If you’ve got the taste buds of a true foodie or are just a big fan of garlic – and also want to save money and not have to go to farmers’ markets – then you should definitely consider growing your own green garlic!
Green garlic is basically immature garlic. It is a very fast growing plant with a very short growing season, but thus also the reason it has such high prices in specialty stores.
Why not just use those green fingers of yours and get started growing your own, so that you can have lots of green garlic at home?!
Growing garlic greens is comparatively easy, and you won’t have to spend more than the price of a garlic bulb to get started.
So check out our detailed guide to help you grow an abundant supply of this incredibly tasty green!
What is green garlic?
Garlic greens are baby garlic. Garlic greens consist of small immature garlic plants that have not yet been separated into their individual bulbs.
This makes for a super tender, easy to cook & eat garlic plant. Garlic greens taste similar to all other green types of veggies, but they also have a unique garlicky flavor!
If this sounds like something you’d enjoy, keep reading to discover the easiest way to grow garlic greens for a few cents.
How to grow green garlic
Growing green garlic is simply a matter of mastering the process of growing garlic, the typical long growing seasons of garlic will be cut back so you can harvest the tender green shoots early for your salads and stir-fries.
Instead of spring varieties you will usually use an early spring variety of garlic for green garlic, instead of autumn or winter sowings.
Expect to have an awesome growing experience and a good return on investment growing garlic by just planting the cloves and following the natural process.
Below is a list of steps to ensure that you have the best success growing this garlic.
Purchase certified garlic bulbs at your local garden center or online
Although it is possible to plant regular garlic cloves from the grocery store, these cloves pose a greater risk of introducing disease than planting certified disease-free varieties.
Choose from softneck or hardneck garlic varieties
- Softneck Garlic is a common variety of garlic that you find at grocery stores. There are many advantages to Softneck garlic varieties; they are also very productive, producing many cloves in each bulb. You will typically find Softneck garlic with a thin paper-like white skin that is brittle and dries quickly when harvested. Softneck garlic is often grown as “green garlic” but must be protected from frost during winter months.
- Hardneck Garlic has fewer cloves in each bulb than Softneck Garlic, but they are more robust and can be grown for their foliage and delicious scapes. The scapes are unique curling flower stalks with a bulb-like head and an intense flavor that can be enjoyed similar to that of greens.
- Elephant Garlic has a bit of an exotic appeal (and price) but offers amazing greens that are tender and sweet!
Best garlic growing conditions
Garlic thrives best in warm conditions with lots of sunlight.
If you choose a warm climate with well-drained, rich soil for your garlic, you should be able to plant your garlic bulbs in the fall or early spring before the ground begins to freeze. This should prevent any possible frost damage to your bulbs during that time of year.
Be sure to keep the area where you are planting your garlic free from all vegetation, and ensure that there are no crops left in that area from summertime. This will help to minimize the number of weeds that will compete with your garlic for essential nutrients.
Planting garlic cloves
Garlic is an incredible, productive, and profitable crop as each half of the bulb produces a single ‘garlic bulb’ or an entire garlic ‘plant’!
Here’s how it works:
- Break open the bulb and separate the cloves.
- You will then plant each clove, pointed end up, approximately 2.5-centimeter deep in the soil.
- In order for your garlic to grow properly, it must be planted by the end of autumn or at the beginning of winter to allow for ‘cold acclimation’ to take place, which allows the bulbs to develop properly.
- To plant the cloves into the soil, you may use a ‘dibber’ to create a hole as you plant each clove or just simply push them into the soil.
You can plant your cloves in pots or containers.
You will need a 12-inch container with a wider base and 6-8 inches of growing height to allow your garlic to grow correctly.and at least 15 centimeters wide. Fill it with quality compost and sow 3 cloves per pot.
Protect your garlic
Be sure to give your planted garlic the best chance to produce tasty, tender greens by protecting it from:
- Birds: birds have as keen an appetite as you do and will eat both the garlic cloves and shoots if they get a chance. Keep them off of your planting area by covering it with netting or horticultural fleece. Keep this covering on until the shoots reach a minimum of 5 cm.
