Garlic in Seattle: Plant This Week for Big Bulbs in July
An October look at which garlic to buy, how deep it really goes, and the June mistake that shrinks the harvest.
In the October planting list garlic got one paragraph. That was enough to get cloves into the ground, but not enough to get a big bulb out of it next summer, so here is the rest of it.
When to plant garlic in Seattle is the easy part: mid October to mid November, and the earlier half of that window is better. What decides the size of the bulb is everything around it: which garlic you buy, how deep it goes, and what you do next June. That last part is the one people skip. They plant in October and forget about it all winter, which is exactly right, and then they forget about it in June too and dig up heads that split open in the ground.
What a late clove costs you
A clove that goes in too late doesn't fail in a way you notice. It just gives you a small head next July, and three things cause most of it.
The roots never get made. Garlic uses the fall to grow roots, not leaves. A clove planted into cold soil in December makes very few roots before winter, and a plant with a small root system makes a small bulb.
The clove rots. A clove without roots sits in cold, wet soil for months, and in a Seattle winter that is a long time to sit in water. Some cloves simply rot. A raised bed drains better than the ground, which is one reason garlic does so well in one.
No cold, no cloves. Garlic needs several weeks of cold to divide into cloves. Plant it in spring and you often get one round bulb instead of a head, which you can eat, but it is a disappointment. Our winters are mild, but they are cold enough, as long as the garlic is in the ground for all of it.
When to plant garlic in Seattle
Mid October to mid November is the window here, because that is when our soil finally cools down. In my garden the shaded West bed read 53°F on October 17, and that is the kind of cooling garlic waits for. Planted into cool soil, the clove puts its energy into roots instead of leaves.
Earlier is not better. Garlic planted into warm September soil can push a lot of soft green top before winter, and that growth gets beaten up by the first hard frost.
If you are reading this in late November, plant anyway. Late garlic still grows. The bulbs are just smaller.
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Which garlic, and how deep it goes
Buy seed garlic from a nursery or a seed company. I explained why grocery garlic stays in the kitchen in the October Planting Checklist, so here is the next decision: hardneck or softneck. Both grow well in Seattle.
Hardneck. A stiff stalk runs through the middle of the head, with fewer and bigger cloves that are easy to peel. In late spring it sends up a curly flower stalk, the scape, which you cut and eat. It stores for a few months, not a whole year. This is what went into my oval bed this week, a variety called Krandasger Red.
Softneck. No stalk, more and smaller cloves packed in layers, and it stores the longest. This is the garlic you braid. It doesn't make scapes, so there is one less job in June. I'm growing both this year, and my softneck, Messidor, goes into a second bed next.
Amounts, because a little garlic goes a long way. At six inches apart, every square foot takes four cloves, so a full four by eight bed holds 128 of them. Most people don't need anywhere near that. My hardneck gave me about 10 to 12 cloves, and they fit between the cabbages in the oval bed without moving anything.
Now the depth, because the packaging won't agree with itself. The card on my hardneck says about one inch deep. The tag on my Messidor says three to four inches. I planted about two inches deep, the same as in the October list. One inch is a little shallow for a bed that gets five months of rain and a few hard frosts, and I would rather the clove sit a bit deeper and stay put. Three to four inches is written for places where the ground freezes hard. Here it rarely freezes more than a crust, and a clove that deep just sits longer in cold, wet soil. Two inches plus a thick layer of leaves on top does the job.
To plant, break the head apart on planting day and keep the papery skins on. Use the biggest cloves, because big cloves make big heads, and cook with the small ones. Push each clove in pointy end up, cover it, and spread three to four inches of shredded leaves over the bed. I explained how to shred them in leaf mulch in Seattle. The shoots find their way through on their own in late winter.
Watch for squirrels. They are burying their winter food right now, and freshly dug soil is exactly what they look for. While I was planting, I dug up a chestnut a squirrel had already hidden in this bed. A layer of leaves helps, and netting over the bed for the first few weeks helps more.
The part that goes wrong in June
Garlic rarely fails in October. It fails next June, almost always because people stop paying attention right when the bulb is forming.
Stop feeding once the bulbs start to swell. Compost in the fall is all garlic needs. Nitrogen in late spring pushes more leaves at the expense of the bulb.
Cut the scapes. On hardneck garlic the scape shows up in late May or June. Cut it once it curls, and the plant puts that energy into the bulb instead of a flower. Then eat it. Scapes are great in a stir fry or blended into pesto.
Harvest by the leaves, not the calendar. Each green leaf turns into one papery wrapper around the bulb. Dig when the lower leaves have turned brown and about half are still green, usually late June to early July here. Wait too long and the wrappers rot away, the head splits open in the ground, and it won't store. Stop watering a week or two before, and lift the bulbs on a dry day.
Then cure them somewhere airy and out of the sun for two to three weeks before you trim the roots and stalks.
If you do one thing this week
Buy seed garlic if you don't have it yet, and get it into the ground before the end of October. Pick a sunny spot that drains, put the cloves in about two inches deep and six inches apart, cover them with leaves, and leave them alone. If there is an empty bed next to it, fava beans can go in the same week.
That is a few minutes and a few dollars, and next July you dig up garlic from your own bed.
Garlic is one of several things that belong in the ground this month. My free October Planting Checklist covers garlic, shallots and fava beans, the greens that still make sense this late, what to harvest before frost, and how to protect your beds through the rains.
Want someone to walk your beds with you?
If you'd like help deciding what each of your beds needs this winter, that is exactly what a Kitchen Garden Consultation is for. I come to your garden for an hour, we walk it together, and within three business days you get a written plan for the season ahead. It is $175.
Happy fall planting. Let me know if you need help, I'm here for you.
Jackie
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