Growing Garlic Indoors (and Out) in Containers

Garlic is one of the most commonly used ingredients in the kitchen, and it's really easy to grow at home in containers.

Like with all crops, it's important to grow garlic that is ideal for your climate.  There are 2 main types of garlic, hardneck and softneck.  For indoor gardening you will want to grow softneck garlic, because it is able to grow well in milder climates (indoors) and typically matures faster.  Softneck garlic is commonly what you find at the grocery store.  Hardneck garlic is a lot more flavorful, grows a hard woody stem which later develops scapes, and grows better in northern climates where the tempertaure gets below freezing in the winter.  Hardneck garlic will not grow well indoors.

We're growing a softneck variety, California Early White (Artichoke garlic), which we picked up when we were in Gilroy, CA (the garlic capital of the world, AKA: Heaven), and a hardneck variety, German White (Porcelain garlic) that we got from a farm in Sullivan County, NY.  The California Early White will stay indoors all winter, while we'll put the German White outdoors over the winter so it can get a freeze.

What you need:

- Soil with good drainage, preferably with a decent nutrient charge so you don't have to do as much work by adding your own nutrients from the start.  We like Roots Organics' Original Potting Soil.  If you prefer to add your own nutrients/fertilizer, Canna's Terra Professional Plus works well.

- Containers.  Garlic is a bulb so most of the growing is done below the surface of the soil.  You want a container that's at least 12" deep and wide enough to space the seeds 4" away from each other and the sides of your containers.  For 7-8 bulbs, we recommend 7 Gallon Root Pots from Aurora Innovations.  We like the root pots because they have a good width & depth and allow for the roots and bulbs to get air (garlic can be prone to fungus if the soil is too wet and the bulbs/roots can't breathe).

- Garlic Seed.  You can purchase seed garlic from a seed company (we like High Mowing Seeds, they're organic and we sell their fruit and vegetable seeds) or you can purchase garlic from any market or farm.  The garlic you use for cooking is the same garlic you can grow.

- Saucers (optional) - You can use plastic saucers to catch the run-off from when you water your garlic.

- Light.  If you're growing indoors we recommend using a T5 fluorescent fixture.  They don't use much energy and you can put them almost anywhere.  We're using the bottom shelf of a shelving unit to grow our garlic.

- Nutrients/Fertilizer.  Garlic needs to be fertilized.  Even if you start with a pre-charged soil, you will still need to amend with a general purpose fertilizer later on.  For organic gardening while using Roots Organics soil, after about a month we prefer to top dress the soil with some earthworm castings or Super Bat Super Tea (garlic doesn't need much phosphorus or potassium at all, just a moderate amount of nitrogen).  If you prefer liquid fertilizer, Bio Vega from Canna Nutrients works great, too (and it contains no chemicals or animal byproducts).

- Mulch or hay (when growing hardneck garlic outdoors).

Fill containers about 3/4 of the way with soil.

Take your garlic, break off the cloves, DO NOT PEEL.  Plant the cloves with the pointy side upward (root side downward), leaving about four inches between each clove and the sides of the pot.  This will allow enough room for each head of garlic to develop.

Cover cloves with about 1-2 inches of soil, water them (gently, making sure not to disturb the spacing of the garlic), and place them under your grow light.  Make sure to keep your soil moist - not soaked because garic can rot/not produce under very wet conditions.  For hardneck garlic, you may want to get some mulch/hay and cover the top of the container to protect from the cold over the winter. 

With softneck garlic, in a week or two you will begin to see green sprouts coming out of the soil (hardneck garlic tends to sprout a little later, then goes dormant over the winter and new shoots usually start coming up towards the end of the winter/beginning of spring).  Some people like to grow garlic just to cut and eat these shoots (you can use them the same way you would chives) but for the growth of the actual garlic you should leave them alone.  They process light and bring nutrients to the garlic bulbs.

