How to grow garlic with less labor
... and stay off your knees

     Nook & Cranny Farm is not organic.  I use commercial fertilizers in my little fields to grow the produce for the food bank.  In the garlic I use commercial delayed release fertilizer so the garlic gets a boost the following spring and early summer when it needs it most.  It's expensive yet it allows me to lay the fertilizer along the row at planting time in the late fall.  So it's a one step effort for efficiency and I'm able to focus on weeding during the garlic growing time. 

     

Here is a basic 1,2,3 ... work flow of how I grow garlic:

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October/Early November

     1.  Rows are tilled up with a small 4 foot wide rotavator.

     2.  The delayed release fertilizer is applied from a tractor spreader as a wide band where the garlic will be planted.

     3.  The fertilizer is worked into the soil again using the rotavator

     4.  A vegetable farm type plastic mulch layer forms an elevated row (a hill) with biodegradable plastic mulch stretched along the top.

     5.  A tractor mounted "hole puncher" is then driven along the rows to create planting holes.

     6.  The hardneck garlic seed is prepped from the previous crop by breaking apart the garlic bulbs and selecting the best cloves.

     7.  Each clove is then planted manually while laying down on my cart to ensure proper positioning for hardneck garlic seed - butt down, pointed end up.  No machine can do that.

     8.  Finally I use a modified feed wagon to spread a mixture of leaf compost over the rows to fill in the holes covering the hardneck garlic seed cloves.

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Spring / Early Summer

     9.  Hand weeding is started when necessary. Again my cart makes it easier than the "on your knees" weeding normally a part of how to grow garlic.

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Late June:

     10.  A tractor mounted "lifter" is ran down the row under the garlic plants.  It loosens the soil allowing easier harvest of the plants.

     11.  Each garlic plant is pulled up by hand, gently shaken to remove excess dirt and transported to a drying room in my barn.

     12.  The plants are stacked on shelves with the bulbs pointing out and a continuously running fan moves air through the area.

     13. After about 3 weeks of drying time the tops are cut down, the bulbs cleaned and the roots are trimmed off.

     14. The bulbs are sorted individually by size and quality into groups for hardneck garlic seed sale, seed for the next crop and culinary use.

     

      How to grow garlic can be as hard or as easy as you make it. In place of labor expense I chose equipment expense. I can work by myself, on my schedule and in my own way.