How to Grow Rojo Garlic
- 1). Amend the garlic bed by mixing a 3-inch layer of sand and a 3-inch layer of compost into the top 10 inches of soil.
- 2). Perform a soil pH test with a home testing kit or by mailing soil samples to your county cooperative extension office for analysis. Aim for a pH between 6 and 7. The county agent can offer advice as to how to adjust the soil's pH.
- 3). Separate the cloves from the garlic head. Plant them, point up, with the base of the clove buried 4 inches deep. Space each clove 5 inches apart. When planting more than one row of rojo garlic, space the rows 30 inches apart.
- 4). Water the planting bed to a depth of 10 inches and supply the garlic plants with at least 1 inch of water a week. Stop watering in July.
- 5). Spread 4 inches of straw over the garlic bed, three weeks after planting the cloves and remove it in the spring when the soil warms up. Gardeners in the warmer regions of the rojo's hardiness zones don't need to mulch the bed.
- 6). Fertilize the rojo garlic plants three weeks after they sprout. Use 1 lb. of 10-10-10 fertilizer for each 100 foot row. Dig a 4-inch-deep trench, 4 inches to the side of the row. Scatter the fertilizer on the bottom of it, cover the trench and water to a depth of 10 inches.
- 7). Harvest the rojo garlic when the leaves turn brown and die back.
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