The Ultimate Guide to Garlic Farming in Kenya.
Garlic; the pricy spice!
Garlic is a tasty spice that is used in almost all homes that cook ‘good’ food. Even though there is the introduction of processed and powdered garlic, the fresh one still makes food taste better. Garlic is high in proteins and fatty acids which are quite healthy. There are basically two types of garlic that every beginner should know about; Hardneck and soft neck garlic.
When I started out with garlic farming, I did not put much effort into planning and details as to how I would plant the crop as a fully functional business. I basically just took a few garlic cloves that I found in the kitchen and placed them in some water until they germinated. Once they did, I took them out to the garden and carefully inserted them into some soil. I did no land prep or soil testing. I did not even space them out properly. This was just a simple experiment that I did to prove that garlic actually grows from cloves and not from manufactured or processed seeds!
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My findings?
The garlic cloves shot in about a week with regular watering. I was so happy that my experiment was bearing positive results. However, time was now going to tell the difference. Garlic takes an average of about four months to fully mature. I did not factor in that point.
My impatience led me to abandon the experiment and look into how I would have done the experiment better.
What should I have done right?
1. Land Preparation.
I should have put a little bit more effort into creating a space designated for my garlic crop. I don’t mean physically farrowing a huge ten-acre piece of land! But just enough space to suit my small handful of cloves. Garlic generically does well in well-drained dark cotton soils of a pH of about 5.5 to 6.
The piece of space that I used was not fertile at all. I did not even plow it before inserting the cloves. That is where I went wrong.
My method of planting was also to blame. It will wholesomely depend on the farmer to pick the type of sowing that they would wish to use. Of course, it will also be determined by your land location, weather conditions, and the availability of water for irrigation.
The best method of planting garlic is by making ridges that are about a meter wide.
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2. Sowing and Clove spacing.
I never knew that garlic cloves are supposed to be planted facing a particular direction! Once I placed them in water to germinate, which was a method that I learned from my primary school, they formed shoots that guided me on easier sowing. For those who are planting garlic for the first time and would not like to do it the way I did, sow it by positioning the softer pointed part upwards.
This was one of the newest things I learned about garlic farming. Naturally, you would expect to put the seed in soil and expect magic to happen! But it is different with this magical spice.
- Depth.
When inserting the cloves in the soil, try not to insert them too deep. I used my thumb to measure the depth and you could too. That will be a depth of about six centimeters if you are a sucker for measurements…
- Space.
Give your garlic plants some space to effectively grow and produce sizeable cloves. When I did my experiment, I clamped my cloves together that it looked like I had planted a garlic bulb all at once. If you are using ridges which is the most common method of planting garlic, it would be advisable to space the ridges at least 20 centimeters from each other. Within each ridge, try to space create a space of about 15 centimeters between each clove or garlic crop.
This would guarantee the best yield for your garlic crop. The disadvantage of sowing your cloves together or too close to each other is that they will soon start to compete with each other for nutrients. Then it will be survival for the fittest in your big plot of land.
3. Watering.
Rainfall is by far the best form of watering the garlic crop. Regular rainfall is good. Too much rainfall is dangerous. This is where the aspect of the type of soil you plant garlic in comes in. Well-drained soils are perfect for garlic in places that receive a lot of rainfall. Too much rainfall in poorly drained soils will lead to the rotting of the crop.
In places that receive little to no rainfall at all, you are not discouraged from trying the garlic crop out. You could be doing it for personal or home consumption, so try it for a healthier family! If you are thinking about planting the garlic crop in your backyard as I did, make sure you have a supply of fresh and clean water to use to irrigate your crop regularly.
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4. Fertilizer.
We are on the verge of going 100 percent organic! Cow dung is a super fertilizer. Recommended by my grandmother from my village, cow dung contains all the necessary nutrients for the growth of a successful garlic crop. However, if you do not have access to cow manure, you can use other forms of livestock manure that is equally as effective as cow manure.
In general, Here is what I was supposed to learn from my experience.
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Garlic can grow in very few parts of my country.
This is not to discourage anyone from trying out this crop. But garlic typically has some soil conditions and appropriate rainfall requirements that will guarantee its optimum productivity. Of course, you can do it in your backyard or even from a penthouse in the middle of the central business district. What matters, is setting it up for its appropriate conditions for growth.
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The best seed for garlic according to size, quality, and quantity.
The second time I tried to plant garlic a bit more professionally, I sourced for better-certified cloves from a farmer who was already planting the crop on a large scale. At that time I got the seeds at 300 a kilo of dried cloves…
The seeds that I got were not too big and were not too small. Once you source certified seeds, be choosy, because the size and quality will affect your yield.
At that time I bought a total amount of 50 kilograms of garlic seed. Which I hoped to sow in my designated space of about fifty square meters. This space turned out to be too small!
Select a planting area that is large enough for your crop quantity or purchase enough seed for the land that you have available for sowing the garlic crop.
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You need to source for an adequate market for your crop even before sourcing for your seed.
Marketing is something I learned the hard way. While or before thinking about planting the garlic crop, it is advisable to find a gap. If you would like to get into garlic farming in Kenya as a business, a simple law of business would dictate that you find a gap in a market and seek to fill it with your crop. Not just to plant the crop because you want to make money. But I did… I wanted a lot of money in fact! But I did not factor in the case of where I would sell my garlic at the end of the four months.
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Even though garlic is a repellent, it can still be affected by diseases and pests.
Garlic naturally repels insects, snakes, and even rodents. In some cases, garlic even repels pests from other crops. Thrips are the most common pest that affects the garlic crop. I love being organic. And even though artificial pesticides are the recommended solution for thrips, have you tried rabbit urine?
This is a simple guide that I thought to compile so as to share my experience with the world with regard to garlic farming in Kenya. You could call it an ultimate guide to garlic farming. Reach out to me to share your experience with this lovely crop. Kudos!
