How Much to Water Garlic in Fall, Spring and Summer

[@donnaduhamel6004]

So..I sure hope you hugged and thanked your mother for giving you this giftxxx😍❤☮🌍🥰

[@richm5889]

It's really great that you laid out the whole year, and with visuals. I've almost been fooled into an early harvest in June when the leaves started yellowing and drooping and looked like they were going to start to fall down. It is just hotter and drier in June and the garlic is starting to increase in size and bulb up so it needs more water. I increase the watering and July 15th or thereabouts harvest my large heads of garlic.

[@helgabruin2261]

I'm West Coast Canada, and l water heavily through May with the success of huge garlic.

[@theresaflagontheplay]

Garlic root zones are not two inches deep. Dig a test hole down 8-12 inches to determine moisture content where the roots are actually working. If you squeeze soil and water drips out then no need for more water. I grew commercial hard neck varieties (rocamboles, purple stripes and porcelains) for over a decade. Average bulb size 2.5" to 3". Sold it for $15 a pound with only 4-5 bulbs per pound. (Largest were 10-12 ounces each.) Grew 25K per acre. In 12 years we never irrigated. We focused on maintaining soil tilth and nutrition. Added 100 yards of organic compost per acre every 2 years. As soon as we harvested we planted restorative cover crops: mustard, oats, fall rye etc). Every three years we started a new generation of seed garlic from our best bulbils. If you continue to replant cloves from the same lineage you will find your bulbs shrinking regardless of your soil quality. They simply lose their vigor. Garlic plants are cloning machines. Every clove and every bulbil is a clone of the parent plant. However, cloves are largely products of the roots while bulbils are vegetative and are produced by the leaves. All plants have these two generative loci but garlic is unusual in that each location produces copies of itself that can be planted for the next crop. We always had our next replacement crop in the pipeline and that maintained the size. flavour and market value year after year.

[@cbradyorganize]

Thank you for this video! This is the first year I've grown garlic. We live in an area with a rainy fall, winter, and early spring. I'm beginning to think it is time (last week of May) to water the garlic and you've provided the information I need.

[@mrcryptozoic817]

Our procedure since the 1950s is: We plant in mid-October, fertilizing with bone meal in the furrow. When the leaves start to dry out in the summer, usually July, we harvest the entire plant and set it out to dry. After the leaves have dried, we cut them all off and separate the biggest bulbs for next years' planting. The part I like about your procedure (drying the ground and letting the leaves dry), skips the step of laying them out to dry after harvest. (Blood meal is usually recommended as fertilizer but that stuff stinks to much to tolerate.)

[@geraldarcuri9307]

Great help for us garlic growing beginners. Thanks.

[@clivesconundrumgarden]

Excellent video, especially intro lol!! Completely agree with your approach with 1 variation. Last year we heavily mulch with maple leaves and added about an inch of compost on top. By the time spring came all bulbs came through. We didn't remove the mulch and observed. We water maybe a couple times as result and had best harvest yet. Looking forward to adding your worm castings this year !!

[@MindandSoil]

Amazing! Yeah the mulch does such a great job of keeping a nice level of moisture in the soil eh?! I started playing around with a Growoya this past season and really liked it because it uses such little water and ensures a great moisture level through the wicking technique. And because it all happens beneath the surface, none is lost to evaporation

[@kb1405]

So glad i found this, have been looking for this info for a while. Thanks

[@HobbyPackRat]

This is my first year growing garlic, they have just started growing scapes and this is fantastic information to have, thank you very much. Cut the scapes, maybe one last water, and I should be golden 😊

[@cyndyalvarado3913]

Thank you!! This is my first time growing garlic and I WAS LOST!! Now I feel like I might get some garlic out of this experiment. You have helped me tremendously.

[@Cherryl.L5]

This is a big help to my backyard garlic❤

[@lindaburton4013]

Your videos are clear, succinct , enjoyable. Your pacing is excellent. We don’t need kittens, visitors and other distractions, just your clear presentation. I just subscribed!

[@gailfagan7579]

Great video, lots of details. We live in western Canada near the Rocky Mountains and the weather here can be quite dry and extreme from the mountain effect. We’ve gotten snow or hail almost every June, July so it’s a lot different. We have freeze up occurs in October, November. Ground thaws in April, May depending on cold fronts. That said, I can use your info as a guide around watering. Thanks so much!

[@musingsfromthewoodlands]

Cheers Brother Very Clear and Informative, Much Appreciated . Blessings from UK

[@kiddlesnmore2]

This is the kind of video I needed. Clear instructions with pictures even. I’m going to try growing garlic this year. I’m in southern Oregon USA. Do I wait till October to start planting? I’ve dehydrated garlic and it’s fabulous!

