Why You Need To Not Skip The Mulch On Your Garlic This Fall (And How To Use It)

Fall is the perfect season to start planting garlic, and many gardeners are excitedly gearing up to fill their land with cloves. Planting garlic (Allium sativum) in the fall, especially the hardneck varieties, is crucial for harvesting a big yield later in spring, since it needs a period of low temperature (at least 40 degrees Fahrenheit) to stimulate bulb development. Planting during the fall gives your garlic ample time to develop healthy roots before going dormant in winter. 

Given their affinity for chilling, you might be tempted to think that everything would work out fine even if you let your cloves lie abandoned throughout the winter. This could be a major error since garlic responds best, both in terms of yield and plant growth, when it is given a layer of mulch while it lies asleep during the harsh winters, and the best way to do so is to leave a 3 to 4 inch layer on your garlic bed and remove it only when the warmer temperatures of spring arrive. 

Mulching is highly beneficial for crops in general, and there are a number of ways to use mulch in your yard or garden. It helps in preventing soil erosion, increasing fertility, and suppressing the growth of harmful weeds. Having said that, adding a layer of mulch is especially crucial for garlic farming as it helps the cloves survive extreme cold by providing much-needed insulation. Mulching during the fall will also save you from the troubles of weeding later, which can damage the garlic bulbs themselves, especially when it is done using a hoe.

Cold climates can often result in a condition called heaving, where garlic cloves poke out of the ground due to repeated freezing-thawing cycles. In fact, farmers usually spend hours every season looking for cloves that have emerged from the ground. Mulching prevents this condition and also protects garlic from desiccation. On top of providing protection from cold, mulch also helps protect your garlic from excessive rains – which can be abundant during autumn — by creating a happy barrier between rainwater and the crop, and steadily hydrating the garlic underneath. 

Moreover, besides providing these indirect but crucial benefits, mulching has also been proven to directly enhance garlic yield. According to a study published in IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Sciences, the use of plastic mulch with a 100% organic fertilizer led to a significant increase in the yield quality of garlic grown from bulbils, in addition to increasing the height of the plants, the number of leaves, and the girth of the stems as well. Furthermore, it has been found that compared to no-mulching, using materials like polyethylene mulch film or biodegradable mulch film creates significant improvements in yield and other agronomic traits in garlic, while also drastically increasing soil temperature. In short, mulch is an absolute no-brainer if you want a bounty of garlic harvest.

You can pick from a variety of materials to use as mulch. Grass clippings, chopped-up leaves, or straw are some of the best ingredients to use in a DIY mulch for your garlic. Materials like animal bedding and pine shavings are also great organic options for this purpose due to their light weight and the ability to trap air. The upside to using an organic mulch is that it saves the soil and the plants from the adverse environmental issues that follow prolonged use of certain types of plastic mulch.

With your mulch ready, add a healthy 3 to 4 inch layer to the garlic bed and make sure the covering is not so thick that it resists the emergence of shoots later in spring. Once you're done, simply wait for your garlic to chill before it ultimately starts sending up green shoots. When spring arrives, you have a couple of options with the layer of mulch you have added. You can either leave it in place to help retain soil moisture and prevent weeds, or you can remove it to help the soil warm up. Some farmers also remove the mulch to avoid the possibility of any fungal diseases ruining their crop. Depending on the specific conditions and climate in your region, you can do whatever suits you best. Once you do take the mulch away, you can use it to boost your compost pile.