Mission Endure 85: A Tail of 2 Garlics

I am always up for a good experiment, especially when it comes to the garden. So, last October I planned an experiment. I planted Garlic in the normal way, out in the garden in a raised bed. Our garlic normally survives under ground all winter and explodes in growth as the weather warms up. I love growing Garlic because once I plant it in the fall I normally don’t have to do anything to it until it is ready to harvest in July of the following year, and then I have a supply of Garlic that last me for the following year with enough left to plant cloves for the next year. This year was no exception. As fall turned to winter the growth was barely observable. As the weather warmed up in the spring the garlic stems popped up above the ground and it began to grow quickly.

But, for my experiment I also planted Garlic in my indoor garden in a 5 Gallon bucket the same day to see how it would grow over the winter indoors. I have this passion for indoor gardening and I wanted to see how it would do. Does garlic need a cold period to harden off and produce good cloves, or does it embrace the warmth of growing indoors all winter and produce bigger cloves indoors?

We still haven’t quite gotten to harvest time yet, but here is where we are at:

I don’t have any photos of what the Garlic looked like during the first month or so, because all the growth was underground. The following photos show the difference between indoor Garlic and outdoor Garlic at the end of January. You can see the indoor Garlic was way ahead in outgrowing the outdoor Garlic. This is what I expected. We had some very cold weather right after Christmas that lasted for 2 weeks, but other than that we had a fairly mild winter.

Indoor Garlic January 23, 2023

Outdoor Garden Garlic January 23, 2023

We took a trip to California on May 15, and before we left I moved the indoor Garlic out to the outdoor garden. I needed to get it out of the house so it would get rained on and get sunlight. So, since May 15 the indoor Garlic and the outdoor Garlic were raised under identical conditions. Below is what the indoor Garlic in the 5 Gallon bucket looks like today. You can see the stalks look thick and strong, but don’t look like what I am accustomed to in outdoor Garlic. I have not dug up the Garlic bulbs yet. I expect them to be large.

Indoor Garlic June 20, 2023

As you can see in the below photo, the outdoor Garlic looks quite a bit different from the indoor Garlic. The stalks, or scapes, are long and not as thick and contain bulbs on the end of them. This is what normal Garlic looks like at this point. I expect over the next month the scapes will produce a loop and the leaves at the bottom of the scape will die off and then the Garlic will be ready for harvest. I am not sure what to expect from the indoor Garlic.

Outdoor Garlic June 20, 2023

When I harvest the Garlic I will post an update to this page. I expect the indoor Garlic bulbs to be larger than the outdoor bulbs, but probably not as flavorful. We will see what happens. Stand by for now!