How to grow Garlic? Garlic should be planted in a plot not recently used for garlic or other
plants from the garlic family. Don’t plant garlic in areas where water can
collect around the roots, it may cause rot.
Garlic should be planted in a fertile and well-drained soil. A raised bed works better. Work several inches of compost or well-rotted manure into the
bed, along with 10-10-10 fertilizer, make sure to remove stones from the top 6
inches of soil.
Planting garlic is very simple. Separate each clove and space the cloves
6" apart in the bed, Rows should be spaced 10” apart. The cloves must be
planted with the pointed end up and the blunt down. Push each and every clove 2"
into the bed, firm the soil around and water the bed if dry.
If you don’t exactly know in which season you should plant garlic,Here is a general idea, in India, garlic is planted as both
kharif (June-July) and rabi (October-November) crop- it depends on the regions.
It is planted as a rabi crop in Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Bengal and hilly regions. It is both kharif
and rabi crop in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh
and Chhattisgarh.
After planting, lay down a protective mulch. In cold-winter
regions the mulch should be approximately 4 inches thick. It will help to
prevent the garlic roots from being heaved out of the ground by alternate
freezing and thawing.
When the leaves begin to grow, it is important to feed the
garlic plants to encourage good growth. Two tablespoons of a slow decomposing high-nitrogen
fertilizer should be gently worked into the soil near each plant. In late
spring some garlic varieties produce flower stalks that have small bulbils. Cut
these off to ensure that all the food the plant produces will go into the
garlic bulb itself and not the clusters of bulbils. You will know when to harvest garlic when most of the leaves have turned
brown.
