How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Garlic
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Garlic does best in full sun, so select a planting site that receives 6 to 8 hours of sunlight per day. A couple weeks or so before planting, prepare the soil by mixing in a healthy helping of compost or aged manure.
If your garden soil is poorly draining or high in clay, garlic grower Robin Jarry of Hope, Maine, suggests growing in heavily mulched raised beds instead. “I plant in raised beds for good drainage, and then mulch with about 6 inches of old hay after the ground freezes. I never water my garlic—I like low-maintenance vegetables!” Raised beds should be 2 to 3 feet wide and at least 10 to 12 inches deep.
When to Plant Garlic
Garlic is most often planted in the fall (between late September and November). In areas that get a hard frost, plant garlic cloves 6 to 8 weeks before the first fall frost date, before the ground freezes.
Garlic does best if it can experience a “dormancy” period of colder weather—at least 40˚F (4°C)—that lasts 4 to 8 weeks. By planting garlic bulbs in the fall, they have time to develop healthy roots before temperatures drop and/or the ground freezes, but not enough time for the garlic to form top growth. Then, by early spring, the bulbs “wake up” from their dormancy and start rapidly producing foliage, followed by bulbs, before the harshest heat of summer stops their growth.
In mild climates, you can plant garlic cloves as late as February or March, but the resulting bulbs won’t be as large. However, you can still enjoy the garlic scapes during the summer. (Scapes are the plant’s tender green shoots and have a mild garlic flavor. Enjoy on eggs, in salads, as a pizza topping, or in stir-fries!) If you plant in the spring, wait to do so until after the soil can be worked, and it crumbles apart easily.
How to Plant Garlic
- Immediately before planting, work a couple tablespoons of 5-10-10 complete fertilizer, bonemeal, or fish meal into the soil several inches below where the base of the garlic cloves will rest.
- Select large, healthy cloves, free of disease. The larger the clove, the bigger and healthier the bulb you will get the following summer.
- Break apart cloves from the bulb a few days before planting, but keep the papery husk on each individual clove.
- Plant cloves 4 to 8 inches apart and 2 inches deep, in their upright position (with the wider root side facing down and pointed end facing up).
- Plant in rows spaced 6 to 12 inches apart. A single 10-foot row should yield about 5 pounds of the fragrant bulbs, depending on the variety.
In this short video, Ben shares his tried and tested techniques for planting a truly spectacular crop of garlic.
- Gardeners in areas where the ground freezes should mulch garlic beds heavily with straw or leaves to ensure proper overwintering. Read our mulching guide for more info!
- Mulch should be removed in the spring after the threat of frost has passed. (Young shoots can’t survive in temps below 20°F / -6°C on their own. Keep them under cover.)
- In the spring, as warmer temperatures arrive, shoots will emerge through the ground.
- Cut off any flower shoots that emerge in spring. These may decrease bulb size.
- Garlic is a heavy feeder. In early spring, side-dress with or broadcast blood meal, pelleted chicken manure, or a synthetic source of nitrogen such as a pelleted fertilizer.
- Fertilize again just before the bulbs begin to swell in response to lengthening daylight (usually early May in most regions). Repeat if the foliage begins to yellow.
- Keep the planting site well-weeded. Garlic doesn’t do well with competition—it needs all available nutrients!
- Water every 3 to 5 days during bulbing (mid-May through June). If May and June are very dry, irrigate to a depth of 2 feet every eight to 10 days. As mid-June approaches, taper off watering.
- Harvest from fall plantings will range from late June to August. If you planted in the spring, calculate your approximate harvest date based on the “days to maturity” of the garlic variety you planted.
- In general, the clue is to look for yellowing foliage, but this isn’t the case for all garlic varieties. Harvest when the tops just begin to yellow and fall over, but before they are completely dry.
- Before digging up your whole crop, it’s a good idea to sample one bulb. Lift a bulb to see if the crop is ready. We often dig up a bulb before the tops are completely yellow (in late June or early July), as some garlic types will be ready earlier. The garlic head will be divided into plump cloves, and the skin covering the outside of the bulbs will be thick, dry, and papery.
- If pulled too early, the bulb wrapping will be thin and easily disintegrate.
