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Thinking about planting garlic? Stop for just a few minutes! In this video, you'll learn the essential tips that can make the difference between small, disappointing bulbs and a large, healthy harvest.
We'll cover the most common garlic planting mistakes, the best time to plant, how deep to plant each clove, proper spacing, soil preparation, watering, and simple techniques that experienced gardeners use for bigger yields.
Whether you're planting in raised beds, containers, or directly in the ground, these easy tips will help your garlic thrive from planting day to harvest.
📌 In this video you'll learn:
The biggest garlic planting mistakes to avoid
When to plant garlic for the best results
How deep and how far apart to plant cloves
The best soil and fertilizer for healthy growth
Watering and mulching tips
How to grow large, flavorful garlic bulbs
If you enjoy practical gardening tips, be sure to Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss our latest videos!
#Garlic #Gardening #GrowGarlic #VegetableGarden #OrganicGardening #GardenTips #HomeGarden #GrowYourOwnFood #Backyar
Thinking about planting garlic? Stop for just a few minutes! In this video, you'll learn the essential tips that can make the difference between small, disappointing bulbs and a large, healthy harvest.
We'll cover the most common garlic planting mistakes, the best time to plant, how deep to plant each clove, proper spacing, soil preparation, watering, and simple techniques that experienced gardeners use for bigger yields.
Whether you're planting in raised beds, containers, or directly in the ground, these easy tips will help your garlic thrive from planting day to harvest.
📌 In this video you'll learn:
The biggest garlic planting mistakes to avoid
When to plant garlic for the best results
How deep and how far apart to plant cloves
The best soil and fertilizer for healthy growth
Watering and mulching tips
How to grow large, flavorful garlic bulbs
If you enjoy practical gardening tips, be sure to Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss our latest videos!
#Garlic #Gardening #GrowGarlic #VegetableGarden #OrganicGardening #GardenTips #HomeGarden #GrowYourOwnFood #Backyar
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Garlic is one of the most beloved things a body can grow, prized in near every kitchen and every country
00:06on earth.
00:07And here is the wonderful part.
00:10It is one of the easiest crops there is, and one of the most rewarding,
00:14for you plant a single clove, and it gives you back a whole head of a dozen.
00:20And once you have grown it, you need never buy garlic, nor even seed for it again, as long as
00:26you live.
00:26And yet, for all that ease, garlic confuses more first-time growers than near anything else in the garden,
00:34for there are a few things about it you truly must know before you put a clove in the ground,
00:40and folks who do not know them plant at the wrong time, or the wrong kind for their country, and
00:47get a poor crop and give up.
00:49So watch this before you plant your garlic, for I am going to tell you everything you need to grow
00:56the finest heads you ever pulled.
00:59My name is Elias Yoder, and I farm here in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania.
01:05And garlic holds a special place in my heart among all the crops, for it is about the most self
01:11-reliant thing you can grow.
01:13You buy it once, or a neighbor hands you a bulb over the fence, and from that day forward it
01:20plants itself forever,
01:22each year's crop giving you next year's seed, round and round, and you are done with the store for garlic,
01:29for good.
01:30There is not another crop quite so generous in that way.
01:33The garlic I plant every fall came down to me from my grandfather, who had it from his own father.
01:40The same line of garlic kept going on this ground longer than anyone can rightly say,
01:46replanted from its own best heads every single year for more years than I have been alive.
01:52When I break those heads apart of a cool fall afternoon, and kneel down to set the cloves in,
01:59I am planting the very same garlic my people planted a hundred years ago and more,
02:05and that is a thing that money cannot buy at any store.
02:09It is a small inheritance, a garlic, but it is a true one.
02:14Before I go on, I will say this once and then leave it be.
02:18I gathered the whole of it, all these old ways of growing your own food, into a book.
02:24You can find it at EliasYoder.com.
02:27The book is the long version.
02:29If you want it, it is there.
