00:20:25
Speaker
So you're fertilizing three times and as long as you take care of the mulch, the soil drainage and the fertility, my goodness, that's just about all there is to it to have a great start to growing some good garlic. And the best approach would be to work off of a soil test as discussed. As we've been. Yeah, absolutely. We haven't mentioned elephant garlic. I feel like we have to throw that in there just a little bit. It's technically not garlic.
00:20:51
Speaker
More of a leek. It is more closely related to a leek. I love the flavor of elephant garlic though. I mean, I'm into that. It's milder. You could really taste the elephant. Yeah, the elephant. It's got the essence of the elephant, yes.
00:21:07
Speaker
It does. I just love that mild flavor. I don't know. Yeah. If you, that's a, if you're not, if, if garlic can get a little spicy for you, elephant garlic can be a good way to get much, much, much, much, much bigger. It is, it is crazy. So now you are talking about planting garlic. So two things.
00:21:30
Speaker
One, should I just go to the grocery store, buy a clove of garlic and then just throw it in the ground? You can. A, B, question B, uh, am I putting the whole garlic head in the ground? Am I, should I be breaking it apart? Should I be, is it a clove by clove situation? Uh, what's the, what's the deal here? You, uh, when planting garlic, yeah, there's, there's a term which would differentiate here. One is bulb, which is the entire bottom portion of the garlic is a, that's a bulb.
00:21:59
Speaker
You're not planting that or you would just have a big mass of garlic that would all grow together in a bunch and would not do well. What you're doing is separating the outermost largest cloves of both hardneck and softneck garlic and elephant garlic. They're huge. They're easy to separate. But you're separating those outermost largest cloves because larger cloves make better garlic the following year. You're separating those and planting those. And I'll throw out some spacing here within the row for hardneck and softneck. That's five to six inches.
00:22:29
Speaker
apart in the row of the cloves. It's a little wider for elephant garlic. You're talking six to eight inches. And then as far as the distance between the rows themselves, you're talking 24 inches.
00:22:41
Speaker
at least for best airflow management as far as density between the rows. So within the row, five to six inches for cloves, pointy side up. That's important to mention that here. The pointy side of that clove needs to stay up. The flat side needs to be down. It'll get a better start that way.
00:23:01
Speaker
so five to six inches within the row in between roads twenty four inches if you can maintain that spacing. So ray and i differ on and he's probably right but this is just the way i've done it i i do everything in tents. All the clothes on the plant and then i eat them and then i eat them all and then i throw them back up no.
00:23:24
Speaker
So I do my spacing a lot closer actually, and Ray does. So, you know, maybe that means I get smaller bulbs. I don't know, but I like to stay- Why do you like spacing further apart? Really? Yeah. So for reference, I do mine about three inches apart and then- I do it in containers and it seems to work pretty well. Alexis, are you doing it in a field or lacking containers in that space? In a field setting. And then between the rows, I do 12 to 18 inches. So it's like just wide enough for me to walk through.
00:23:54
Speaker
But they'll probably do great at that. Yeah. I think it depends on your soil as well. You know, how loose your soil is commercially. I think it's a bigger deal if you have acres of it. But if you don't, I mean, homeowners, I've seen homeowners just plant it within an inch of each other and they seem to do fairly well as long as they don't absolutely stack the clothes on top of each other. It does well. It's a very flexible crop. And that's one of the reasons I love garlic. It's kind of, it's kind of forgiving. Yeah.
00:24:22
Speaker
Sorry. I was just going to say it kind of meets those things where it's like forgiving for growers. It is good for you to eat often and it tastes good. Like, so just go crazy. Yeah. The history of garlic is phenomenal. I mean, yeah, we could, we could have another whole episode on, you know, as far as the good for you aspect. It was found in King Tut's tomb when it was excavated. I don't know if you guys knew that or not, but it's kind of cool.
