How to Grow Garlic
With its unique aroma, taste, and flavor, garlic has been a natural antibiotic since ancient times, and its benefits are innumerable. Instead of purchasing it from a store, you can grow fresh garlic at home. 5-Minute Crafts will show you that it’s possible to grow garlic at home by following a few steps.
The parts of the garlic
Garlic is a perennial herb with a head (bulb) covered in whiteish papery skin. If you peel it off, you’ll see many lobes covered in papery skin. Each of these lobes is called a clove. Before the bulb forms, some garlic greens (shoots) grow out from a garlic clove. They are also known as baby garlic.
What you’ll need
Instructions
1. Peel off the skins from the bulbs (heads) and cloves without separating any part. Note that the clove size affects the yield and growth of garlic.
2. Insert the garlic into a glass of water. The base needs to touch the water. The water level should cover slightly less than half of the garlic sprout. Make sure to keep the roots and ends of the shoots looking upward.
3. Place the container in a sunny location. Make sure that your chosen location gets 6-12 hours of sunlight per day. A fluorescent bulb or grow light could be OK too.
Note: If there’s too much light, the sprouts will droop. If that happens, remove the container from the sunlight for 2 days. In the beginning, in around 5 days, you should slowly start to see the sprouts growing.
4. Freshen up the water periodically. If the water turns brown, like after 7 days, refill it with clean water, and maintain it.
5. The greens will noticeably grow upward, while roots will rise from the base. They’ll be ready when they’ve reached between 4-7 inches (10 to 18 centimeters). Remember the greens are bitter near their base.
Bonus: Some other important things
- You can also grow garlic greens from individual cloves. To do so, start separating them, one by one, with their papery skin on. Next, wrap them in a moist paper towel. Keep in mind that they’ll start sprouting in 2-3 days if a warm location is provided.
- If you use a single clove, a shot glass works best. For multiple cloves, you can use a wide cup. To keep the cloves standing upright, poking toothpicks in the cloves helps a lot.
- Make sure to add enough water to cover the bottom of the garlic.
- Place it somewhere that gets enough sunlight — a sunny windowsill is a good idea.
- Make sure to refresh the water each time it looks cloudy.
- When they’re about 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) tall, you can harvest them. Remember to remove a third of the shoot each time.