Growing garlic in the home garden

ANGELINA COUNTY, Texas (KTRE) – Garlic is one in every of my spouse’s and my favourite additions when cooking. We’ll mince the garlic or press it and sauté it earlier than including meats or greens. Aside from getting the garlic odor on our arms, we like it.

Historically, garlic was mentioned in historic paperwork in Rome and Egypt. In the bible, Numbers chapter 11, the Israelites lamented the lack of garlic, amongst different meals, that they had whereas enslaved in Egypt. The first point out of garlic in America is by Peter Martyr, who states that Cortez ate it in Mexico. It was cultivated by the Choctaw Indians previous to 1775 and is talked about as a staple garden vegetable by American gardening authors in 1806.

Garlic doesn’t seem as standard an merchandise in the East Texas gardens that I’ve seen, but it surely definitely could be grown right here. A retired banker that I knew years in the past earlier than he handed away talked about how he needed to develop all sorts of garlic in his garden.

Fall is the time to plant garlic from cloves with an anticipated harvest the following spring. An extended, cool season crop. Plant every clove individually, pointed facet up, about 1 inch deep and 3-4 inches aside.

Garlic requires good soil and hates competitors from weeds. Plant in well-drained soil that has plenty of natural matter. It is probably not a good suggestion to develop garlic in typical garden soil. Consider raised beds in case your soil drains poorly.

Be positive to maintain weeds away as it isn’t as aggressive as different vegetation. Weeds drastically diminish garlic development. Mulching is very fascinating in a garlic mattress. The use of mulch will hamper weeds, add to the natural matter in your garden, and drastically help garlic manufacturing.

Water 1-2 inches per week. Fertility wants are comparatively small. Garlic solely wants some nitrogen fertilizer as soon as in the spring when the leaves are about 6-8 inches tall.

If your garlic begins to bud out and bloom, you’ll want to lower off the buds and any blooms you miss. These flowering constructions aren’t essentially the worst factor to occur however rob the bulbs of vitamins.

You’ll need to harvest when you may have 3-5 giant agency cloves. Garlic could be dried and saved for a very long time should you dry it totally in a well-ventilated space to forestall rot. Keep at round 75 levels F and away from any location with temperature swings.

Some varieties to attempt are California Early, California Softneck, French Mild Silverskin, Mexican Purple, New York White, and the better-known Elephant garlic. If you do determine to plant Elephant garlic, you’ll want to area the cloves additional aside in the garden to permit for satisfactory development.

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Cary Sims is the County Extension Agent for agriculture and pure assets for Angelina County. His e-mail tackle is [email protected].

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