[@mneraasen224]

I know every area is different. I’m in Delaware USA, and my soft neck I had in raised beds was already starting to separate to flower, two weeks ago. The ones I had in-ground, a week later. My Hardneck is in a raised bed and in ground and I’ve already started cutting scapes for the past few weeks. I planted in The middle of Oct, right before the freeze or frost. Last season I even tried planting on the shady side of my garden 🤷🏼‍♀️ I think it’s just ready earlier in my area🤷🏼‍♀️ I get a good harvest, especially with Hardneck🤷🏼‍♀️

[@robertmartinez988]

Great info. This is what I've been taught from ol farmers. Subscribed

[@thefashionarchaeologist]

Great advice, I love that you're trying to get so many people to discover the joy of gardening! I've been digging-in-the-dirt for nearly 60 years, and still at it (in SW Nova Scotia now). I firmly believe gardening not only enhances life and teaches so much about life, but also extends life through positive mental health. I do have a question for you about garlic. Each year we plant 6 or 7 garlic varieties, about 50 each. We'd had wonderful success for years until 2019, when we suddenly developed what we've identified as penicillium infection in our crop, making a good portion of the bulbs become dry and ruined after harvest. We know we could try a systemic fungicide or a powdered fungicide (such as Bordo), but hate to resort to that. We do maintain a careful 3 to 4-year rotation, and we're hoping this year that the infection won't carry over from our planting stock bulbs (we always choose the biggest and healthiest looking garlic bulbs to replant cloves from, but it's impossible to know if spores survive). My question is this: could composted sheep manure (cheap and readily available in our area) possibly be the source of the problem? Have you ever had anyone mention it? I'm wondering if there is a flow-through from penicillin antibiotics given to the sheep, a common practice on modern farms. As an experiment this fall, for the first time ever we've added no sheep compost at all to the bed in which we'll be planting garlic. I plan instead to use foliar and surface feeding during the growing phase in spring 2022 and see what happens. Otherwise, unfortunately we're going to have to replace our entire planting stock. Thanks so much for what you do!!

[@MindandSoil]

Thanks so much fr this, Patricia! Love your perspective on gardening :D. I haven't had any experiences with sheep manure - but, when something goes not according to plan in my garden I like to look back at what variables I changed (inputs, location, watering, etc.) as well as any natural changes that could have occurred (i.e. a very wet or very dry season) to address the issue. So, I think your experiment is a great idea. What I would just ensure is that the bed you're planting the garlic in doesn't have any previous sheep manure in it (as who knows what could still be hanging around!) :D

[@danschaefer6124]

Excellent explanation, very clear, thank you. I shared with other family members. Thx again

[@djl9154]

Nice instructional tutorial.

[@Jtsfarm]

Thank you Jordan!

[@MindandSoil]

My absolute pleasure!! :D If there's anything you're keen to learn on just let me know!

[@karinmeeks3807]

I plant in zone 4 and cover the garlic with straw for the winter we get over 200 inches of snow so they are covered in straw and several feet of snow till around end of April the shoots are coming up and grow thru the straw question when to uncover the straw and will leaving the straw on harm them

[@skunk69x29]

I'm in the same area and I leave my straw on. As long as they're growing through it, they'll be fine.

[@sharimuhamad5905]

Thank you! ❤

[@janmitchell641]

very helpful, thanks!

[@akeesee11]

What a great and simple to follow instruction; however I notice my garlic leaves die off long before I mean months before harvesting time, what is the cause and how can I help that? I have woodchips and I water, I give them plenty of nutrients and I even talk to them:) Well sometimes I do LOL.

[@erikutube33]

Mine are looking like they are dying back and falling over. I also fertilized when planting, laid in compost, added straw which is decomposing away until I add more, and put some Alaska fish fertilizer and their flowering fruiting blend as well, but still not looking good here in May. There was another video that said they need high nitrogen, blood meal, early in spring. Really need to know what’s going on. The bulbs are still forming and the garlic is hot with sulfur, but looking dreadful!!!

[@helgabruin2261]

Mine did that when they were lacking water.

[@arleenk3]

Wow!! Great video and info.

[@MindandSoil]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching :)

[@kevinw9073]

Well done. Great advice.

[@MaggiePhigeland]

Thank you.

[@housnaraali3467]

Babies 😭❤️

[@MindandSoil]

hehehe so many babies!

[@hogue3666]

Great stuff, thanks a million! So on July 11th, (or a few days before harvest), you get a heavy storm. Is it better to push harvest back a week, or dig wet?

