Alaska News

Jeff Lowenfels: Now's the time to plant your garlic (seriously)

Let's plant something! Yes, I know it is September and most Alaska gardeners think they are through planting things for the season. In fact, you are probably waiting for the annual fall column on what to do when the first frost is predicted. To heck with that. I am throwing caution to the wind.

It is actually time to plant garlic. Of course, many gardeners don't know you can grow garlic almost anywhere in the United States, so it surprises many Alaska gardeners when they discover how well garlic does in Alaska. The trick to growing good garlic, however, is putting cloves in the ground four or five weeks before it freezes permanently for the season.

Let me interject here and note that some Alaskans find it easier to plant garlic in the very early spring, often starting even earlier indoors. This is fine too, but the trick to all of this is getting the garlic corms to plant. Fall is when "seed garlics" are available. So even if you want to start in the spring, buy your garlic now and store it in a very cool place, such as the refrigerator, until you plant. It will also help if you prepare beds or containers now so that you can get them in the ground as early as possible next spring.

There are two basic groups of garlic and both can be planted here. The first group is the hard-neck varieties. These throw off a flower stalk during the growing season. (This should be removed after it forms). The soft-neck varieties do not flower. Most of the local nurseries sell garlic bulbs, but you have to get there early to get these "worms." Catalogs sell garlic, too, but you need to order ASAP. Friends have grown German white, Nootka rose, elephant and many others with success. You can also try supermarket garlic, but you take your chances.

You buy garlic bulbs, but you plant individual cloves, so don't get carried away buying too many bulbs as each has a half-dozen or so corms. The general rule is to plant in well-draining soil that is full of organics (i.e., compost), and the suggested depth is two to three inches deep. Here in Alaska, it makes sense to plant at three inches and then to cover your corms with a few inches of leaf mulch. Give your corms ample room to develop into decent-sized bulbs by planting them five or six inches apart.

Here are two tricks that will really help you produce the best garlic you have ever grown or tasted. First, lay a thin band of organic fertilizer such as soybean meal an inch or so below where your corm will sit. Second -- and this really, really helps -- place endomycorrhizal fungi (available at any good nursery) right where the corm will rest. These fungi partner up with your corms and feed them things like phosphorous, zinc, copper and even nitrogen. This is new advice and I doubt there are any other garden blogs or columns giving it… yet. Just you wait and see what mycorrhizal fungi can do for garlic plants!

If you don't have room and want to grow garlic in containers, you can, but these need to be insulated so that they don't go through all the freeze and thaw cycles that above-ground planters are exposed to. You can bury them in leaves or soil, put them in ice chests or use any of the other methods people have developed to keep soil frozen once it freezes for the season.

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Finally, before you mulch your corms, give the area a light watering so that they get moisture right from the start. Don't overdo it. We get plenty of moisture here and you don't want them to rot, just get off to a start.

Garlic! It is hard to believe that these delicate and delicious corms will survive our harsh and long winter, but come July when you harvest, you will be a believer.

Jeff’s Alaska Garden Calendar for the week of Sept. 5, 2014

Spring-Flowering Bulbs: Order yours now, or (best of all) buy from local nurseries. Do it now before the good ones are gone. Tulips and daffodils for sure, but look for lesser bulbs like scillia and galanthus.

Harvest and Share: Remember to plant a row for the hungry. Drop off excess at Alaska Mill and Feed, a place of worship or a food bank, or give it someone you know who simply needs the food.

Start Deterring Moose: It is Plantskydd time. This stuff is smelly and sticky but it keeps moose at bay (so far). The thing is, it has to be applied! Do it now while it is still warm. It will last for six months if applied and allowed to set for 24 hours. You can buy this emulsified blood meal at local nurseries.

Jeff Lowenfels

Jeff Lowenfels has written a weekly gardening column for the ADN for more than 45 years. His columns won the 2022 gold medal at the Garden Communicators International conference. He is the author of a series of books on organic gardening available at Amazon and elsewhere. He co-hosts the "Teaming With Microbes" podcast.

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