Growing Garlic in Wisconsin

Growing Garlic in Wisconsin

Growin garlic in Wisconsin is easier than you think, October is the ideal time to plant garlic, as long as growers properly prepare their newly-planted cloves for a long, cold winter. The pungent bulb is generally easy to grow, but there are a few more factors to take into account that will assist guarantee a plentiful harvest of garlic the next year.

Varieties

Just about any variety of garlic is suitable for Wisconsin’s climate. Still, there are some broad differences between types that are useful to know before planting, namely the differences between hard-neck and soft-neck garlic.

Hardneck garlic tends to pack more intense flavor but doesn’t store as well as soft-neck varieties. For that reason, most garlic sold in grocery stores is a  soft-neck variety. Planting cloves from store-bought garlic can work well, though planting cloves from non-organic garlic may not work out because it may have been treated in a way that can stunt its growth in the garden.

Another difference between the hard neck and soft neck varieties? Hard neck garlic will always produce a scape: the long, curly stems of garlic plants at the end of which seed pods form. If soft-neck garlic produces a scape it usually means the plant is stressed.

Planting

The most crucial aspect of planting is making sure that garlic cloves are planted in the fall and that an appropriate amount of insulating mulch is applied afterward to the garden beds. Crushed leaves and hay also work well as mulch, but mulching with around six inches of straw is advised (cloves are the separate elements of a bulb that will sprout into a new bulb). While gardeners in Wisconsin may eke out a crop if they wait to plant until early spring, the bulbs won’t have time to fully develop during the upper Midwest’s relatively short growing season without an autumn kickstart.

Besides a timely planting — ideally, sometime between late October and mid-November — gardeners should make sure they’re sowing healthy cloves that are large, firm, and still wrapped in their naturally protective papery shell. (These cloves are sometimes called seeds, though garlic plants also produce actual seeds with which gardeners need not bother.) They’re planted by pressing them into the top of a ridge of loosened, loamy, well-draining soil until the tip is flush with the soil surface. Planting the cloves at the top of a small ridge of soil helps ensure they won’t get what’s called “wet feet” and rot. A garden bed prepared for fall planting of garlic. 

Cloves of typical garlic varieties should be planted about six inches apart. Large varieties, like elephant garlic (which is a variety of garden leek), should be spaced about 9 inches apart, while miniature varieties can be packed in at a spacing as little as 4 inches.

Growing

It’s helpful to remove scapes before the formation of a seed pod to ensure that the plant’s energy is directed toward the bulb. Additionally, garlic plants do well without irrigation, and should only require watering during drought.

Harvesting

Cloves planted in the fall should be ready to harvest around mid-July, though it’s a good idea to dig a bit around the partially exposed bulbs to make sure they’re mature before harvesting.

A garlic bulb that’s ready to harvest has taken the typical bulbous form of garlic and has developed a full cover of intact papery skin. Underdeveloped bulbs appear rounder, like an onion, while overripe ones are easy to tell by their split skins. The best way to harvest garlic is by gently working the soil beneath the bulbs with a pitchfork. Do not pull the plants, as it can damage the neck above the bulb, which may mean it won’t store as long.

Harvesting the bulbs after several dry days is preferable since dry bulbs store better. Harvested bulbs should not be washed unless they’re already wet and muddy — brush off excess dirt and let them air dry at room temperature. A garage works well, or a basement, though long stretches of high humidity can be detrimental to storage. Dried bulbs will keep at room temperature and low humidity for up to nine months.