00:24:51
Speaker
Yeah, five to seven. All that literature difference, I mean, differs, but it goes back 5,000 years and 3,000 years in Chinese medicine. And then some would argue that it goes back all the way to 7,000 years, the earliest records of garlic use, because, you know, early populations recognize the antimicrobial aspects of garlic and even Louis Pasteur, you know, he recognized it when he was doing all of the work with his processes, recognized garlic for that.
00:25:17
Speaker
That attribute also, so it's not only tasty, but it can be good for you. Can I take a little side note here? It's like nothing to do with garlic, but I'm going to connect it. But speaking of things that have been around a really long time. Has anybody heard of bog bodies?
00:25:35
Speaker
Is that like those Neanderthal dudes that they dig up? Well preserved? No, they're not always Neanderthals, but they have found them in the peat bogs in Europe, and they're so preserved by the fact that there's no oxygen, which is what creates these peat bogs in the acidity and the tannins and all that.
00:25:57
Speaker
they can, they know, like they can tell what's in their stomach that they've eaten. And so like when they died based on what vegetables are in their stomach, cause what would have been in season, which is bonkers to me. And then, and then this is so cool. They know about trade because one of the guys was apparently in this, it was like 300 BCE or something like that. And this, they were using hair products at that time. And this guy would had like a
00:26:26
Speaker
faux hawk situation going on and was using a plant material to gel his hair up, so to speak. And that plant that created that gel, quote unquote, only grows in France and Spain, and they found him in, I think it was the Netherlands. And so they know that there was trade happening.
00:26:49
Speaker
But anyways, I'll relate this back to garlic as in I wonder if there was garlic in their stomachs. Garlic is native to Greece, I believe, and obviously we know it has spread throughout Europe. So I'm curious on whether or not there was garlic in the bog bodies. If you don't know about bog bodies, go look. Shout out to the bog bodies for eating seasonally. Shout out. I mean, eat local.
00:27:10
Speaker
Beach body is out, bog body is in. I'll have to dye my hair cowboy copper or something. I'm gonna call it bog body, bog body auburn, I think is my next color. You could have a fitness company called Bog Body by Alexis. Nice. Gonna be a hit, I can feel it. Yeah, I wonder, I wonder. And then in that case, it would be like kind of preserved from the inside and the outside. Yeah, that's what I was wondering. Yeah, if you had a bunch of garlic,
00:27:37
Speaker
Would that have better preserved the insides, I wonder? I don't know. I don't know. It's spooky season, so I'm bringing it all around. There's a book by a person named, I can't remember the rest of the name, but her last name is Kimmer, and it's called Gathering Moss, and she talks about, it's all about moss, and she talks about all the moss in these different locations, including the moss in bogs.
00:28:07
Speaker
It is crazy. There's certain dynamics that because of the remoteness and disturbance, there's aspects of the dynamics that we don't know and almost can't really know because it requires too much disturbance. Once you disturb it, it sets the process back 15 years or something. It's pretty wild.
00:28:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's worth a read if you're a, if you're a Brio guy or gal. If moss is your thing. Yeah, if you're into mossing. I just love moss. There's a woman who sells moss out of North Carolina called Moss and Annie. She is a whole vibe and a half. She is wild. Anyway, so we're putting it in the ground. I think another thing about garlic that I really like with the
00:28:53
Speaker
call back to our episode about winter cover crops is that it is a green thing that is actually growing in the winter in defiance of Jack Frost. Defiance of- It laughs in the face of Frost. Yeah, and it's really cool. Ray was talking about mulching. Maybe we can talk a little bit about the mulch material since that's a favorite topic around here, but I have used
00:29:21
Speaker
straw to mulch my garlic in the past because it kind of stays a little fluffier and more like, you know, yeah, fluffed up, I guess. But seeing these little green snakes of garlic leaves grow out of that through the winter and into the spring is like a pretty fun, magical little thing to experience.
00:29:46
Speaker
Yeah. Do you all have any thoughts on the mulch? How do you all, have you all done it? If you, or is anyone else out there, uh, admiring their garlic in the middle of winter? I think straw is, uh, I mean, that's a safe bet. I've seen people that use all kinds of Lee, uh, all kinds of things such as leaves. You just have to be careful with some types of, um, mulch material to make sure that it's not inhibiting that growth.