When fertilizing with a dry fertilizer, top dress your soil with your earthworm castings or guano every 3-4 weeks.  Water like usual.  When using Bio Vega, mix the liquid fertilizer into your water once a week and water like usual.

With softneck garlic, in about 7-10 months the leaves will turn yellow and brown and dry out.  When this begins to happen, stop watering.  You want to give them about two weeks to dry out, and then it's time to harvest!  Pull up garlic, brush off soil and allow to dry.  Once dry, softneck garlic can store for 6-10 months (when kept in a cool, dark, dry place). 

Hardneck garlic is a little different.  They produce scapes, which are string-bean-looking things that come out of the center of the plant and curl.  Most people cut these off, because it distributes energy back down to the garlic bulb and tends to produce larger bulbs.  Usually garlic is ready to harvest 2-3 weeks after cutting the scapes (like with softneck garlic, the leaves will start to die).  After harvesting, curing and drying your hardneck garlic, you will need to use it within 2-4 months since it does not have the long shelf life that softneck garlic does.

*UPDATE*

Here is our garlic 8 months later.

Products We Love: Root Pots

With all the fabric containers on the market (Root Pots, Smart Pots, Dirt Pots, EZ Roots, Root Pouch, etc.) it's hard to choose which to go with, or if you should go with a fabric container vs. plastic container at all. First, here is a list of pro's for fabric containers:

- Fabric containers allow more oxygen into your growing medium and your root system which means that the roots grow more vigorously and stronger than those in plastic containers (see following point). Aerobic organisms that metabolize nutrients for faster uptake depend on proper medium aeration also.

- All of the manufacturers of these types of containers advertise that they allow the plants' roots to "auto-prune," or "air prune," but a lot of people don't know what that really means. We know a plants' root system branches out in search of water and nutrients. In plastic containers, when the roots hit the walls they turn around and keep searching/growing. Eventually they circle and circle so much that they end up choking themselves which shortens the life of the plant (essentially becoming "root-bound.") With fabric containers, the roots find their way to the walls, then find the little spaces where oxygen is coming in and grow through them. Being exposed to the air and light causes the roots to dry out at the end. Normally that would sound bad, but it is actually a good thing. The plant senses the roots getting dry and grows more roots, making your root system even stronger.

- They are washable and reusable, so even though they cost more than plastic containers in the beginning, you will get many uses out of them! They don't crack or get crushed like plastic pots. Not only do they work out to be cheaper in the long run, they're better for the environment. Some companies (including Aurora Innovations, the manufacturers of the Root Pots) even make their containers out of 100% recycled materials, which is even better for the environment.

- They work as a filter, allowing use of most mediums in recirculating systems such as drip and ebb and flow without the risk of clogging your pumps. A lot of people want to use Coco in ebb and flow systems and fabric containers allow you to do that safely.

- There are so many more reasons, such as a better drainage, they can be planted directly into the ground (so you can start plants indoors to kickstart your outdoor season without the risk of transplant shock), they release heat from the root system to help prevent root rot (and insulate the medium better for use in colder climates), they are wider-based so they are sturdier than taller plastic containers, etc.

Ok, so now that you know why fabric...why Root Pots?

First of all, we love Aurora Innovations (Roots Organics and Soul Synthetics) as a company. They bring great, quality products to the market, plus they are good people in general who we love to support. As mentioned above the Root Pots are made from 100% recycled materials, plus they are degradable. If you start a long-life plant in them (say a tree or shrub) and plant it outdoors, the Root Pots begin to break down after about 3-5 years. They cost less than Smart Pots and come in a large variety of sizes. Our most popular sizes are the 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 gallon Root Pots, which we stock all of the time in both of our locations, but we can order any size you need. We've personally been using these for about 2 years now with coco and are more than happy with the results (the first run was a side-by-side with plastic containers and the Root Pots were the obvious winners). They definitely get The Grow Room's stamp of approval.