02:31I will not mention it again.
02:33Now the very first thing you must understand, before you plant anything,
02:38is that there are two great kinds of garlic,
02:40and choosing the right one for your country is half the battle.
02:45Folks skip this and plant whatever they grabbed, and it is the first mistake.
02:50So let me lay the two out plain.
02:52The first kind is the soft neck garlic.
02:55This is the common sort, the kind you most often see at the store,
03:00and it has a soft, bendable stem, no hard stalk up the middle,
03:04which is why the old timers could braid it into those long ropes to hang in the pantry.
03:09It grows a great many cloves to a head, more than the other kind,
03:14and it stores a wonderful long time, near a year if kept cool and dry,
03:19longer than any other garlic.
03:21It favors the warmer, milder country, and grows best where the winters are gentle.
03:27Its one shortcoming is that its flavor is a touch milder,
03:31less of that fierce, true garlic bite.
03:34If you are in a warm country, this is very likely your garlic, and a fine one.
03:40The second kind is the hard neck garlic,
03:42and this one has a hard, stiff stalk running right up through the center of the head,
03:47which you can feel plain.
03:49It grows fewer, but bigger, fatter cloves, easier to peel,
03:54and it has more of that strong, rich, spicy garlic flavor that folks prize.
03:59It also sends up in spring a curious, curling flower stalk we call the scape,
04:05which you cut off and eat, a whole bonus crop in itself,
04:09tender and mild and lovely in the pan.
04:12Now, the hard neck loves the cold.
04:15It is a creature of the northern country,
04:17and where the winters are hard and long, like mine here,
04:21the hard neck is king and grows beautifully.
04:24It stores a little less long than the soft neck,
04:27six or eight months rather than a year,
04:30but for flavor, it cannot be beat.
04:32So there is your first and most important choice.
04:35In the cold northern country, grow hard neck.
04:38In the warm, mild country, grow soft neck.
04:41Get that right, suited to your own place,
04:44and you have won half the battle before you ever touch a clove.
04:48Now this brings me to the one thing about garlic
04:51that trips up more folks than all else,
04:54and you must understand it,
04:56so hear me close,
04:57for it explains everything about when and how you plant.
05:02Garlic, and the hard neck especially,
05:04must have a good long spell of cold to grow a proper head.
05:08It will not form a fine full bulb without it.
05:12That clove needs to sit in the cold ground through the winter,
05:16chilled for a good long stretch,
05:18and it is that cold that tells it to divide
05:20and make a whole head of cloves come the following summer.
05:24Without its cold spell,
05:26a garlic clove will often just grow into one single round bulb,
05:30no cloves at all,
05:32or a poor small head.
05:34The cold is not the enemy of garlic.
05:37The cold is the very thing that makes it.
05:39And that one fact tells you exactly when to plant,
05:43which is the next great thing folks get wrong.
05:45You do not plant garlic in the spring,
05:48like most everything else.
05:50You plant it in the fall.
05:51You get it in the ground a few weeks
05:54before the hard cold of winter sets in,
05:56so that it has time to root down and settle before the freeze.
06:00And then it sits through the whole winter,
06:03taking its long cold spell right there in the ground,
06:06exactly as it wants.
06:08And come the warmth of spring,
06:10it leaps up and grows,
06:12and heads up beautifully by mid-summer.
06:15Fall planting.
06:16So the winter gives it its cold.
06:18That is the natural way,
06:20the easy way,
06:21and in the cold country,
06:22it is the only way that makes sense.
06:25Plant in the fall,
06:26a few weeks ahead of the hard freeze,
06:29and let the winter do the work.
06:31Now here is an honest word
06:32for my friends in the warm country,
06:34where the winter never truly turns hard and cold.
06:38You have a harder time of it with the hard neck,
06:41for your mild winter may never give that garlic
06:43the long cold spell it needs,
06:46and it will head up poorly.