00:30:10
Speaker
because you can get it too thick and it can mat down and cause some trouble. And it can actually retain too much moisture, not a cause of bulb rot. So I think in this case, I think straw is like the perfect type of mulch. And I usually say to waste until the ground freezes to mulch, right? What's your thought process on that? Yeah. And that's one of those other forgiving things, but yeah.
00:30:32
Speaker
That works just great because really mulch does the way mulch works is it keeps the ground in the wintertime like uniformly frozen almost. It limits the fluctuations in temperature and that's kind of what you want. Yeah, we want to kind of prevent that even thaw as much as possible. So that's why.
00:30:52
Speaker
That's why I said, although in Kentucky, I mean, we don't often get ground freeze. Well, we did get it a little earlier this year with the polar vortex on Christmas, but sometimes it's, you know, it's January before the ground like really freezes. So you have some leeway there, uh, which is again, nice when you've got a lot of things, you're trying to put the garden to bed, you're trying to get your cover crop down, all that jazz.
00:31:14
Speaker
Get your garlic in, and then when other things settle down, you can get some straw on it. So it's nice. And I agree, Brett. I think that's why I really like to start a lot of my own seeds is because there's just something so satisfying, especially in the wintertime when you make something grow. I have some foxglove and some campanula and some other stuff I seeded recently in the greenhouse.
00:31:41
Speaker
And it's like, it doesn't matter how many times I have seeded that same crop. I know when it's going to come up, you know, and it doesn't matter. But every time it does that first little seedling, Oh my gosh, I'm like, Oh, I get such as like rush every single time a new little plant comes up.
00:32:02
Speaker
It's also conceptually just a wild phenomenon, the idea of seed growth, or in this case, clove turning into a bulb. Just to clarify, make sure one more time. If you're a cook, home cook, and you break that garlic bulb that you get from the grocery store into cloves, each of those individual cloves, when taken care of, will create a whole new bulb for next year. One pound makes about eight pounds on average. A little bit less, a little bit more.
00:32:30
Speaker
Yeah, one pound to eight pounds, that's pretty good. That's pretty phenomenal to me. We were talking about, you can buy it from the grocery store, but you can also buy specific varieties of seed garlic.
Store-bought vs. Seed Garlic
00:32:45
Speaker
It probably is a little late now to be thinking about that. A lot of them are sold out typically. Yeah, a lot of the popular varieties, they sell out very quickly. So you have to order those months in advance.
00:32:55
Speaker
And there are, I think, variety recommendations out there, depending on where you are. You can find some. We here at University of Kentucky have a whole publication on it. Oh, yeah. I remember when I was working at the farm more, and this ties back to my cold open for the thing about asking people what music they were listening to. Music was one of the varieties that we would always grow. Oh, nice. Yeah. And I'd segue. I would.
00:33:21
Speaker
concur, I think that, and so music is an example of a hardneck variety. Honestly, if you have not been around horticulture, you have probably not seen a hardneck variety before. Softneck varieties, what you tend to get in the grocery store, the paper is a little bit more delicate, a little bit easier to pull off. I find generally the clothes on softneck, the grocery store style tend to be a little smaller.
00:33:46
Speaker
They're quite a bit smaller, bigger, bigger bulbs, but smaller clothes and hard next, just the opposite. Right. And so you might have like, you know, I don't know how many it is, like eight or 10 or 12 gloves in a soft neck and they're each the size of like your thumbnail.
00:34:01
Speaker
Versus you might have like five or six in a hard neck variety or maybe a few more than that, but they're like big and they can be potent, you know, too. I like the red ones. So they have a couple of different ones. I forget the one I've grown music and they, I think they're.
