Best practices for fertilizer application for growing garlic - Ask Extension
1. When? I will be planting garlic soon (late November, I know it is late). Should I be adding fertilizer now, or wait until early spring?
2. What?...
Knowledgebase
Best practices for fertilizer application for growing garlic #890081
Asked November 20, 2024, 11:31 AM EST
1. When? I will be planting garlic soon (late November, I know it is late). Should I be adding fertilizer now, or wait until early spring?
2. What? Best choices for organic-type fertilizers to use? What % N ? other considerations? (bone meal too?)
3. How much?
4. Exactly where to apply ? To holes where 'seed' is placed? Side dressing (how many inches away?)? To all soil within 3-4 inches of plantings? Other options ??
Montgomery County Maryland
Expert Response
If your soil's organic matter [OM] content is at a decent level or high (such as in a well-established vegetable bed, or as evaluated by laboratory soil test results), then you can skip fertilizing this autumn. (In fact, just given how late it is, you can probably skip fertilizing now regardless of OM level.)
In spring, you can fertilize once or twice, say around mid-April and perhaps again in late May. What N-P-K formulation to use will depend on soil test results. For example, if testing shows high levels of phosphorus [P] and potassium [K], then all you'd need to apply is nitrogen [N]. Although garlic can be a "heavy feeder," doing well with plentiful nutrients, if the soil has plenty of P and K already, you'd only need to supplement N, such as with an organic fertilizer. If P and/or K levels are moderate or low, then you could use a more balanced N-P-K fertilizer source instead. The exact N-P-K to use is not as important; what you want to aim for is the general proportions in relation to each other, such as higher N with minimal P or K, or more even amounts of all three, and that will depend on what your soil already has. Soil test results are sufficient to use for about three years at a time, so if it's been a while since your last test, you can submit samples now or this winter so you have information to work with for spring fertilization.
Our Garden Fertilizer Basics and Fertilizing Vegetables pages provide more information, including about different fertilizer sources and types, and the Growing Garlic in a Home Garden page has cultivation tips, if useful.
If you were fertilizing upon planting, you could apply the fertilizer to the soil in the planting hole and mix it in thoroughly, but since you're skipping a fall application this year, you can apply fertilizer as a side-dressing instead in spring. The distance isn't too critical as long as any fertilizer granules/dust that lands on foliage in the process of applying it is rinsed off so it doesn't "burn" the leaves. Its precise placement isn't as important since soil life (insects, isopods, worms, etc.) will work it into the soil (in depth and in spread) as they move around and explore for food, so they will naturally "till" the fertilizer into the root area for you.
Miri
In spring, you can fertilize once or twice, say around mid-April and perhaps again in late May. What N-P-K formulation to use will depend on soil test results. For example, if testing shows high levels of phosphorus [P] and potassium [K], then all you'd need to apply is nitrogen [N]. Although garlic can be a "heavy feeder," doing well with plentiful nutrients, if the soil has plenty of P and K already, you'd only need to supplement N, such as with an organic fertilizer. If P and/or K levels are moderate or low, then you could use a more balanced N-P-K fertilizer source instead. The exact N-P-K to use is not as important; what you want to aim for is the general proportions in relation to each other, such as higher N with minimal P or K, or more even amounts of all three, and that will depend on what your soil already has. Soil test results are sufficient to use for about three years at a time, so if it's been a while since your last test, you can submit samples now or this winter so you have information to work with for spring fertilization.
Our Garden Fertilizer Basics and Fertilizing Vegetables pages provide more information, including about different fertilizer sources and types, and the Growing Garlic in a Home Garden page has cultivation tips, if useful.
If you were fertilizing upon planting, you could apply the fertilizer to the soil in the planting hole and mix it in thoroughly, but since you're skipping a fall application this year, you can apply fertilizer as a side-dressing instead in spring. The distance isn't too critical as long as any fertilizer granules/dust that lands on foliage in the process of applying it is rinsed off so it doesn't "burn" the leaves. Its precise placement isn't as important since soil life (insects, isopods, worms, etc.) will work it into the soil (in depth and in spread) as they move around and explore for food, so they will naturally "till" the fertilizer into the root area for you.
Miri