06:47So I will tell you the plain truth,
06:49rather than a fancy trick.
06:51Your wiser course, by far,
06:53is to grow the soft neck garlic
06:55that suits your warm country
06:57and asks less cold to begin with.
07:00That is the honest answer.
07:02Grow the kind made for your place.
07:04If you are set on a hard neck in a warm land,
07:07the old way to give a clove its cold
07:09was to hold it a good while
07:11in the coldest place you have,
07:13a deep cold cellar,
07:15or a spring house through the coldest weeks,
07:17before planting it out
07:19at your coldest time of year.
07:20But I will be straight.
07:22It is finicky,
07:23and often disappointing,
07:25and for most warm country folks,
07:27the sensible path is simply
07:29to grow the soft neck.
07:30Suit the garlic to your country,
07:32and save yourself the grief.
07:34So now you know your kind,
07:36and you know your season.
07:37Let us prepare the bed,
07:39for garlic is particular about its ground,
07:41and rewards you well for getting it right.
07:44Garlic wants two things above all in a bed,
07:47good sun and good soil.
07:50Choose a spot in full sun,
07:52for garlic loves it and wants all it can get,
07:54though in the very hottest country,
07:56a little shade through the fiercest part of the day
07:59does no harm.
08:00And the soil, this matters greatly,
08:03must be loose, rich,
08:04and above all well draining,
08:06for garlic sitting in cold, heavy, wet ground
08:09through the winter,
08:10is garlic that will rot, or take disease.
08:13I will tell you plainly,
08:15the commonest way folks lose a garlic crop,
08:18is planting it too close together
08:20in heavy, wet, airless soil,
08:22where disease creeps in,
08:24and can wipe out the whole bed.
08:26Do not let that be you.
08:28So work your bed deep and loose,
08:30break up any heavy clay,
08:32and work in a generous, generous helping
08:34of good compost,
08:36and old, rotted manure.
08:37For garlic is a hungry plant,
08:40and can scarcely have too much rich compost.
08:43Loosen it deep,
08:44clear out the weeds,
08:45and the old roots,
08:46and the stones,
08:47for garlic hates to compete with anything,
08:50and make it rich,
08:51and loose,
08:51and open.
08:52A well-made bed is most of a good crop.
08:55Now to the planting itself,
08:57and here is where folks make a plain,
08:59and costly mistake,
09:01so pay heed.
09:02You do not plant the whole head of garlic,
09:04you break it up,
09:05and plant the single cloves,
09:07each one on its own,
09:09for each single clove
09:10is what grows into a whole new head.
09:13So you take your bulb,
09:15and you gently break it apart
09:16into its separate cloves,
09:18and here is a small, careful thing.
09:21Try to leave that papery skin
09:22on each clove as you separate it,
09:25for that skin is a bit of protection
09:27for it in the ground,
09:29so do not peel them bare,
09:31just pop them apart.
09:32And now, choosing which cloves to plant,
09:35there is a simple rule worth gold.
09:38The bigger the clove you plant,
09:40the bigger the head it grows.
09:42So plant your largest,
09:43fattest, soundest cloves,
09:45and they will give you
09:47the biggest heads next summer.
09:49The small, thin cloves
09:50from the center of the head,
09:52you can still plant
09:53if you have the room.
09:54They will just give smaller heads.
09:56But if you must choose,
09:58plant the big ones.
09:59And do not throw those little cloves away,
10:02for here is a fine, thrifty trick.
10:05Take your smallest, leftover cloves,
10:07and plant them close together
10:09in a pot or a corner,
10:11crowded right up,
10:12not for heads,
10:14but for their green tops.
10:15And in a few weeks,
10:16they send up tender green shoots
10:19you can snip and eat
10:20like a garlic-flavored green onion,
10:23what folks call green garlic,
10:25a lovely thing in the kitchen
10:26through the winter.
10:27So no clove need go to waste.
10:30The big ones for heads,
10:32the little ones for greens.
