Thursday, May 1, 2008
Grow garlic on a windowsill
Garlic will grow happily in a container on your windowsill. Buy fresh garlic from the grocery store and use the largest cloves to plant. Put the unpeeled clove, pointed side up, in light soil with the tip just showing. Keep the soil damp and in a few days you should see a green shoot. You can use this shoot as a mild garlic flavoring (Give it time to grow at least six inches first, then trim only a few inches at a time. If you don't trim this top, it might become quite long and topple over - that's ok. When it turns brown and dries up, dig the clove of garlic you planted and you should have a full bulb. Take a clove from that and start over! (Container grown garlic will make small cloves.)
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9 comments:
Cool - I'm going to try this! Thanks.
That is cool, I am going to try it too :)
When I was in Beijing, they used the garlic tops in chicken stir fry. It was pretty tasty, sort of a green onion/light garlic taste.
Kez linked me here. I was wondering how in the world to grow garlic and wondered if it was as simple as getting one from my grocery store. Thanks! I'll definitely try this!
Clicked 'submit' too fast! LOL
What are the watering requirements if I put this in my raised flower bed outside? I assume it will grow bigger cloves out there? And how often should you trim the shoot? How much room should I give it to grow outside? Will it flavor whatever I plant it next to?
Thanks!
Laurie, garlic won't do well if you plant it outside in the summer. It's planted in the fall so it can have a chance to develop deep roots to anchor it. You can plant it outside and only harvest the tops if you like. It takes about an inch a week of water. You should only trim off the tops when they get over 6 inches or so. Here's a site that gives good directions for growing garlic outside:
The Garlic Store
Thanks!! And thanks for the link - very informative - I'll be trying that this fall. :)
I'd love to know how it works out for you, Laurie!
I tried this, but all ive got so far is roots, no green shoot, any suggestion? planted it about 6 weeks ago
If you planted 6 weeks ago and there's no growth yet, the garlic is probably dead. Did you use just one live clove? Make sure it's firm and bright colored, don't plant it too deep for an inside pot, and put it where it can get at least a little sunshine.
Good luck!
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