How to grow garlic

1. • Frozen hard. Hardneck is the safer choice. Some softnecks, such as Inchelium Red, do well in all but the coldest gardens.
   • Frost, then thaw. The picker matches one to your kitchen.
   • Rare frost. Choose Artichoke, Silverskin or Creole garlic.
2. Don't plant grocery-store garlic. It may be treated so it won't sprout, and it can bring disease into your soil. Buy seed garlic from a garlic grower, seed catalog or nursery.
3. For a 4 by 8 ft bed in four rows, buy about 1.5 lb of hardneck or 1 to 1.25 lb of softneck, twice that on a 6-inch grid. Ask the seller whether the stock is free of white rot and bloat nematode.
4. When it arrives, set aside any bulb that is soft, moldy or bruised. Keep the rest whole in the coolest dry room you have, ideally 50 to 60°F, not the fridge.
   • Rare frost. Where frost is rare, a few weeks in the fridge before planting can help cloves sprout, but never for months.
5. Sold out? Local nurseries, garden centers and farmers markets often have seed garlic in September and October.

1. Choose your sunniest spot, with at least 6 hours of direct sun and 8 if you can, where water never stands in winter or spring.
2. On heavy clay or wet ground, build a raised bed 10 to 12 inches high.
3. Loosen the soil 8 inches deep and mix in about an inch of finished compost.
4. Test the soil if you can. If the pH is below 5.8, add the lime the report suggests. With no test, mix in 1.25 to 2 cups of 10-10-10 per 4 by 8 bed.
5. Skip any spot that grew garlic, onions, leeks, shallots or chives in the last 3 to 4 years, and clear out perennial weeds first.

1. On planting day, break the bulbs into cloves. Plant the biggest, firmest ones, skin on, and cook with the rest.
2. • Frozen hard. Set each clove pointed end up, with 2 to 3 inches of soil over the tip.
   • Frost, then thaw. Set each clove pointed end up, with about 2 inches of soil over the tip.
   • Rare frost. Set each clove pointed end up, with 1 to 1.5 inches of soil over the tip.
3. Space cloves 6 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart, or on a 6-inch grid in a raised bed. Water the bed if the soil is dry.
4. • Frozen hard. Once the ground starts to freeze, cover the bed with 3 to 6 inches of straw or shredded leaves. Not hay, which brings weed seed.
   • Frost, then thaw. Cover the bed with 3 to 6 inches of straw or shredded leaves. Not hay, which brings weed seed.
   • Rare frost. Mulch is optional. If you use it, spread 2 to 3 inches of straw once shoots are up, kept 2 to 3 inches from the stems.
5. Growing in a pot? Use one at least 8 inches deep, with drainage holes, filled with potting mix.
   • Frozen hard. For winter, sink the pot in the ground, or set it against a north or east wall and pack straw around it.

In a field trial, the biggest cloves gave about a quarter more garlic than the smallest.

1. Green shoots in fall or in a warm spell are normal. Leave them alone.
2. If shoots are up and hard cold returns with no snow on the ground, add one more layer of mulch.
3. On a windy site, weigh the straw down with branches.

1. In early spring, once hard freezes are over, pull the mulch off the rows and tuck it between them.
2. • Frozen hard. Scatter about 1/3 cup of 21-0-0 beside the rows of a 4 by 8 bed and scratch it in. You can repeat with half that 2 to 3 weeks later.
   • Frost, then thaw. Scatter about 1/3 cup of 21-0-0 beside the rows of a 4 by 8 bed and scratch it in. You can repeat with half that 2 to 3 weeks later.
   • Rare frost. In late winter, scatter about 1/3 cup of 21-0-0 beside the rows of a 4 by 8 bed and scratch it in. Repeat with half that 3 to 4 weeks later.
3. • Frozen hard. Give the last feeding by early May, before the bulbs start to swell.
   • Frost, then thaw. Give the last feeding in April, before the bulbs start to swell.
   • Rare frost. Give the last feeding by early April, before the bulbs start to swell.
   Skip feeding if the plants are deep green after a compost-rich bed.
4. Water an inch a week when rain falls short, about 20 gallons for a 4 by 8 bed, soaking deeply.
5. Keep the bed free of weeds. Pull them while they're under an inch tall, and hoe only shallowly.

21-0-0 is ammonium sulfate, so it also supplies sulfur. In a field trial, sulfur made garlic more pungent.

1. Snap or cut each scape once it curls, anywhere from the first curl to a full loop, before it straightens and turns woody. Take it where it leaves the top leaf.
2. Eat them like green onions: raw, in pesto, or stir-fried.
3. Removing scapes matters most on poor or lightly fed soil, where the bulbs come out noticeably bigger.

In a three-year trial, cutting scapes before they made half a turn gave a bigger total crop than leaving them on.

1. When the lower leaves start to yellow, stop watering.
2. Dig one bulb and cut it across. When the cloves fill their skins, it's time.
3. Lift when a third to a half of the leaves have died back and at least three still have no brown tips. Early beats late, when bulbs split and store poorly.
4. Loosen the soil with a fork, then lift. Don't pull by the stem or wash the bulbs.
5. Move them into shade right away. Don't leave dug bulbs lying in hot sun.

1. Hang small bundles, or spread them one layer deep, in shade with moving air, out of rain and below about 90°F, leaves and roots on. To braid softnecks, wait 2 to 3 days, braid while the leaves still bend, then hang the braid to cure.
2. Expect anywhere from 10 days to 6 weeks, longer when it's humid.
3. Once cured, trim unbraided bulbs: stems to about an inch, roots to 1/4 inch. Keep the papery wrappers on.
4. Store bulbs whole in a mesh bag or basket somewhere dark, dry and airy. Near 60°F they keep 3 to 5 months; at warm room temperature, 1 to 2. Not in the fridge, where cloves sprout fastest.
5. Eat hardnecks first; softnecks keep longer. Garlic in oil must go in the fridge and be used within 2 to 3 days, or frozen.

1. Set aside your biggest, healthiest bulbs with firm, unbroken wrappers. To replant the same bed, keep at least a quarter of the harvest by weight.
2. Keep them whole, dry and airy, in the coolest room you have, ideally 50 to 60°F, until planting day.
3. Never save garlic from plants that rotted, grew white mold or stunted, or from any bed where white rot, bloat nematode or basal rot showed up. Start again with clean seed.
4. Round bulbs with no cloves can be replanted. They usually split into a full bulb the next year.

Seed held for months near 40°F, as in a fridge, makes rough bulbs with side shoots and ripens early.