Our Allium Products

Just as you would do when growing garlic in your own vegetable patch, garlic cloves are traditionally planted on the shortest day of the year, in June. Then, in between feeding and watering, it's a waiting game for the mature crop to be harvested on the longest day of the year.

The first activity in growing garlic is ground preparation for planting of two varieties of garlic in June, covering 28ha. The varieties we plant are Inra and Pesto.

We save and treat our own planting cloves every year. These are the cloves from between one and two bulbs from the previous season, separated and prepared for planting. Planting rate is 16 cloves per metre. Machine sowing means all 28ha can be sown within a week.

A garlic clove must be nurtured well during its early stage of growth. Garlic growing demands healthy green tops free of white rot and nematodes, high daylight hours, water and food (in particular, nitrogen). The bulb only begins to fill out during the last few weeks of the growing period in December, and it can literally double in size within a matter of weeks.

Garlic won't recover if it dries out at any stage of the growing cycle, so drought fighting can be a common challenge for growers during the searing Marlborough summer months.

Garlic harvesting is done during January, all mechanically lifted, dirt separated and binned for drying. Yields are up to 17 tonne/ha green weight, about half of which is lost during drying and trimming.

After garlic bulbs are harvested and green tops removed, they need to dry thoroughly and cure by way of a three-week drying process to develop a strong garlic flavour. If you were to eat fresh garlic straight from the ground it would be much milder and won’t have the oomph or flavour as you’d expect from a cured bulb.

Garlic will keep some seven to eight months in cool, dry storage. The storage bins are used by the packhouse during the autumn and winter so that garlic can be cleaned and packed for distribution and sale – either in 10kg boxes of loose cloves or in 100g bags for pre-packed sales in supermarkets.

New Zealand grown garlic must adhere to strict NZGAP (industry standard) protocols, where spray and fertiliser usage records must be disclosed and recorded. The same unfortunately can't be said for imported garlic.

Growing garlic in huge quantities takes much planning. White Rot or nematodes (microscopic worms that feed on bacteria, fungi) can create havoc in the soil and render it futile for repeat garlic crops. Therefore often garlic will need to be planted out in fresh paddocks each season to ensure the best soil and pH levels are in place.

Marlborough offers ideal growing conditions for garlic. Garlic needs a winning combination of chilling time (a good frost doesn’t hurt) and hot dry sun. Geographically, further north garlic growers often battle against humidity, whilst further south it's colder and the plants don't get the sunshine hours required.