I love fresh green garlic, especially during the winter's. We Gujju's eat "bajra and jowar no jaddo rotlo" (thick bhakri) with green garlic sauted in ghee with a pinch of jeera, salt and turmeric powder - it taste's just yumm...
The more you miss things, the sooner you learn them. Finally I found some fresh garlic in a local Indian grocery store during peak winter here in Chicago, but the price of it put me down. Believe me, I carved it more that day. Back home in India I used to grow plants I was fond of in our little balcony / patio, never thought of growing food any time back then as these things were easily available in the vegetable market seasonally.
I have grown money plant, mint, basil and many other plants here, but never tried my hands on growing garlic anytime. As I live in Chicago, the thought of growing from seeds is a long thought process as we have to grow plants indoor for almost 8 - 9 months during a year. I have been growing fresh green garlic indoors for almost 5+ years now that too indoors, here is how?
THINGS YOU NEED
- a planter (I always prefer use and throw plastic container as it is easy to dispose of as i grow it in batches)
- indoor potting soil (available in local nursery or any supermarket garden center)
- a garlic pod (store bought)
- gardening gloves to protect you hands or a polythene/plastic bag
- some old newspapers to lay on your work surface to avoid spilling and for easy cleaning.
- some garden tools (i use unused old spatulas which i no more use in cooking)
- bottle sprayer to water the soil
Below are detailed step-wise pictorials for easy referral.
1) Take a store bought garlic pod.
2) Separate out each petal.
3) Fill your container with potting soil. Press the soil gently with your hand leaving some air.
4) Take individual garlic petals and press them facing the sprouting side facing outside the soil. Press it gently into the soil, more than half of the petal should be inserted into the soil.
5) Insert all the garlic petals likewise as in Step 4. leaving sufficient space around each petal to enable good growth and for the roots to spread out. Once this is done sprinkle some water to wet the soil for good growth.
Note : You can see the soil is loose to leave some air pockets.
6) Closer view of the soil, it appears moist n not wet. What a sight Ahh !!! finally after a week of planting the garlic pods i see the sprouts. It can take more days or less depending upon the light, sun, shade factors it gets. I place all my house plants near the window as there is less sunlight during the winter months as the days are shorter here.
7) Here is the close up of the fresh garlic sprouts. Keep watering the garlic plant twice a week or as required. Avoid over watering, the soil should be moist not wet. I prefer using a bottle sprayer so that i do not over water the plants.
8) After almost 15- 20 days, this is how it looks tall and sturdy.
You may notice I have used two different planters techniques here. One without plastic bag and one with a plastic layering within the pot. I find the one with plastic layering easy as during harvest time it is easy to manage the pull out method and cleaning procedure.
9) The plant will start to fold over, let it be do not touch the green leafy part until you want to harvest it. Now is the right time to harvest the fresh homegrown green garlic OR "LILU LASUN" as we call it in Gujarati.
10) Prior to a day or two of harvest stop watering the plant reason being the ease to take out if the soil is loose and not wet or moist. At the time of harvesting gently hold the green leafy part of the fresh garlic together firmly and give the plant a shake or a lift away from the pot (do this gently so that you do not tear just the leafy part and leave the white portion and the roots in the soil) keep shaking the leafy part away from the soil.
Now here I feel the planter with the plastic bag is easy to remove as you just have to remove the plastic bag out of the planter, hold it firmly together along with the greens intact and squish the soil part below to loosen the soil for ease in removal. Take out as much soil as possible which can later be reused again for planting.
11) Time to wash the freshly harvested green garlic properly under tap water.
12) After a proper wash now you are ready to use it anyhow you want. I cannot resist myself to make "LILU LASUN" for my very first seasonal garlic harvest.
RECIPE : I substitute my homegrown green garlic bounty in all recipes where i can use dry garlic. Believe me this fresh green garlic tastes even more fresh and departs an earthy flavor to your food.
So what are you waiting for ... Fall is gone ... Winter's approaching hurry up go grab the dry garlic pods and dig up the soil.
STORAGE : You can read a detailed post of how I store and use homegrown fresh green garlic all year long.
STORAGE : You can read a detailed post of how I store and use homegrown fresh green garlic all year long.
CARE NOTES :
1) I have grown this indoors, if you wish to grow outdoors procedure is the same, BUT INDOORS THE AMOUNT OF WATER YOU SPRINKLE IS LESS THAN OUTDOORS. When grown outdoors the plant soil will dry out fast so you need to actually water the plant properly to keep it moist and avoid it from drying and finally getting dry leaves instead of green and eventually dying.
2) My indoor garlic plant took a week of sprouting as shown in STEP 6, it may take more or less days, depending on where you keep it, i kept mine near the window to get maximum natural day light.
3) It is important for any indoor plant to get enough natural light so placing it near the window or outdoors will boost the plant growth.
4) If you want to grow dry garlic pods and not intending to harvest it green, then space individual garlic pods with more distance than shown here, follow the same process, but it takes a good 3 + months to get that whole garlic pod out of the single individual garlic pod planted, so the greens will eventually start drying after the garlic has grown to its full bloom below the soil, keep on watering regularly till you get all the above greens dry enough it may look like dry grass till you finally harvest them.
5) For your first time plant a single garlic pod as shown here, do not worry if some pods of it do not bloom or sprout, its okay, water it regularly. Proper and adequate watering it the key to keep plants fresh and healthy green.
Hope this helps... If you have any queries, do write to me.
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4 comments:
Hi, I love green garlic, but it is very hard to find here in Toronto. I will try this. Thank you for the post.
sure Pratik :) Pleasure.
Does garlic require less or more water. Mine in outdoor.
Hi SS,
depends on sun, shade, soil etc. if you keep outdoors plus sun more water. I grow mine on the window sil indoors in winter, so not much water. Also I harvest it while green single pods only, do not let it grow mature as a whole bulb so less water.