[@melissamitchell3259]

Thank you so much for this!! ❤

[@MindandSoil]

You're so welcome! Thanks for watching.

[@Shodeen1]

Than you so much!

[@markseltman]

Thanks for this informative video. When I plant my garlic, I space the seeds about 3" deep and 6" apart in staggared rows and then put about 3" of chopped straw on top for mulch. I try to always use the largerst seed. The bulbs nearly always turn out perfect, although some years they're much larger and others much smaller. My neighbors also experience similar results. Is that due to the weather?

[@dianeunderhill5404]

Hi Jordan, loved your video and looking forward to a great crop of garlic next July! My question is about pesky animals. I garden in Victoria where there are bunnies and deer by the score. Do I need to worry about deer, bunnies or any other animals getting into my garlic beds? Thank you for all that you do to promote mental health and gardening.

[@MindandSoil]

Ah thanks so much for the kind words here Diane!! I know a few people that also have bunnies and deer in their area. It seems that both go after the leafy greens and other vegetables - so I haven't heard of any war stories of garlic getting disturbed by them. However, if you are concerned then with those particularly large animals, we would want to create a physical barrier between the garlic and the animals. This could be a fence or even some form of a hoop house over top of where the garlic is growing!

[@ThatBritishHomestead]

garlic is my favour harvest we eat so much of it, that and tomatoes. we eat garlic at every year.

[@pinschrunner]

Mentally I am well, maybe because I am gardening every day that I feel well physically

[@jefftokaji6460]

Jordan, thanks for another great video. This helped a lot. God bless you brother.

[@MindandSoil]

My absolute pleasure Jeff! Glad you're enjoying it!

[@kb2vca]

Very helpful, video. My first year growing garlic. I live in upstate NY. Do both hardneck and softneck garlic produce scapes?

[@helgabruin2261]

Yes they do. One goes curly, and one goes straight up. My elephant garlic scapes are straight.

[@diyar2027]

Thanks for sharing amazing info.

[@MindandSoil]

Thank you so muchhhhh!

[@kathyaakananabluebird]

Great video~

[@masegomolefhi9795]

Hello, thank you for sharing. Kindly advice, my garlic is now 6 months we are approaching the rainy season is it advisable to keep it upto 9 months. Won't it be damaged by rain water.

[@MaryZolmer]

I've planted my garlic as you have suggested. I have put straw mulch in top. Now do I cover the raised beds with a cover of some sort to hold the mulch in place and to prevent too much rain or leave it as is? Port Alberni, BC

[@MindandSoil]

Hey Mary! Amazing question! It's not 100% mandatory, but I like to do it to prevent the wind from blowing the rain away and for keeping some of the rain out. My personal favorite is to use Landscape Fabric. If you watch our video 4 Tips for Prepping for Winter you'll see how I put the landscape fabric over the beds. I do exactly that with my garlic as well, and then take it off on New Years Day :). Is this your first year growing garlic?

[@MaryZolmer]

@@MindandSoil Yes, first year growing garlic. I will anchor everything down with the landscaping fabric. Thanks.

[@MindandSoil]

@@MaryZolmer Fantastic! Yeah - I like to either use rocks on the corners of the landscape fabric or staple it into the wood :)

[@wendyhannan2454]

Great video content, I love the drawings as well, great idea 💡Thank you, I’m now off to grow some garlic 😉

[@erikutube33]

Once you cut the scapes (yours in July, mine in mid May zone 7b), how much longer before they are ready to harvest. Mine have turned quite yellow all over, but not sure if that’s because they didn’t get supplemental fertilizer, or enough of it, as I used Alaska fish fertilizer with an equal dose of their flower fruiting blend) twice a month for the last month or so. Still going yellow and starting to fall over. Harvested a couple and the bulbs aren’t very large, but they are there and quite sharp with the sulfur, hot). I don’t want to risk them going to mush so perhaps I will shut off the watering and harvest in two weeks, let it be what it will be. Mid June harvest.

[@justingreen8006]

Theres still 2 ft of snow on the ground in March. Where do you live that you can water garlic in January or February? It's -20 degrees Fahrenheit here then.

[@janetcolyear8990]

We have snow so the ground is frozen! Then in the Spring they come up.

[@dustyflats3832]

Our weather is changing too much. Many varieties of garlic died as I planted in oct but it grew too much and I mulched. I think the marsh hay smothered in spots.

[@basilbickford5906]

When should I fertilize my garlic…thank you

[@candyaustin2052]

What about when it snows. Will that be considered as watering? Will it stunt the garlic?

