How To Grow Your Hard Neck Garlic

by Team Ero

May 27, 2022

First, welcome to the wonderful world of garlic growing. As past Green Head Garlic clients can attest, growing garlic is a fun and rewarding hobby. One head of garlic broken into cloves can yield as many as nine plants the following year. Garlic is a crop that requires some special care when planting. In this article we will outline the 5 steps to ensure proper planting.

Purchase your planting stock from a reliable source. Buy a good quality garlic bulb from a reliable source. Seed garlic is specially selected for growing. You'll get better results than simply buying a bulb from the grocers, as this may have been treated with anti-growth chemicals.
Cloves should be planted in late October – Mid-November. In Kansas we like to plant our stock around Halloween through the second week of November. Cloves should always be planted with the pointed side up and the root-end down, just like when planting flower bulbs. Take a trowel and dig parallel furrows 2 inches deep and 1 foot apart. Space garlic cloves in the furrows 4 inches apart and cover them with soil so the surface is level once again, and then water in.
Choose the sunniest spot available to plant your garlic. Garlic does not like having wet feet. Proper drainage is a must to avoid such issues as root rot. Well-draining soil is best.
Break your bulb into cloves just before planting. For best results, only set aside the largest cloves for planting. A general rule of thumb, the larger the clove, the larger the head of garlic the following summer.

Fertilize your crop. Garlic is a heavy feeder and due to its long grow time, it is necessary to supplement the soil quite often. We recommend using a high nitrogen fertilizer at the time of planting to help root development. In the spring, fertilize every other week for best results. Insider tip, for optimal results we suggest alternating between store fertilizers and compost tea.
Water well but don't flood. Watering is important in the spring when the bulb is starting to swell.
Harvest time will be from late June to early August depending on the variety. The best time to harvest is when the stem is lying on the ground or for hard necked varieties, when most of the leaves have turned brown.