How to grow garlic

Wait until 1–2 weeks before planting to split (crack) the bulbs into single cloves — cracked too early, the cloves dry out and lose their strength.

Split each bulb by hand and keep only the big, plump outer cloves. Clove size decides bulb size, so the biggest cloves are your best seed; set the small inner cloves aside for the kitchen.

Throw out any clove that is soft, shrivelled, mouldy, or has brown sunken spots or a rotten base. Look for grey-white fluffy mould or tiny black specks at the base plate (the flat root-plate at the bottom of the clove) — a sign of white rot, a soil fungus that rots the roots and base — and any oddly soft, spongy clove, a sign of stem-and-bulb nematode, a tiny worm that bloats and twists the plant.

Keep the picked seed cloves in a cool, dry, airy place and plant them within a few days — don't leave them peeled or lying in the sun, where they dry out and weaken.

Do this only if you farm in a warm or low area (or are planting outside the cool season). In the cool highlands you can skip it — the field is already cold enough to do the job.

Starting about 6–8 weeks before planting, keep your selected seed cloves cold — around 0–10 °C — for several weeks. A cool store, a clay pot in the coolest room, or the lower part of a fridge all work.

Keep them dry and airy while they chill — never wet or sealed in plastic, or they rot before they reach the soil.

Take them out and plant them at your normal planting time; the cold spell has already told them to make a proper divided bulb.

Choose a well-drained spot that has not grown garlic or onions for 3–4 years — this breaks the build-up of white rot and nematode that gather in soil under Allium (the onion-and-garlic family).

In the 2–3 weeks before planting, dig the bed over about a spade's depth and break the clods to a fine, crumbly tilth (loose, soft soil) so the shallow roots spread easily. Sandy loam or ordinary loam is best; heavy soil must be loosened well and raised so water drains away.

Work in plenty of well-rotted manure or compost — dark, crumbly, no strong smell — spread as an even dressing and forked in, not left in lumps or piles. Fresh manure burns the roots and brings weed seeds, so it must be fully rotted first.

Mix in the sulphur and base fertiliser your recommendation gives, spread evenly through the topsoil. Sulphur is garlic's signature nutrient — it drives both the yield and the sharp taste, so don't leave it out.

On flat or heavy ground, raise the bed or make ridges so rain drains off — garlic sitting in water rots at the base.

Plant into a moist bed — damp enough that a squeezed handful of soil holds together but isn't muddy. If it is dry, water the day before.

Set each clove tip (pointed end) up, flat root-plate down — the shoot grows from the tip, so an upside-down clove wastes its strength curving around and makes a bent bulb.

Push each clove in one finger-joint deep (3–5 cm), the tip just covered — a little deeper in sandy soil, shallower in heavy soil.

Space the cloves about one and a half hand-spans between rows (30 cm) and half a hand-span along the row (10 cm) — a hand-span being the stretch from thumb to little finger, about 20 cm.

Place the base fertiliser — phosphorus, sulphur and a little starter nitrogen, the amount your recommendation gives — worked into the bed or banded just below the cloves, not touching them.

Firm the soil over each clove so it sits snugly in moist earth, and keep the bed evenly moist, since the roots are shallow and dry out fast.

From planting through the first 3 weeks, keep the topsoil evenly moist — damp, never soggy.

Water little and often: every 4–6 days, and more often on sandy soil or in heat that dries the surface quickly.

Check with a finger — water once the top few centimetres feel dry, before the surface bakes into a hard crust.

Don't flood the bed. Garlic rots in standing water, so drain any spot where water pools.

As soon as the young green shoots break through (about 1–2 weeks after planting), start weeding — don't wait for the weeds to get ahead.

Pull weeds by hand or hoe very shallowly between the plants; garlic roots sit just under the surface and are easily cut.

Take special care right next to each plant — loosen weeds gently by hand rather than chopping in deep.

In dry areas, leave the pulled weeds lying between the rows as a light mulch to hold moisture.

Give the first feed about 3 weeks after planting, once the leaves are actively growing, and the second about 3 weeks after that (by around 6–8 weeks after planting) — never all in one go.

Use the nitrogen-with-sulphur amount from your recommendation. A sulphur-containing fertiliser feeds both needs at once and sharpens the garlic taste.

Band it in a shallow line to the side of the row, not on top of the plants, then cover it or water it in so it doesn't gas off into the air or scorch the leaves.

Feed onto moist soil, after a weeding or a light rain, so it moves down to the roots.

Watch the leaves for hunger: pale, yellowing young leaves point to a shortage of sulphur; pale older, lower leaves point to a shortage of nitrogen — either one is your cue that the crop needs its feed.

Weed every 10–14 days from about 3 weeks after planting — little and often beats one big rescue.

Hoe or pull shallowly. Garlic roots sit just below the surface; deep hoeing cuts them and stunts the plant.

Be gentlest right beside each plant — flick out those weeds by hand rather than driving a hoe in close.

In dry weather, lay the pulled weeds between the rows as a mulch to keep the soil moist.