10:34Now to set the clove in the ground,
10:36and there is one rule here
10:37you must not get wrong,
10:39or you will ruin the head.
10:41The clove must go in
10:43pointy side up.
10:44Look at a clove,
10:45and you will see
10:46it has a flat, rough end
10:48where it was joined
10:49to the base of the head,
10:50and a pointed end at the top.
10:53The point is where
10:54the green shoot comes up,
10:55and the flat base
10:56is where the roots come down.
10:58So it must go in
10:59point up, base down,
11:01the way it means to grow.
11:03Plant it upside down,
11:05point buried, and base up,
11:07and the poor shoot
11:08has to turn itself
11:09all the way around underground
11:11to reach the surface,
11:12and it comes up twisted,
11:14and the head grows malformed.
11:16So, point up always.
11:18Push each clove
11:20down into the loose soil
11:22a good three or four inches deep,
11:24point up,
11:25and firm the soil over it.
11:27And give them room,
11:28for as I said,
11:30garlic hates to compete,
11:31and crowding breeds disease.
11:34Set your cloves
11:35a good six inches apart
11:36from one another,
11:37every way,
11:38and if your ground
11:39is at all prone
11:40to damp or disease,
11:42spread them wider still,
11:44eight inches,
11:45to let the air move freely
11:46between the plants
11:47and keep them healthy.
11:49Better a smaller row
11:50of big healthy heads
11:52than a crowded bed
11:53that rots.
11:54Space them well.
11:56Now the very last step,
11:58and do not skip it,
11:59for it matters more in garlic
12:01than in most things.
12:02Once your cloves
12:03are all planted,
12:04cover the whole bed over
12:06with a good thick blanket
12:07of mulch,
12:08straw,
12:09or shredded leaves,
12:10a good three or four inches deep.
12:12That mulch does a world of good
12:15for an overwintering garlic bed.
12:17It blankets the soil
12:18and steadies the cold,
12:20protecting the newly planted cloves
12:22from being heaved right up
12:24out of the ground
12:24by the freezing and thawing,
12:26which is a real danger
12:27to a fall planting.
12:29It holds the moisture even.
12:31It keeps the weeds down
12:33come spring,
12:34so your garlic need not compete.
12:36And a light-colored straw mulch
12:38reflects the sun
12:39and keeps the soil cool later on,
12:42which the garlic wants
12:43until it is ready to head up.
12:45So mulch it well,
12:47and then you leave it be
12:48for the winter
12:48and rest easy,
12:50for the garlic is doing
12:51its slow, cold work
12:53down there under the blanket
12:55while the rest of the garden sleeps.
12:57Let me say a plain word
12:59about the whole circle of it,
13:00the part that makes garlic
13:02the most self-reliant crop there is,
13:04for this is the true beauty
13:06of the thing.
13:07When you pull your garlic next summer,
13:10big and full and cured,
13:12you set aside a few
13:13of your very best,
13:14biggest heads,
13:15and you do not eat those.
13:17You keep them back.
13:19And come the fall,
13:20you break those best heads
13:22into cloves
13:22and plant them again,
13:24exactly as you did this year.
13:26And so your own garden
13:27grows your own seed forever,
13:30each year's finest heads,
13:32planting the next year's crop.
13:33And every year,
13:35if you always save back
13:36and replant your biggest and best,
13:38your garlic grows a little better suited
13:41to your own ground
13:42and a little finer.
13:43You buy garlic one time in your life
13:46or take a bulb from a neighbor,
13:48and from that day,
13:49you are free of ever buying it again,
13:52seed and crop both,
13:53for as long as you care to grow it.
13:56And that brings me to
13:57who profits from you
13:58not knowing all this.
14:00And it is no dark scheme.
14:01Think on it.
14:03Garlic is a thing you buy at the store
14:05week after week,
14:06all your life,
14:07and it is not cheap,
14:09especially the good kinds.