00:34:22
Speaker
I prefer to peel a hard neck one actually because the paper doesn't get like, you know how garlic makes your fingers roll sticky and the papery doesn't get stuck cause it's real thick. You know, it's more like almost more like a shell than anything. I think it's easy. It kind of comes off in one big piece.
00:34:42
Speaker
You just kind of have to get ahold of it. And yes, that, I feel like recipes could be specific when they say two cloves of garlic could be like two cloves of soft garlic. Because like hard nut garlic is often more intense. You're going to get like a spicier flavor, I guess is a way to put it. I heard it also called sharp. Sharp. Yeah. I made, um, Oh, I'll just say this first. I made,
00:35:11
Speaker
Tabouleh the other night, a Mediterranean parsley salad. And I put so much garlic in it. And I just like raw garlic. And I didn't realize until as we sat down to eat and I ate it and I was like, why is this spicy? I didn't put anything spicy in this. The garlic, the amount of garlic in it made this. Yeah, exactly.
00:35:34
Speaker
And then our guest from last week, poor Emily had to ride all the way to Louisville with me the next day, but she was so gracious about it. Yeah. I was emanating it. Sweating out garlic, essential oil. Yeah. So the hard neck, I think is the ones that I've had more experience growing, but Ray, you were saying earlier, I think, or maybe it was before, but about the like.
00:35:58
Speaker
how long it lasts once you, right? And maybe we can talk a little bit about the curing thing. Yeah. Soft neck, I just, it just lasts kind of twice as long. It's got a much longer shelf life than hard neck. I mean, it's, it all is both hard and soft necks, very good keepers. But on the low end, you're talking about four or five months for hard neck. And then on the upper end of soft, it's six to eight months. So it does keep a little longer.
00:36:27
Speaker
But the indicators for maturity are about the same. I mean, bulb formation begins, you know, mid to late June with summer solstice, but it switches over from top growth to bulb growth. And then once, I don't know, I always base it on at least half the upper leaves are starting to brown out. Yeah. Once, once I reach about half, depending on what the weather is, I'm good. I mean, two thirds are fine. 75% of the leaves being brown are fine, but once it reaches half,
00:36:54
Speaker
of the leaves turning brown, I start to think about harvesting the garlic. And if you've never, if you've never grown it before, it looks like a giant green onion. Yeah. As far as, and so the, those tips that are up and out. Once those, about half of those have gone kind of that yellow brown. Yeah. And you have to look towards the base. That's not as real evident unless you're just paying a lot of attention to the garlic. So look towards the base of the garlic to find those wrapper leaves.
00:37:21
Speaker
the brown kind of papery feathery leaves. Once you start to see those around the base, that's a good indication it's reaching maturity.
00:37:29
Speaker
I love plants that just kind of tell you when they're ready. You don't have to go through, you don't have to be like, oh, you don't have to search as hard. It's just kind of like you visually look over. It's like peace lilies. Like, you know, when to water on me, they tell you. And I love, I love things that communicate with me in that way. They communicate well. They really do. They're pretty much screaming at me about what they want. I just want peace.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah. And so softneck, those are the ones you're going to see braided as well. So if you're into selling, you know, if you're going to sell these or you want to, you know, do something nice for in your kitchen or something like that. If you want to do those braids, I have grown softneck garlic before and incorporated dried flowers into mine. And you can like, you know, sell it during winter time because that's when, you know, it still keeps
00:38:15
Speaker
If you want to or for fall, fall festivals, that kind of stuff. So you'll want to do soft neck, although I have braided hard neck garlic. I feel
Post-harvest Garlic Curing & Storage
00:38:23
Speaker
like it's not as pretty, but if you like are inserting, inserting like herb bundles or anything like that into it, like dried sage, dried rosemary, you can, you can do that. You can fill in kind of those gaps and.
00:38:34
Speaker
Nobody knows the difference. It is easier and more attractive, I think, to do the soft neck. Once you guys go through the curing process, which is minimum two weeks for me, about four weeks, much better. Explain the curing process. Curing process is just once you get it out of the ground, first of all, do not wash it. That's another common mistake I see is don't wash it. I've seen commercial producers, they'll strip the outside leaves to get a nice clean bulb, and then they'll bundle it in bunches of however big the bunches are.
