Growing Garlic in the Pacific Northwest Is Sometimes Considered a Lost Cause Because Of

Growing garlic in the Pacific Northwest is sometimes considered a lost cause because of our wet conditions. BUT THIS IS JUST NOT TRUE! Follow a few simple rules and you can grow some of the best, “impress the neighbors” crop of garlic you’ve ever had. And it tastes so, so good!

#1. Start with good seed stock sourced locally. Even if you follow all the following steps to the letter, starting with good seed stock is the most important part of them all. What is good seed stock? Well it should be big. Big garlic begets big garlic and small garlic begets small garlic. It should also be grown as local to your conditions as possible. Garlic adapts to it’s growing conditions over time, so if you start with seed stock that has been grown in your climate than you are much better off than starting with seed stock grown somewhere far away, with much different weather.

#2 – Break up bulbs into individual cloves. Put aside any small cloves to eat (those will make small bulbs). If you notice cloves that have a “partial” split in them but aren’t totally split put those aside to eat as well. Those cloves will produce “twins, triplets or even quadruplets” which will reduce the size of the bulb. (This is most typical in rocambole varieties.). Plant the cloves, root side down, 4 inches apart into rows at least 4 inches apart. We plant rows that are 12 inches apart, for tractor cultivation. But home gardeners might prefer a more intensely planted bed.

#2. Plant in very well draining soil. Full or at least 70 percent sun please. If you don’t have well draining soil than make it – with raised beds. Garlic cannot tolerate standing “in wet” all winter. Those roots must be able to breathe. Sandy soil is great for garlic. If you have “clay muck” that is typical in the Pacific Northwest, than don’t worry, simply create a raised bed filled with sand, soil and compost.

#3 – Plant in the fall. Garlic is best planted in late September, October and by the end of November. It needs a long time to grow. Garlic typically harvests sometime between late June and the end of July (depending on the weather and the variety).

#4. Feed the garlic. We suggest planting with a slow release organic fertilizer. We use a pelleted chicken manure product. In the spring, you will want to either sidedress with more fertilizer or spray with a fish/kelp foliar spray. Make sure to do this when the garlic is actively growing green leaves but not too late, usually sometimes after about Feb. 1 and prior to May 1st is good in the Pacific Northwest.

#5 – Mulch the soil and keep well weeded. Garlic grows best with a thick mulch (it will push right through it in the spring) and this does double-duty of keeping weeds down. Garlic does not compete well with weeds – so keeping weeds out of field can really make difference in bulb size. We like to mulch with composted cow manure, at least 3 or 4 inches thick. You can use any sort of compost or even grass or hay clippings (just make sure it isn’t full of weed seeds!).

#6 – Remove the scapes. Sometime in mid May your hardneck varieties will throw a “seed scape.” Once it grows up and curls down, snap it off at the base. Then eat it!

#7 – Be careful not to overwater. Most years we don’t need to water our garlic in the Pacific Northwest (although if we have an extended dry period in Feb, March or April, you might want to water deeply once). We make sure not to water after the garlic scapes and hope it doesn’t rain too much as well (sometimes a lost cause…). How you handle your garlic harvest is critical for success. And after following step one through seven on growing garlic, AND having your garlic in the ground for 9 months (it’s like having a baby!), don’t throw away all your hard work at the end!

#1 - When to pull it: Watch your garlic closely starting late June and through July. Garlic is typically ready to harvest when about 60 percent of the leaves look brown but this can vary between varieties. We also check to make sure the neck is white (and not green) to the base of the garlic and that the garlic is “popped out” at the base, versus looking slightly top-shaped or elongated at the roots (which means it’s not quite ready yet.). This means we pull up a few early to look at them – don’t worry, you can still eat it! Just do it right away since those won’t keep…

#2 – Make sure you have enough wrappers. We also check how many green leaves we have left on the plant. Each leaf represents a wrapper around the bulb…if you let too many of them disintegrate than your cloves will “pop out” of their wrappers. We typically try to harvest with at least 5 good leaf wrappers on a plant, figuring at least one will be lost in the cleaning process, another in the drying process, leaving at least 3 good wrappers around the bulb.

#3 - Cleaning and curing. We clean the garlic as soon as we pull it by stripping off the first good outer leaf layer we can find, removing the dirt and any partially disintegrated leaves and leaving a nice clean bulb. Then we tie them up in bunches (we typically do 8 per) and hang the garlic someplace out of the sun where there is lots of good airflow and movement. We typically let the garlic hang about 2 to 4 weeks before cutting the bulbs off the neck and trimming the roots.

What to do if you get mold: It is very typical in the Pacific Northwest to get wet conditions during harvest/curing time. Improperly cured garlic means it will rot and that is a very sad thing! But not to worry, we have developed several strategies.

#1 – Do everything we said above about cleaning, tying and hanging garlic. If you leave it in the ground don’t expect to dig up perfect bulbs come October (if you can even find them!).

#2 – If you do everything above and still get mold (not untypical) remember warm and dry is your friend. Try putting the garlic outside during the day if it is warm and sunny (this will dry and cure up any mold spots on the outside wrappers). Bring back in at night, you don’t want it to pick up overnight dew. Make sure to feel the necks of your garlic, sometimes in really big bulbs, the inner “hardneck” stem can have a hard time getting cured. If they are feel wet and squishy if you hold them firmly in your first then they might be rotting. If so simply put the garlic in a very warm, dry room for a day (we have put them into a room with a wood stove and lit it. Left them overnight and problem solved).

#3 – Another option is, once the leaves have all browned off and yet the garlic bulb and neck itself might still feel somewhat damp, then cut the garlic off the necks, trim the roots and spread in thin layers somewhere in a dry, warm room. We put them in an enclosed room with a space heater and a dehumidifier. A few days in there and they are “finished” and will store in most regular conditions for 6 months or more.

Finally – don’t forget to save your biggest and best to replant and do this all over again next year!

Questions? Email us at [email protected].