Garlic is an ancient bulbous vegetable and a member of the Allium family so it is closely related to onions, shallots, and leeks. It is easy to grow. Garlic grows from individual cloves broken off from a whole bulb. Each of the cloves will form an entire new bulb with 5-10 cloves. This post will teach you how to grow garlic indoors.
There are so many health benefits in eating garlic. It contains a compound called Allicin which has very potent medicinal properties. Although it’s a very popular ingredient in cooking it was used in ancient history mainly for its medicinal properties and health benefits. The Babylonians, Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all wrote about garlic and its use in medicine and healing.
When garlic is chewed, chopped or crushed a sulfur compound called allicin is formed. This compound is what is believed to produce all the health benefits of garlic. It’s also very low in calories but it’s very nutritious. It contains vitamins C and B6, manganese, and selenium in respectable amounts. It also contains vitamin B1, calcium, copper, iron, potassium, and phosphorous.
Garlic boosts the immune system so supplementing your diet with it can help prevent a common cold. It also reduces the time your cold symptoms (if you didn’t eat your garlic and caught one) by 70%. Garlic can reduce blood pressure. Of course for this you’d have to eat about 4 cloves a day so you may want to consider a garlic supplement of about 1,500 mg. It also can lower your total and LDL cholesterol. Both high blood pressure and cholesterol are major factors in heart disease and stroke. This amazing food contains antioxidants that may aid in the prevention of dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. It may help minimize bone loss and be beneficial to those with osteoarthritis.
If you have a bleeding disorder or take blood thinners you must talk to your doctor before increasing your garlic intake, especially with garlic supplements. But garlic is a delicious and nutritious food you should grow indoors or outdoors.
And now to growing garlic…
You can easily grow garlic in a pot. The best garlic to plant is organic. The ones you find at the grocery store have usually been treated to prevent sprouting but if you find one sprouting at the store you can definitely plant it!
- Use the best garlic heads you can find.
- Fill a large pot with good potting soil.
- Separate the individual cloves, leaving the “paper” on each clove.
- Plant each clove vertically with the blunt end down and the pointed end up, in about 1” of soil.
- Place the pot in a sunny location and water it.
- Water when the soil starts to dry out but be careful not to overwater.
- When the greens reach a height of 3” – 4” cut them but leave an inch so they will regrow. These greens are known as garlic chives and can be used in cooking.
- The greens will eventually stop growing. They’ll turn brown and dry up. That’s when you dig up the new bulbs that each clove has formed.
Be sure to save cloves from the new heads of garlic to plant and start the process again. You can grow an endless supply of garlic right on your windowsill.