00:39:03
Speaker
But for most homeowners, you just pull it out of the ground, you know, get rid of all the excess dirt. Don't wash it. That's amazing. A couple of tips just on getting it out of the ground in the first place. So one would be, if you can try to harvest it when it has been dry, the drier it has been, the less moisture is going to be in those outside wrappers, the better shots you're going to have. And also it'll probably, the
00:39:30
Speaker
This way it will probably crumble away easier to harvest it. The other is, for me personally, I found that the more that I can get like a shovel or fork or whatever under it to break it up, the less... I do every year have a couple that I put the shovel through the side of the bulb.
00:39:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's classic. But in general, if you can loosen it up so that it comes out of the soil really easily, it doesn't create those little tiny fissures and fractures as much that can allow rock to get in. It's a good point, Brad. Yeah. Sorry.
00:40:02
Speaker
No, absolutely. That's an important point, especially when you consider using a broad fork or some kind of wide fork or shovel. You're taking this stuff out of the ground in Kentucky when the soil is typically can be very hard, very dry. So you physically cannot pull that out of the ground and you would not want to try.
00:40:23
Speaker
Uh, if there's that much resistance, go ahead. And as Brett's saying, use something to kind of help you lift that out of the soil, let the soil come crumble away and take that from there. Yeah. That's a great point, Brett. Absolutely. And so once again, do you get it out? Yeah. I was just going to say, then go through the two to four weeks drying process. You, you hang that up somewhere with most of the soil, knock loose.
00:40:47
Speaker
But
Historical & Modern Garlic Storing Methods
00:40:48
Speaker
after you go through the well, I say drying process. Technically, I guess it's a curing process. But once you guys get to that point, you guys remove the tops. I've seen it both ways. The braid left intact and then some people cut two to four inches above the bowl. How do you guys like dry that or have you done it personally? I think hard neck usually I'd cut it off depending on how much I've got or what I'm going to do with it.
00:41:10
Speaker
So when you hang it up, you keep it all intact. Yes, you keep everything intact. The fine roots that are on the bottom, keep those on, the stuff that's up top, keep all of that on.
00:41:20
Speaker
Now I've seen people, they will take the roots off the bottom. I personally leave those on when I've grown this, you know, the crops personally for myself, just, you know, personal production, not commercial production is I just hang it up. And sometimes I'll have little strings kind of wired up and then I'll put the garlic upside down and drop them down in where the bulbs kind of held by the string and open air somewhere is in a shed or under an Eve.
00:41:42
Speaker
and let them dry that way for, uh, four weeks. And then I, after four weeks, I considered them cured. And then I, I removed the top. Sometimes I'll leave a little bit of the stem on there, uh, a little bit of the leaf structure, two to four inches. And then I get it ready for storage. Uh, and the main thing about storage is one thing to me. And I made this mistake before and it was my mistake. I should have known better is do not store them with their sunlight direct light because they will try to grow again. You want to store them in the dark.
00:42:11
Speaker
If you're getting real picky, 70% humidity in a cool dry location is perfect away from any kind of sunlight. If you want to get that long-term storage six to eight months is keep them out of the sun when you already have them cured and you're getting ready to store them, keep them away from the sun, not in the refrigerator. Are those similar storage conditions to other, any other crops?
00:42:34
Speaker
A lot of different crops like vegetables. I mean, if you're talking about like other root crops, sweet potatoes, you know, potatoes are kind of like that as well as far as keeping things. So root sellers. Yeah. Basically, where you would store onions is where you would store garlic and all your root crops. Yeah, Brett. And I'm just thinking if, you know, I would be, I would probably hesitate to set up a whole area with a little bit of humidity control for just some garlic.
00:43:00
Speaker
But if I had some other stuff, which is the thing to kind of think about is that long term non refrigerated storage stuff is a huge part of our horticultural cultural culture and legacy and everything else that you just don't really.
