How To Plant Garlic Indoor

Before we discuss growing garlic indoors, something you should know that if you can grow garlic indoors, but you won't get a head of garlic like you would in the soil. What you will get are garlic buds or greens, which are the green tops of the bulbs.

These are different from green garlic - the early spring garlic or immature garlic bulbs and their edible green stalks.

Green garlic is still quite tasty and can be used as a condiment or garnish. You will find their flavor to be lighter and milder than that of fresh garlic.

If you want to harvest the mature garlic, that might be something different of planting green garlic. You really grow garlic indoors well and it’s actually pretty easy. Provided you observe a couple of key steps.

Fake Winter
Chilling garlic sticks for 4-6 weeks in the fridge (4-6 weeks at 4°C/30°F) . Before seeding garlic, we have to subject our garlic bulbs to a process called vernalization. It's sounds overly complicated, but it really doesn't just mean that we have to artificially expose garlic to at lower temps. It could be completed in our fridge.

Like we plant it as we do in cooler areas, we plant it anywhere from four to eight weeks before the first fall frost (September/October). This is to establish root development with minimal branch growth before the plant goes dormant for up to three months in the spring. Garlic grows for three to four months until the bulbs grow to their maximum size and new shoots begin to fall off. At this time, the garlic is harvested and cured for extended storage.

Preparation

A rich well-drained ph neutral potting soil and your container of choice indoor garlic growing usually defaults into container garlic growing simply. If you have raised beds or garden plots you could put your garlic inside. Grab any of the commercial mixes from the store add in about 10 percent and you’re good to go.

Prepared Garlic
Prepare a garlic bulb for planting (note we froze ahead of time), new garlic bulbs are grown from individual cloves of existing bulbs. All we did was separate out the individual garments from the main bulb and remove all paper coverings except the inner paper covering the lilac itself which was left intact try not to over pry those garments that look stuck just to move the bulb around. Eventually, they'll all relax enough to almost jump off themselves.

Planting Distance
Garlic needs at least about four inches of spacing between each clove, without this spacing you are sure to hinder the size of the bulbs you want to grow, so it is very important to have them at least four inches apart.

Container Preparation
Because garlic is a plant with very shallow roots, the depth of the pot really doesn't matter. Around six inches, more than six inches is fine. If you have a nursery, place the seeds in the nursery. Fill your pottery container all the way to the top with the previously mentioned soil mix and press it down an inch or so

Many of you your garlic may have sprouted at this time don’t worry that’s completely normal I have some that do some that don’t it’s not an indicator of a good crop or a bad one.

Planting Time
Plant the garlic root side down, with the blunt end of the pointy end digging into the soil, pushing the cloves about an inch deep into the wonderful soil mix, and don't worry about frosting indoors. No need to plant deeper again, watch the four inches apart to pinch the holes in and your garlic will fully planted.

Water your garlic, a good soak should last you 6 to 8 weeks, after about 2 months use your finger test to see how wet the soil is, or if you have a moisture meter, keep in mind too dry is better than too wet, especially with indoor garlic.

PS: Your can mulch your garlic, it’s an optional step but it does help mitigating water loss due to evaporation.

3-5 Weeks later
Within a month you’ll likely see your garlic start to sprout if it hasn’t already this is a great and a sure sign that your cloves are viable.

5 Weeks Growth

Garlic will grow much faster than its outdoor counterpart, which may stagnate until the spring thaw, and you can continue to grow it indoors, or move it outside once spring actually arrives.

But when you grow indoors, you will be pleasantly surprised. Garlic is ready to harvest in three months. Many times growing crops indoors can be more trouble than they are worth. Sometimes simply taking the loss and growing the crop in the next cycle will do the trick. easier.

Luckily the opposite is the case with garlic, it is an easy and low maintenance crop to grow indoors, actually coupled with an earlier harvest it really makes you wonder about growing garlic indoors for serious garlic lovers There is a better way to do it.