How to Grow Sprouted Garlic
- 1). Pry apart the sprouting garlic bulb gently, separating and peeling each clove.
- 2). Fill as many planting containers as you want garlic plants with one part sand to three parts potting soil mixture. Otherwise, work a couple of handfuls of sand into the garden bed where you want to plant the garlic, using a garden spade.
- 3). Hold a sprouted garlic clove with the sprout upright and push it into the soil around 4 inches deep and cover over lightly. Repeat for each clove you want to plant. If planting in the garden, space the cloves around 15 inches apart.
- 4). Fertilize with a nitrogen fertilizer every two weeks during the growing season -- midspring through summer if planted in fall -- applying around 2 diluted tbsp. per plant. Water weekly during the growing season, but stop around two weeks before harvest.
- 5). Harvest the garlic once the lower leaves of the plant start to brown, but the majority are still green -- around middle to late summer if planted in fall. Use a garden spade to loosen the soil around the plant, and use your hands to pull the root up by the stalk.
- 6). Shake off all the dirt, then tie the garlic plants together in bunches, with a maximum of 15 per bunch, and hang in a dry room with good ventilation for three to four weeks to cure. Cut off the dried stalk about an inch from the bulb with clippers once cured.