00:43:16
Speaker
Like
Homestead Life & Traditional Garlic Curing
00:43:17
Speaker
we don't really deal with it as much as we did. Yeah, we have all these preservation tactics and technologies. Yeah. Yeah. And it used to be the root sellers were just an incredible, incredibly important part of homesteads. Really, really important. And I remember grandmother having those. My grandmother was a lady that had never had electricity, would not have it in her home. So she had a huge root seller and I would go in there and just smell all the earthy smells.
00:43:42
Speaker
you know, just like almost year round. I mean, there was times when that would that thing would empty out before the crops would come in. There's a month or two. But for the most part, she was very, very good at making the most of crops that were harvested there on acreage that she had up a far, far up a hollow in Eastern Kentucky.
00:44:02
Speaker
a hollow. Did you just say hollow? Do not cleanse yourself for this modern world. Did I euthanize that a little bit? You did. Yeah. You said hollow. I was like, what is that? Don't ever. It was a holler. It is to this day a holler and there's still nothing around this.
00:44:19
Speaker
holler for miles around. So I looked at it on a sat map the other day just for nostalgia. This unlocked a memory for me, like talking about heart, like the curing process. So I used to spend summers with an aunt and uncle up in Pennsylvania. Northern Appalachia. Yeah. I mean, they were like literally on a reclaimed mine, you know, kind of situation.
00:44:44
Speaker
That's where my mom's side of the family grew up, so my mom is not the Italian one. She's the Appalachian one. What's the last name? McGraw.
00:44:54
Speaker
Oh, oh, yeah. Yeah. So that bolster Scott. Yeah. Everybody's knowing all about me and my names now. They can answer all the questions for Italians and the. She. Perfect. But I used to spend and they didn't have kids and I'd spend the summer with them. And my uncle grew tons of garlic and they had this shed that he would hang it in. And it was just, you know, strings and strings of garlic hung up.
00:45:21
Speaker
and i have beans in there to chucky beans or leather bridges i don't remember i remember it so it takes up so much room like it's a very big you know but i remember they would like you know when you're ten.
00:45:37
Speaker
you know, they can pay you a dollar and you'll clean up all the garlic. And I remember he'd, you know, have me knocking the soil off. And when it was cured, taking off those outer really dirty wrappers, you know, just a couple of them and leave them, leaving them in there. And then they had a, they had a root cellar, but yeah, it like really unlocked memory for me of just like sitting there at the stump, right outside the shed and just kind of peeling off with my tiny little fingers. And man, I made like five bucks that summer and it was the best summer ever. Yeah.
00:46:07
Speaker
Back then, that's back a couple of years ago. A couple of years ago. On the curing, the curing is very intensely garlic smelling. Yes. Yes. Like this. Yes. Like so we didn't want it in our garage, just a couple of nails we put up in the rafter or in the joist to...
00:46:31
Speaker
to hang them from and the whole garage smells like garlic, like the whole time it's curing. Really intense. I always like that smell, but it can get rather intense. Yeah. What other, so what other like places did you all do, do you all do the curing, garlic curing now or have in the past?
00:46:49
Speaker
just under the eve of a porch or someplace good, dry and hot under a tin roof. Preferably, if you have that, that was a traditional spot that you just hang it under like a porch roof away from rain splash. If you really want to confuse somebody, you can like put it, hang it in like a little closet and they'll be like, why does everything smell like garlic? Like everyone's confused. Everybody smells like garlic. Winter clothes and stuff. Whatever you're popping on your outer layer.
00:47:17
Speaker
Honestly, I'm good with smelling like garlic. Could be worse. It could be much, yeah, much worse. I've got a question to clarify. It's part of the process. You leave the roots on for the curing when it comes to storage. Do you cut the roots off before then or do you leave them on and only cut? Either way, I've not seen a huge difference. I've seen a lot of time in the field. I've taken scissors and trimmed them off right out of the dirt.