[@markdecker2724]

Does it freeze where you are? I live in Michigan, and it gets Cold.

[@2023praise]

I got small garlic bulbs, should all my garlic have scapes? Because I only got a few scapes. I have been growing garlic 15 years but this was the first time this has happened. We had a hard winter in March (Ca9b) could that have been the issue? My garlic also is ready to harvest by Jul 1 which according to everything Ive listen to thats to early, again not enough water? I plant in Oct/Nov

[@Yupppi]

I think one or two of my garlic cloves successfully overwintered, and there's only one green stem is pushing up in may. I have no idea what's up with that but at least something is growing.

[@dzidzisogombedza1832]

How many Months does garlic take to be ready to haverst

[@awkwardbbq8332]

This is the Grand Wall -Sword pitch of Garlic tutorials ;) Just like gardening, observe, plan ahead and don't get too "pumped" lol Great video Jord !!

[@MindandSoil]

Haha! I happened to send my first V7 boulder the other day which was a big win for the season! Couldn't agree more with observing, making adjustments, and applying the learnings in subsequent seasons!

[@awkwardbbq8332]

@@MindandSoil dude that's awesome!! You climb Petrifying Wall in winter ? I was a trad guy but #respect 💪💪💪

[@cannatella89]

@@MindandSoil you talk a lot about observation and reflection which is great. My dad taught me to keep a gardening notebook or diary as it is so easy to forget when you did things and how things turned out from year to year. Its how I knew that last year I planted my garlic on October 24th even though I didn't know about the full moon thing which I did this year after seeing your video. Thanks for all you do. Great videos!

[@MindandSoil]

@@cannatella89 Amazing, love that! Where abouts are you gardening?

[@cannatella89]

@@MindandSoil in Sooke on Vancouver Island

[@tomm5228]

? What if it rains in the last 14 days, UK, 1st time gardener planting this month

[@janwilliams3545]

What if it rains when I’ve cut off the scapes, waiting for harvest??

[@praywithmetoday6753]

WHERE DO YOU BUY SUPERFOOD?

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

my garlic leaves are turning yellow and is this because I am not watering the garlic plants enough? I water 1-2x a week in raised containers for elephant garlic.

[@3_too_won]

When you say stop watering for 2 weeks before you harvest what if it rains for say a week then what do you suggest to do in those circumstances. I live in the snowy mountains in NSW AUSTRALIA .A reply would be greatly appreciated thanks Mick.

[@helgabruin2261]

Your growing season is opposite Canada. We harvest in the dry of August, (for us) but occasionally it has rained heavily. It just makes curing the garlic a bit more tedious. You will need a dry and airy indoor place to cure your garlic by hanging it in loose groupings, and it will take a bit longer. Otherwise, no worries!

[@evabirch669]

My garlic was very small can you tell me why it was my first time last year

[@pn3940]

so, what if you stop watering during harvest stage, and it rains?

[@valspooner6044]

Thanks Jordan ! One other question that I had was this : When it's time to stop watering prior to harvest, if there is a "rainfall warning" , would it be best to cover the area where the garlic is ? Last year more than 1/2 my bulbs were mush come harvest time. What's the best thing to cover it with ? TIA

[@MindandSoil]

Great question Val! If you're looking for something to cover it with you could go with a poly tunnel of sorts. I personally build little mini greenhouses from scrap wood with hinges on the top to access the plants (you'll see them in the overwintering peppers video!). If you do this just be careful on airflow - make sure some air still flows through. Are you planting in the ground or a raised bed? It might be worthwhile to check in on drainage and amount of clay in the soil as those would be leading reasons for why water is staying in there rather than draining out

[@waynepedder2033]

It may be that your soil isn't draining very well

[@KirstenMawle]

2'' deep yes

[@MindandSoil]

🙌🏼

[@superspecialty5169]

Hurry up & get to the point vice taking the center stage!

[@privatedata665]

Wait...what ? Water garlic ?

[@dw235]

I'm with you @privatedata665, I usually plant it an forget it : ) Probably best advice from this video is pay attention to soil - is it dry? Consider watering.

[@privatedata665]

@@dw235 I finally had to water ours . Looks like our drought is over for now . Our hardneck is growing some long scapes right now .

[@smhollanshead]

Garlic is a plant. Don’t plants need water?

[@geraldarcuri9307]

The original task given to Adam and Eve in the beginning was... gardening! Meant to bring wholeness.

[@RoadToTheCup]

Get down to the point instead blah blah blah. it takes 30 seconds to explain not 9 minutes.

[@tking1539]

I never water garlic plant it in november forget it just take the scapes off in the spring. Always i have large garlic.