Walk the crop twice a week (every 3–4 days), starting from about 3 weeks after planting. Don't only check the row nearest the path — walk right across the bed and stop at several spots, so a patch building up in the middle doesn't hide from you.

At each spot, part the leaves on a few plants and look for the thrips: tiny pale-yellow to brown slivers, smaller than a rice grain, that slide into cover when disturbed. They shelter in the leaf folds and where the leaf wraps around the stem — check those hidden spots first.

Look for their damage too: silvery-white streaks and blotches on the leaves where they have scraped the surface away. The silvering stays even after the thrips move on, so it's the live thrips you count — treat when you are finding about 1–3 thrips on most leaves you check.

While you are down there, also look for dark, sunken purple-brown blotches ringed with yellow on the leaves (purple blotch, a leaf fungus that spreads in warm, humid, dewy weather) and small orange-brown powdery spots (rust, another leaf fungus).

And look for any plant that is oddly soft, stunted, yellowing or twisted — pull one and check below ground: a bloated, spongy base or a rotten root-plate points to nematode (a tiny worm) or base rot.

If thrips are over the treat level, spray a recommended product in the cool of the day, and rotate to a different chemical group each time you spray so the thrips don't become immune (resistant) to it. If you scout and stay under the level → don't spray; just keep watching.

From about 10 weeks after planting until roughly 20 weeks, keep the soil steadily moist right through bulb swelling — never let the crop wilt.

Water every 5–7 days, and more often in heat or on sandy soil that dries fast.

Check with a finger and water before the plants show any thirst; a dry check at bulbing costs you bulb size you can't get back.

Keep it evenly moist — big swings from bone-dry to flooded make the bulbs split and crack.

By about 10–11 weeks after planting, once bulbing has begun, stop the heavy nitrogen feeds.

Any remaining need is for sulphur (S) and potassium (K) — the finishing nutrients that firm the bulb and sharpen the taste — not more nitrogen.

Let the plant now put its strength into swelling and firming the bulb rather than growing more leaf.

Keep walking the crop twice a week (every 3–4 days) right through bulbing, stopping at several spots across the whole bed, not just the edge nearest the path.

Look for the tiny pale slivers in the leaf folds and stem joints, and the silvery streaking on the leaves they have rasped — treat at about 1–3 thrips per leaf.

Keep looking for the dark purple-brown blotches ringed with yellow of purple blotch, which thrips wounds make worse in warm, humid weather — the more thrips damage, the more blotch.

When you spray, rotate to a different chemical group each time, cover your skin, nose and eyes, spray in the cool with the wind behind you and away from food, respect the label's pre-harvest interval (the wait-days before eating the crop), and wash well after.

About 2–3 weeks before you expect to lift (roughly 20–23 weeks after planting), once the lower leaves are yellowing, stop watering.

Let the soil dry down so the bulbs firm up and their outer skins tighten into a dry, papery wrapper.

Watch the tops: when about a third to a half of the leaves have yellowed and flopped over, and the necks have gone soft, the crop is nearly ready to lift.

If your area gets late rain, drain the bed well — you want the soil drying, not soaking, into harvest.

Lift when most of the tops have yellowed and fallen and the necks are soft — around 21–26 weeks after planting. First dig one test bulb: it is ready when the cloves are well-divided and the outer wrapper skins are tight and papery.

If the test bulb's cloves are still not divided, or the skins are thin and soft → it is not ready. Wait a few more days and test another bulb before you lift the whole crop.

When it is ready, loosen the soil with a fork a little way from the row, then ease each bulb out by hand — don't yank the tops, or you tear the bulb or snap the neck.

Handle them like eggs: don't drop, throw or bang the bulbs together — every bruise turns into rot later.

Set aside any bulb that is soft or rotten at the base plate (a sign of fusarium basal rot, a fungus that rots the root-plate) — don't cure or store it, and keep it away from the healthy ones.

Don't wash the bulbs; brush off the loose soil gently, leave the tops and roots on for now, and move them out of the hot sun to a shady, airy place to cure — never leave them baking in the field.

Right after lifting, cure the whole plants — tops, bulbs and roots still on — for 2–4 weeks in a dry, shady, airy place. Hang them in bunches or lay them in a single layer on racks; never cure in direct sun (it scalds) or in a damp, closed room (it rots).

Good airflow is everything — spread them out so air moves around every bulb, and turn them now and then if they are in a pile.

The cure is done when the necks and outer skins are fully dry — the neck is tight and papery, not soft or juicy, and the outer wrappers rustle like paper (usually after 2–4 weeks).

If the necks are still soft or the skins are damp after that → the bulbs are not ready. Keep curing in a drier, airier spot and do not bag them up yet — storing them wet is the fastest way to lose the crop.

Once fully dry, trim the roots and cut the tops (or plait them), rub off the loose outer skins and any soil, and grade the bulbs by size — but leave enough tight wrapper skins on to protect each bulb.

Store the cured bulbs cool, dry and airy — in nets, plaits or open baskets off the floor — never in sealed plastic, which traps damp and rots them.

Set aside your biggest, healthiest bulbs as next season's seed cloves, and store them separately so they don't get eaten or sold.