26/05/2026
We are almost finished planting our garlic at the nursery. Today Mark (on the tractor), Colin and Cam (on the back) were planting Aorangi Marbled Purple Stripe galic, which we sell as Aorangi MPS. t's a great tasting and long keeping garlic, plus easy to grow.
While tradition says that garlic should be planted on the shortest day of the year, we strongly encourage our customers to plant earlier than that. We always plant late May at the nursery. Planting around now is particularly important for home gardeners to ensure there is more growth on the garlic before the inevitable garlic rust rears its head around November.
After we harvest in December/January, depending on the cultivar, the stalks are trimmed back before being placed in our drying racks and dried outdoors for a couple of months. Once dry, the garlic is cleaned and graded ready for sale from late March onwards, which you can purchase to plant your own crop or to eat.
๐ง๐ถ๐ฝ๐ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ด๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฎ๐ ๐ต๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ
๐ง Ensure the soil is nice and fine to a depth of 15cm
๐ง Break the garlic bulbs into individual cloves (for printanor, only plant the largest third - the other 2/3 will never grow into decent sized bulbs)
๐ง Plant them in rows spaced about 8cm apart to a depth of 20-25mm. Rows should be 40cm apart so the plants get plenty of light as they grow larger.
๐ง Feed them well in early September and again in early to mid November. Garlic makes most of its size from late October onwards. Use a balanced N:P:K, 12:12:12. Donโt use high nitrogen fertilisers. Garlic really likes a good feed.
๐ง Harvest when theyโre ready when they start to droop and before the outer leaves die right back. The outer leaves (lower down) form the protective outer skin around the bulbs and if they remain intact then the bulbs will be wrapped and will keep much longer.