00:47:43
Speaker
And then cured it. I've done it both ways and I didn't see a huge, as long as I don't nick the bulb or get too close to the base of that bulb. I've not seen it have a huge impact either way. I think what we're getting at here is garlic is easy and there's very, it's not one of those things that like if you, if you mess up one part or you do it a little bit out of order.
00:48:03
Speaker
It's going to make a big deal as long as you're kind of following those first three things I already talked about, which is making sure you've got good drainage, making sure you're planting at the right time and that you're not going to over fertilize or essentially as long as you don't fertilize after May.
00:48:18
Speaker
You're, you really can't, you really can't go wrong. I don't want to jinx you or anything, but that's me of it. I mean, maybe I just like garlic so much, but the payoff is so great compared to, you know, like to have fresh garlic. And it's relatively insect free and disease free. There are a few, I mean, like onion maggots and a few other botratus and a few other diseases, but for the most part, it's pretty pest free. It's good in your rotation too. So they, they said it's an onion family, Lily AC and,
00:48:47
Speaker
So that's not, you know, that's a good thing to rotate with your tomatoes and your peppers and your, you know, all those other crops because it is in the different family. And, you know, of course you've, you've heard the episode about crop rotation. So I don't need to re-explain that, but it's something that you can incorporate, you know, easily, uh, if you're looking for something else and with it being winter, um, looking for something else to put in there.
00:49:12
Speaker
Yeah. I think that the only technical part really is the storage stuff. Like that's where it can get a little more challenging or you have to kind of figure out your system, but the growing. If you have an unheated, uncooled garage, I mean, just put it in there. That's going to be the closest approximation of a root cellar for most people. If it's an attached garage, it's going to be somewhat buffered. You don't want to get it to extremely cold, but yeah, that's probably the closest place you're going to have. If it's unheated, uncool, but if you've got that, then you've got it, you know. All right. Well, I'm going to end on a controversial note.
00:49:41
Speaker
Oh, man. You know, I'm a lightning rod for controversy. Oh, yes. No, no. Yeah. Well, then you don't know me at all. Here it comes. Here it comes. He lives for the controversy people. What about Jarlik?
00:49:59
Speaker
Is that like jean jars with garlic in the pocket? The minced garlic that comes in the jar or the tube. I like it. Is it a no-go? Is it a necessary evil? Do you have a passion for it? How do you feel? It's functional. It's not fun, but it's functional. It's my take on it. It has a place. It's just not my house. How much garlic I need. Yeah.
00:50:28
Speaker
I think I had convinced myself that it was as good.
00:50:35
Speaker
Oh, it's not. It's there is a huge difference, a bigger difference than I had allowed myself to believe. Right. And I don't even I like the milder garlic. Maybe that's why I tolerate it. Is I like a milder garlic? You know, I never thought about that bread. That's a great question because I didn't think about it. Maybe that's why I do like the you know, in oil minced garlic because it is kind of milder. It doesn't have the
00:50:59
Speaker
The knock that the harsher. I think it too, like it just comes back to something that I want to emphasize over and over again through this podcast. I think we have is in the same way that like it's very hip to like the anti-lon or anti-turf or whatever.
00:51:17
Speaker
There's a place for that. And if that gives you joy, then go for it. And I think it's the same way where it's kind of, granted, I speak for myself to say that I really do like it, but it is hip to the really spicy, strong-tasting garlic. It's like the IPA. Yeah, exactly. There you go. That's what I was thinking the last time. There is nothing wrong with a nice- I'm just a little bit wrong with it. That's fine. A nice American macro-blue-pilsner. Yeah. And so the same way with garlic. Is jar garlic like the Bud Light of the garlic world?
00:51:46
Speaker
It's the Micheloboltra. It's the Micheloboltra. I was going to go, like, Micheloboltra PBR, maybe something.
00:51:54
Speaker
Yeah. I have used it, but I definitely have gotten back into using fresh garlic and fresh ginger, particularly in making cuisines that rely on those. Nice. Dang. Add a little soy sauce, bango. You're already there. Awesome thing is at our farmer's markets, there's several farmers that grow garlic pretty consistently, and that's awesome to have that as a choice.
