Garlic Production in Spring

By late spring, garlic will be grown tall before it starts to flower. 

Meanwhile, since we are a certified organic farm we need to rotate our crops every year. We have a three year rotation, therefore it takes three acres to grow one acre of garlic. While we are growing garlic on one acre the other two acres are in cover crop or planted with another cash crop.

Here is a farm tractor that prepares the soil for fall garlic plating.

In the photo below, the garlic is getting ready to flower. The plant sends up scapes and they curl around once or twice before straightening out and flowering. Before the plant fully flowers, we cut the scapes off to conserve energy. This gives the plant more energy to devote to making the bulb larger rather than the production of the flower. Here in Maine, we spend Fourth of July weekend cutting garlic scapes.

Tip: Garlic scapes can be used to make pesto or they are great chopped up into a stir fry! Nice mild garlic flavor.