Taking Care of Garlic in the Spring

Garlic is planted in the fall after a few light frost and before the ground freezes solid. Typically that is October - November. If you are in a warmer region it is ideal to plant 2-4 weeks before the coldest time of the year. Garlic spends Fall and Winter making strong long roots, and by spring time rapid leaf growth happens in synergy with large bulb growth underground. Exciting! Harvest typically begins around the 4th of July.

Spring time also makes the weeds grow. We spend a lot of spring time weeding the garlic because those weeds will take nutrients from the soil that the garlic could use to grow big and mighty.

For a smaller crop of garlic you may consider side dressing the base with an ORGANIC Nitrogen Fertilizer- Garlic LOVES Nitrogen. The spring rains will bring the fertilizer down to through the soil. Check out Dr. Earth for side dressing below.

Dr Earth Organic 7 All Purpose Fertilizer contains a suburb blend of feather meal, fish bone meal, seaweed extract, phosphate, mined potassium sulfate and seven champion Pro-Biotic strains of beneficial soil microbes as well as Endo and Ecto Mycorrhizae. For use in feeding all flowers, vegetables, bedding plants, shrubs, all trees, perennials, annuals, and also potted plants. This champion soil builder is made of 100% organic and natural ingredients. Provides consistent and stable plant growth with no growth spike. Nutrients are released quickly producing exceptional results.

If Dr. Earth is not available, don’t sweat it. Find a similar organic fertilizer (4-4-4) that has Microbes. Extra garlic care in the Spring will change bulb size from small to LARGE no doubt!

Fertilizer can be applied 1x month for the months of April-June.

In addition to fertilizer, we feed the garlic compost tea. Why use compost tea? The wikipedia entry on composting has a short but sweet overview of what compost tea is. Simply put, it's a liquid fertilizer and disease suppressor that is made by soaking small amounts of biologically-active compost in water, often with other ingredients such as kelp or molasses to feed the microorganisms, and then aerated over a period of one to two days. The "tea" is then sprayed using a typical hand-held sprayer either directly onto plants, the soil, or it is applied as a soil-drench (root dip) for seedlings. We have used a watering can as well. You don’t have to spray it.

Compost tea recipe wise- check out this link

Every day is a good day to weed around your garlic!