How to Plant the Cloves of Stiff Heads of Garlic

Wait until fall if you live in the northern states to start planting stiffneck garlic cloves to ensure the cloves have cold exposure and to produce the largest clove numbers and size. Wait until spring to plant garlic in warmer or southern areas.

Break the garlic cloves with your fingers into separate cloves a day before you plant them. Start with three large garlic bulbs to plant a 5-foot row. Ensure you do not nick the cloves while separating them. Set any damaged or small cloves aside, which you can clean and use for cooking.

Loosen the soil with a spade and add 4 to 5 inches of compost to the soil if available along with 1 to 2 lbs. of all-purpose fertilizer and 1/2 lb. of nitrogen fertilizer for every 100 square feet. Create trenches 4 inches deep in the soil using a hoe.

Plant the cloves upright with the point of the clove up and the root end down.

Space the stiffneck garlic cloves in rows 12 inches apart. Space your garlic cloves 6 inches apart.

Cover the planted cloves with soil, then cover the soil with a light layer of mulch consisting of straw or hay. The mulch will keep most of the weeds from sprouting. Pull out any weeds that may form, which you can spot right away through the mulch.

Remove the scapes from the garlic as soon as you see them the following summer, which will help produce larger bulbs. Cut off the scapes 1/2 inch above the garlic's top plant leaf with garden shears. If you do not remove the scapes, they will grow straight 5 to 6 feet tall. One variety of stiffneck garlic called Rocambole has coiled scapes, a normal occurrence for this variety.

Dig up your new garlic bulbs carefully using a garden fork when you notice the leaves drying out and turning yellow, and then place the bulbs in one layer on newspaper to dry. Keep the bulbs in an area with good ventilation away from direct sunlight, so the bulbs can dry completely.

Cut the garlic tops 1 inch away from the bulb and cut off the bulb roots after the garlic bulbs have dried. Store the garlic bulbs in an area with 65 to 75 percent humidity and at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.