Doug Kanter wrote:
... You can grow garlic even if you're blindfolded, drunk and lobotomized. And
yes, you can plant the store-bought stuff. Plant some RIGHT NOW, and one
more batch in late July. Finally, plant a crop in late October for growth &
harvest in mid to early spring next year. Plant the cloves with the root end
DOWN, about 3-4" deep. Water, cover with a little mulch (grass clippings or
whatever), and start looking up recipes.

Each clove will produce a head of garlic (underground) like you buy in the
store. The top growth will be nothing but green stalks, like onions and most
everything else in the Allium family. When the stalks begin to turn brown,
dig carefully underneath the bulbs to remove them. Cut off the browned
stalks, brush as much dirt off the garlic as possible, and place on a screen
to dry until the skin is crisp (for best storage). Some people braid the
stalks with the heads attached and hang the whole thing up. The key is dry,
clean skin, and harvesting them without bruising...


The only things I would add a

You can use the first growth for cooking. It's mild. You can get a
couple of cuttings. If you do this, you will not get a garlic head.

The plant will send up a flower stalk. It is easily recognizable since
the stalk is round while the leaves are flat. It has a pointed end (the
flower) and makes a loop or two. Interesting looking. Break it off. If
you don't remove it, the plant will send its energy to the flower and
not to the garlic head. The heads will be 30-50% smaller. You can use
the flower stalks in cooking (some of them may need to be peeled) but
they're a bit milder than the garlic. I just finished removing my
flowers here in New England. In Maryland they might be a bit earlier.

For those plants on which you missed the flowers, you will get some
small bulbils forming at the top of the stalk (which will straighten out
in the process of growth). You can plant these close and use the
resulting greens for cooking. I've never gotten a sizeable garlic head
from one of them.

Optimum sprouting temperature for garlic is 40F, the normal refrigerator
temperature. Don't store the garlic in the fridge.

If you plant in the fall and your ground freezes during the winter,
mulch your garlic. This is not to prevent the ground from freezing, but
to prevent it from thawing and freezing as the temperature changes over
the winter. The freeze/thaw cycling will heave the cloves out of the
ground and break whatever roots have grown to that point, setting the
garlic back a bit. That means smaller heads.

I don't remove the tops when I harvest the garlic. It dries fine. I just
bundle it into groups of 10 and set it on a screen (in my greenhouse). A
sunny spot is OK for drying, but don't store the garlic permanently in
the sun. The result will be greening of the heads, like potatoes. Air
circulation is essential for drying. When the heads are dry, cut off the
tops, trim the roots and brush off the dirt.

Hardneck varieties are difficult to braid. Even the softneck varieties
are difficult after the drying has started. Do it as soon as the plants
are harvested. Getting a good tight braid takes some practice.

When you harvest the garlic, set aside the biggest and best heads. You
will plant these in the fall for next year.

Garlic, like all alliums, likes rich soil. Compost works well, Give it
lots of fertilizer (within reason, of course). Water is essential,
particularly when the heads are sizing up (at flowering time and after).

My schedule in New England is: October-November plant and mulch; about
April go down the row looking for skips and move the mulch aside there
to allow the plant to emerge, replace mulch to keep weeds down;
fertilize in April; Remove flowers mid June to end of June; harvest late
July to August.