While solar spectra contain a lot of CaI and MgI infrared lines, no laboratory-measured spectra of these atoms have been reported for wavenumbers below 2000cm^-1^. This study reports CaI spectra in 1300-4500cm^-1^ range and MgI spectra in 1300-4500cm^-1^ range. We perform the time-resolved Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy study of a plasma created by the laser ablation of MgF_2_ and CaF_2_ targets in a vacuum. The oscillator strengths(f-values) are calculated using quantum defect theory (QDT) which shows good agreement with the available experimental and theoretical results. We report several CaI and MgI IR lines which have not been measured previously in laboratory. The recorded spectra allow to determine the excitation energies of some Ca I and Mg I states with high orbital momentum (l=4,5). We also provide a large list of QDT-calculated f-values for CaI and MgI in the range of 800-9000cm^-1^.