00:52:19
Speaker
If you love the fresh stuff, even if you don't want to grow it on your own, visit your local farmer's market and ask around to see who's growing garlic. I think you might be surprised in your local community, even though you may not be aware of anyone growing it now. If you ask around, you're probably going to find someone that has some garlic that may be for sale. And it lasts a long time, you know, so you can, you can buy it now and, um, well earlier, and then, you know, if you, if you really like it and you can plant it yourself in October right now.
00:52:49
Speaker
Grow the garlic. Go plant garlic. As soon as this episode ends, dig a hole. It does well in pots like Ray said, too. So you don't have a ton of space. Oh, it's great. I love it. You can do it in pots. And it's easy. So easy. And that one you can just pull out by hand if you're doing it in a pot or a raised bed. You do. You don't have to dig or anything. Just make sure to mulch a pot because the temperature fluctuations can be magnified.
00:53:11
Speaker
in containers, but leaves or some straw, that's a small area. Like Alexa said, in small areas like that, you can plant the bulbs much. I put them like two or three inches apart and they still be fine in pots. But yeah, that's one of my new favorite ways to grow those. Little risk, a big reward. Oh yeah. Good stuff, folks. Garlic, it's just so easy and the classes have been popular, so I know we have more people locally, at least in my county, growing garlic. They have sent me pictures, so. Putting the yum in allium.
00:53:41
Speaker
Oh, nice. Oh, he's been really thinking on that one. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it just came naturally. I don't think even I don't think about it. I think it was just there. I don't believe it. He had to cure a little bit. Yeah. Oh, nice. Humidity. Didn't take two to four weeks either. Didn't take four weeks for that to pop out. It does smell like garlic in here though now.
00:54:01
Speaker
Yeah, got a got a pungent aroma. I like seep garlic for days afterwards. Like everybody else, or is that just? Is that like cool? It like keeps bugs away and people away. My mom used to give feed the dogs garlic cloves when it was like really heavy tick season. Like, I mean, they had like tick stuff on them, but that was packing the day when stuff I feel like wasn't as good. And she'd feed them garlic cloves.
00:54:25
Speaker
Because she's like, aren't like alliums not cool for dogs? Maybe she built their tolerance over time. They lived a long time. So I don't know. There you go. I don't know. There's another old wife. They pulled up dead things all the time. It's fine. We are not doctors or veterinarians.
00:54:51
Speaker
Do not follow, although I do want to try this thing I saw where people, they pour honey over a crap ton of garlic and they let it steep, so to speak, for a while, and then that garlic honey is supposed to be good for you, and I have no research to back this up, but it sounds like something. Honey is one of the other materials found in the pyramids, and it was functionally, it could be eaten again. It essentially has no shelf life, per se.
00:55:19
Speaker
Brett, I listen, focaccia, but with garlic honey. And? I think, I think you, can you, would you make that? I can do that, yeah. There's a Nami's Country song in there somewhere. Can I make that request? Yeah, of course. Focaccia. I'm requesting. Requesting publicly, so if you all don't hear me come back on the pod with a report on how delicious it was, find him and get him after I'm before it. Yeah, get me.
00:55:48
Speaker
Give me. All right, folks. Well, we will.
00:55:51
Speaker
bring this all up and we're going to have some spooky season themed episodes coming up. So make sure you check those out. We hope that you had a great time today and make sure if you need anything, if you've got questions, if you've got ideas for a podcast, shoot them over to us at hortculturepodcastatl.uky.edu or you can send us a DM on Instagram hortculturepod and we will, by we probably me,
00:56:18
Speaker
will respond and let us know what you like, what you don't like, what you want more of.
Listener Engagement & Feedback
00:56:23
Speaker
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00:56:46
Speaker
All right, folks, we hope that as we grow this podcast, you will grow with us and we hope you join us next time. Have a great day.