Experiment calls for a stiff drink ... for the garlic, not the gardener

I planted garlic last weekend, but first I gave it a stiff drink.

It wasn’t meant as a last hurrah for the cloves before they were plunged into the soil. Rather, it was all part of yet another garden experiment.

Of all the crops I grow, garlic has to be up there on the return on investment, especially if you factor in the time it takes to pick through garlic bulbs at the grocery store looking for the perfect one.

And it’s dead easy to grow. Whereas other crops need frequent tending to prune, harvest as fruit ripens and protect from assaults from insect pests, garlic needs none of this attention.

So you might wonder why I went out of my way to complicate an otherwise very easy planting process just to give my seed garlic a vodka martini.

Because it might grow better.

Garlic is so easy to plant that I was willing to add a few steps to see if it made enough of a difference to bother with.

The basic version of garlic planting is about as simple as it gets. Start with seed garlic meant for planting (not garlic from the grocery store, since it may not be a variety that is cold tolerant or may be treated with a chemical to discourage sprouting) or bulbs you’ve harvested in the previous year’s crop. There are two kinds of garlic — hard neck and soft neck — and the more hardy hard neck varieties are a better bet to grow in Wisconsin.

I only grow the variety ‘Music’ because it produces very large, easy to peel cloves that have a good flavor that is not too overpowering.

Right before planting­ — typically mid-October to early November — break the bulbs apart into individual cloves, choosing only large cloves to plant. Garlic is a heavy feeder, so prepare the soil with compost and some high-nitrogen fertilizer. A well-draining soil is best.

Then plant the cloves pointy end up about 3 to 4 inches deep and 5 to 6 inches apart. Water them lightly, then mulch with straw or leaves and forget about them until spring.

Here’s where my experiment, which I did on half my seed garlic, comes in. Some garlic growers swear by a fertilization soak before planting, so I followed the directions from Keene Garlic, a Madison-based garlic supplier, and started with a 10-minute sterilization soak. Although Keene offers multiple sterilization solutions, I chose the cheap vodka method because it seemed easiest. I left the spendy Tito’s in the liquor cabinet and opted for something in a plastic bottle from the gas station.

Then I soaked the cloves in a mixture of fertilizer (I used a fish and seaweed fertilizer) with one teaspoon of baking soda per gallon of fertilizer mixture for about three hours, although up to a day would have been fine. Then I planted like usual.

I’ll have to wait until July to find out the results of my side-by-side comparison, but if the fertilization soak produces noticeably larger garlic bulbs, a toast will be called for. I’ll bring out the good stuff and save the gas station vodka for the garlic.