- Cold weather: wrapping your garlic plants in horticultural fleece provides insulation from colder temperatures in winter, and also allows you to start your garlic earlier in spring.
Feed your garlic
Feed your garlic during its initial growing period in the spring when it starts to grow quickly.
At this time you can start adding additional compost and a higher nitrogen content fertilizer.
Feed your fresh garlic shoots (garlic greens) every month from mid-April to end of May.
Watering your garlic
For the most part, garlic requires very little effort on your part.
You should start watering garlic during the spring and early summer. Make sure to keep your greens green and moist during this period. Continue watering until the time comes to harvest the garlic.
Your garlic greens should be harvested before they turn yellow – that’s a sign that the garlic bulbs have matured.
Weed your garlic
Weeding ensures that your garlic gets the water and nutrients it needs.
Hand weed between plants to prevent hoe damage.
Watch out for these common garlic pests and diseases
Garlic is considered to be a very resilient crop. So, therefore, typically, most of the pests that gardeners experience with garlic are not major problems.
However, the biggest cause for concern with growing garlic is to remain vigilant of disease, as the diseases that affect garlic will usually go unnoticed until it is too late.
Two very important diseases affecting garlic are listed below:
- Onion white rot is a disease caused by a pathogen that comes from the ground. Therefore, if you identify that your garlic, leeks, or onions have onion white rot, you will need to grow your next set of garlic in containers because there is no means of eradicating the pathogen from the soil. Onion white rot produces yellowing and die-back of the foliage, which may be confused for garlic on the way to maturity. When the garlic is harvested, it will have the characteristic black rot of fungal growth.
- Leek rust is a fungal infection caused by wet, damp weather and sustained periods of high humidity. Similar to onion white rot, however, the foliage of garlic leaves die back and exhibit orange pustules. To properly manage leek rust, you will need to harvest all plants showing signs of leek rust; the garlic bulb itself will be unaffected.
To help prevent these two diseases, it is very important to not plant garlic, leeks, or onions in the same spot more than once every three years..
Get those greens! Harvesting garlic greens
The best tip for collecting garlic green shoots is to act quickly.
Tender shoots appear soon after planting garlic, but you will miss getting those tender shoots if you wait until the bulb matures.
Once the bulb has matured, the green shoots will also become tough and inedible.
When do I harvest garlic greens?
You can expect to find garlic greens during the late spring months when the foliage is very tall and noticeably green.
In temperate climates, the best time to harvest garlic greens will probably be between May and late June.
To obtain the best flavour from the garlic greens, pull up the entire plant and consume it all! Pulling at the correct time will provide you with a large scallion/baby leek type product with a deliciously mild garlic flavour and aroma that can be eaten raw or cooked.
Have Fun – The garlic green is one of the easiest types of plants to grow, so if you are an impatient gardener you can have your garlic quite quickly!
Did you know you can grow yourself some garlic greens indoors too?
You can quickly get your fix of green garlic by using some water in a glass jar and adding some garlic cloves, waiting for the garlic to sprout.
As they grow, you will have tender green shoots that you can clip and regrow.
The flavour is not as strong as that of garlic grown outdoors, but it does provide a great alternative for those who do not have access to chives or scallions, or for anyone wanting something different from the regular offerings.
Preparing green garlic
A great benefit of using fresh green garlic is the simplicity of not having to go through the complicated processes of curing and braiding the garlic before using it like you would for mature garlic.
To prepare fresh green garlic, the only steps are to harvest it and remove dirt from the bulb, and then you can start preparing the greens right away to use in your favorite dishes.
Examples include:
- Spaghetti with green garlic
- Roasted green garlic
- Spring greens with green garlic
Rounding up
For a beginner gardener, this is a fun project to get started with marketing!
Plant green garlic for increased gardening skill while providing some home decorations and tasty meals for you and your family.
Remember, plant green garlic in abundance — it will be gone quickly!!