14:11And there is no money at all
14:12in a man learning
14:13that a single head planted once
14:16would give him all the garlic
14:17he could ever eat forever
14:19and all the seed to grow it
14:21for nothing.
14:23Nobody earns a wage
14:24teaching you that garlic
14:25plants itself for life
14:27off one bulb.
14:28There is no repeat sale in it,
14:30no bag to sell again next week.
14:33So folks go on
14:34buying their garlic by the head
14:36week after week,
14:37year upon year,
14:39never knowing that
14:40one fall afternoon
14:41with a few cloves
14:42and a bed of mulch
14:43would have set them
14:44free of it for good.
14:46It is not hidden.
14:47It is only never taught.
14:49For your freedom on garlic
14:50is the store's
14:51small, steady loss.
14:53The money runs
14:54toward the head on the shelf
14:55and away from the clove
14:57in your own ground,
14:58and it always has.
15:00So there is the whole of it,
15:02everything you need
15:03before you plant.
15:04Choose your kind
15:05for your country,
15:06hard neck for the cold lands,
15:08soft neck for the warm.
15:10Know that garlic
15:11must have its long
15:12cold spell
15:13to head upright,
15:14which is why you
15:14plant it in the fall
15:16and let the winter
15:17chill it,
15:17not in the spring.
15:19Make your bed
15:19in full sun,
15:21loose and rich,
15:22and above all
15:23well draining,
15:24worked full of compost,
15:25for wet, crowded ground
15:27is what loses a crop.
15:29Break your bulb
15:30into cloves,
15:31plant the biggest
15:32for the biggest heads,
15:33and pot up the little ones
15:34for green garlic.
15:36Set each clove point up
15:37three or four inches deep,
15:39a good six inches apart,
15:41and more
15:42if your ground stays damp.
15:43Blanket the whole bed
15:45in a thick mulch
15:46for the winter.
15:47And when you harvest,
15:48save back your best heads
15:49to plant again,
15:50and you need
15:51never buy garlic
15:52another day of your life.
15:54Tell me down in the comments
15:55what county you garden in,
15:57and whether you grow
15:58the hard neck
15:59or the soft neck,
16:00and how it does for you
16:01in your country.
16:02For garlic is one
16:03of those crops
16:04where the local knowledge
16:05is worth everything,
16:06and another grower
16:07in your same region
16:09would dearly love
16:10to know what works for you.
16:11And if you have grown garlic
16:13for years
16:13and save your own seed,
16:15tell me how long
16:16your line has been going,
16:17for I love to hear
16:18of a garlic
16:19kept in a family
16:20or a place
16:21for many years.
16:22Next time out here,
16:23I want to show you
16:24how to build
16:24a proper compost pile
16:26the old way,
16:27layer upon layer,
16:28so that you can make
16:29the rich black compost
16:31that a hungry garlic bed
16:33once worked deep into it.
16:34For as I told you,
16:36garlic can scarcely
16:37have too much good compost,
16:39and that pile
16:40is how you give it
16:41all it wants
16:42for nothing.
16:42It is the foundation
16:44under all of it,
16:45and it is past time
16:46I showed you.
16:47But for now,
16:48remember this.
16:49Garlic teaches a thing
16:50worth knowing
16:51that the hardest season
16:53is often the one
16:54that makes us.
16:55That clove
16:55does not merely survive
16:57the long cold winter,
16:58it needs it.
16:59It is the cold
17:00and the dark
17:01and the waiting
17:02that turn one clove
17:03into a whole full head.
17:05So it is
17:06with a good many things
17:07in this life.
17:08Plant your garlic
17:09in the fall,
17:10let the winter
17:10do its work,
17:11and trust that
17:12what looks like
17:13the dead season
17:14is the very time
17:15the good is being made.
17:17The people who built
17:18this country
17:18with their hands
17:19knew that,
17:20and we are only
17:21just starting to remember it.
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