A lot of people love to eat garlic despite it’s very strong scent. In fact real garlic aficionados supposed that once you have tasted the homespun garlic, you will never eat a store-bought bulb again.
It takes about eight months for a garlic to mature. It’s quite long, yet we can do nothing but wait this longer or else do some other thing instead.
If you are interested in learning how to grow garlic at home, consider the following steps and procedures provided in this guide.
Step 1: Purchase garlic bulbs from a nursery. It’s best to get these in the late fall or early winter for them to be ideal.
Step 2: Directly plant the cloves in the ground, preferably 6 weeks before the soil freezes. In mild climates, the month of January or February is ideal for harvesting in late summer or early fall.
Step 3: Select the appropriate site for your garlic garden. It has to be a place where sunlight is abundant. You also need to consider the soil pH. The ideal is a slightly acid range of 6.2 – 6.8 pH. But some garlic can also tolerate soil acid of 5.0 – 8.0 pH.
Step 4: Burrow the soil about a depth of 8 – 12 inches. Improve the soil with plenty of compost to make it more fertile, well-drained and more preserved with moisture.
Step 5: Get rid of all the weeds. They are the common threat to garlic.
Step 6: Carefully choose the largest cloves from the bulb and plant them into the garden. Never plant those cloves that are rutted or lined blue-green for they are signs of mold.
Step 7: Arrange the unpeeled cloves by setting the pointy end up. Consider a depth of 2 inches and a distance of 5 inches. For giant varieties like the elephant garlic, consider a depth of 3 inches and a distance of 10 inches.
Step 8: Utilize compost to top-dress the plant and mulch them in order to preserve moisture and prevent weeds. To protect the plants from the cold, mulch the ground that freezes.
Step 9: During spring take off the mulch in order to warm the soil with enough sunlight. Add a fresh and clean layer when new growth starts.
Step 10: Cut back any flower stalks that build up in order to guarantee large bulbs. Spray the young plants with compost once or twice during springs.
Step 11: Cut off the leaves to utilize any time but don’t take away over ¼ of a plant’s top growth in order not to decrease the size of the bulb.
Step 12: When ¾ of the tops becomes yellow, you can start the harvest.
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