How to Grow Garlic: People have been using garlic for centuries.
Some use it to add spice to their food, others use it for medicinal purposes.
Fast forward to now, garlic is still as useful and widely used.
So, planting garlic in your home won’t be a bad idea.
With soil and a few items, we’ll show you how to grow garlic from a clove.
You don’t even need to own a garden.
All you need is the interest.
We’ll handle the know-how, and at the end of this post, you’ll know how to plant garlic in pots.
So, stick around and pay attention.
Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds.
Promise!
Contents
How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Garlic at Home
How to Grow Garlic Indoors?
1. Use Locally Grown Garlic
The reason for this choice is in two parts.
One is to know the type of garlic you have so you can cultivate it according to your region.
The second part is to be sure that you’re buying organic garlic.
The ‘conventional’ ones have been treated with chemicals to prevent them from sprouting.
This defeats our purpose.
There are two types of garlic: hard-neck and soft-neck.
For those who’s been asking
“can you grow garlic in containers during the winter?”
The answer is “yes”
But, you must use the hard-neck type because it grows in cold temperatures.
The soft-neck type prefers a mild temperature, so that’s the one we’ll be using for this purpose.
2. Prepare the Soil and Planting Conditions
Since we’re planting indoors and indoors, in a pot, we’ll have to put it where it’ll get a lot of suns.
The best soil for planting garlic in a pot is sandy loam.
So, keep that in mind when getting the soil.
It must also have good drainage.
Mix compost or manure to the soil to add nutrients before planting the garlic.
3. Use only fresh Garlic
It’s important to choose fresh organic garlic.
Preferably, buy from farm stalls or a local farmers’ market.
Remember, the cloves are what we’ll plant; consider the saying “you reap what you sow.”
One clove will germinate into a garlic plant.
Keep that in mind to know how many heads you’ll buy.
4. Put the Cloves in the Fridge
Garlic generally loves cold temperatures.
Since you’re planting indoors, put the cloves in the fridge for some weeks to mimic the cold temperature.
This lets the cloves flower, that is, grow ahead.
Alternatively, if you’re planting in the fall, you can plant the cloves in a pot and put them outside during the day.
Read Also – Best 16 Homemade Indoor Plant Food (Houseplant Organic Fertilizer)
5. Plant the Garlic
Break off the cloves from the garlic head. Be careful with that, ensuring that you don’t damage where it attaches to the head.
If it damages, that clove won’t grow.
Plant only the large cloves, it’s more efficient.
The smaller ones take as much space and will yield smaller bulbs.
You can use almost any container as a pot. Just make sure you put some holes at the bottom for drainage.
With the tip of the clove upward, push it 2 inches deep into the soil.
It’s best to plant one clove per container.
But if you’ll be planting more than one clove in a container, ensure they’re 2 inches apart to get the best result.
Cover the cloves with compost or well-prepared manure.
Then cover again with fertilizer.
6. Caring for the Garlic Plant
Water your plant often, only enough to keep the soil moist, so it can develop roots.
If the soil becomes sodden, it won’t grow well or may even rot.
So, don’t be generous with water.
Read Also – 13 Most Beautiful Flowering Shrubs to Plant Now in Front of Your House
7. Know when to Harvest
Your garlic plant will take 7 to 9 months to be ready for harvest.
You can harvest when the tops turn yellow and start to fall over, but before they’re dry.
Before digging up all the garlic you planted, dig up one first.
The head should have been divided into individual cloves.
It should also be covered with dry papery skin.
Be careful when harvesting, dig the bulb out, rather than pull it out.
Brush off excess soil, but don’t remove any roots or foliage.
Then leave them to dry thoroughly.
Let them cure in a shady, airy, and dry place for 2 weeks.
After then, they should be ready for storage.
Growing elephant garlic in pots is similar to this process.
However, they are species closer to onions than garlic.
The method of growing this type of garlic is beyond the scope of this article.
How to grow garlic in water is also similar to the process we explained above.
The difference is that you’ll use water instead of soil.
Kindly note; that people do this for the garlic greens, which are spicy and are used to cook too.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to grow garlic from a clove, will you try it?
You’ll agree it’s a simple enough process and anyone can do it.
Remember to expose the plants to lots of sunlight and wet them only sparingly.
If you follow the instructions carefully, in a few months, you won’t be buying garlic from the store anymore.