- If left in the ground too long, the bulbs sometimes split apart. The skin may also split, which exposes the bulbs to disease and will affect their longevity in storage.
- To harvest, carefully dig (don’t pull or yank stems by hand) up the bulbs using a garden fork. Avoid damaging the roots and especially the root-plate (where they attach to the bulb). Lift the plants and carefully brush off surplus soil, but do not remove any foliage or roots before putting them to dry thoroughly.
How to Store Garlic
- Let garlic cure in an airy, shady, dry spot for about 2 weeks. Hang them upside down on a string in bunches of 4 to 6 or leave them to try on a homemade rack made from chicken wire stretched over posts. Make sure all sides get good air circulation.
- After a few weeks, the garlic should be totally dry and ready to store.
- The bulbs are cured and ready to store when the wrappers are dry and papery and the roots are dry. The root crown should be hard, and the cloves can be cracked apart easily.
- Once the garlic bulbs are dry, you can store them. Brush off (do not wash) dirt, remove only the dirtiest wrappers, trim roots to ¼ of an inch, and cut tops to 1 to 2 inches.
- Bulbs should be stored in a cool (55°F / 13°C), dark, dry place, and can be kept in the same way for several months. Don’t store in your basement if it’s humid. Do not store garlic in the refrigerator, either, as it will be too cold and too humid.
- The flavor will increase as the bulbs are dried. Properly stored, garlic should last until the next crop is harvested the following summer.
- If you plan on planting garlic again next season, save some of your largest, best-formed bulbs to plant again in the fall.
- Learn how to make your own garlic powder to easily spice up a recipe.
- Roasted garlic bulbs are also a favorite of ours!
- Around the time of the summer solstice (late June), hardneck garlic sends up a seed stalk, or scape. Allow it to curl, then cut off the curl to allow the plant to put its energy into bulb formation. Use the scapes in cooking the same way you would garlic bulbs. We like to stir-fry scapes the way we cook green beans—similar, with a spicy kick! Note that they get more fibrous and less edible as they mature.
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I grow Music hardneck garlic exclusively. I move my planting each year to a different 4` x 6` raised bed. I have 18 beds, which allows me to grow in a bed that hasn't had garlic in it in years. Last year, after my crop had cured, I separated out several of the best heads. These heads were separated into individual cloves, peeled each one and filled three small canning jars with the peeled cloves. I covered the garlic with white vinegar, sealed each jar with a lid and ring. I kept these in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator. I am on my third (last jar) and have found the garlic to be just as crisp and delicious as freshly cured garlic. I am amazed with the results. I rinse the vinegar off the cloves right before using in a recipe and have not detected any vinegar flavor in the garlic. I definitely prefer this method of storing garlic.
That is a great tip! Thanks for sharing!
Help! I live in the middle of Alabama. I was given some garlic that a friend brought back from another country in hopes of planting and growing their own. I dabble in the garden so they passed it on to me. I know that this is not the right time to plant so what do I do to save them for her? I have planted some after growing roots not really sure what to do. I have some more that have roots and need planting, but I was not sure if it is better to keep some growing inside rather than outside? Is it possible to save the bulb to plant later,although some have already started going bad. What can I do? Thank you!
First, we’re not sure if your friend cured the garlic properly which increases storage life. At this point, you can see what happens! Place garlic in a cool (47-65ºF) dry area such as an unheated room. Do not store garlic in plastic or airtight containers or garlic will mold, rot or try to grow. Almost all garlic will last 5 to 7 months under good conditions.
I inadvertently left some unharvested garlic in the ground last summer. Now I have clumps of garlic shoots - from 3 to 8 shoots in each clump. Should I dig these up and replant them separately? If so, at what stage of growth is it best to do so?
Hi Peggy,
Since garlic is typically planted in the fall and harvested between June and August, it would be best to leave your unharvested garlic undisturbed at this point in the season. Our best advice is to treat last year’s garlic as if you planted it in the fall. You can harvest the garlic scapes for a number of recipes—just remember garlic is typically ready about 3 weeks after you remove the scapes, so don’t do it too early. Then as the harvest date approaches, pull up a bulb or two to see what transpired underneath the soil since last summer—the hope being that you have lots of garlic to enjoy!
Thank you for a clear guide to growing garlic! Very helpful. I bought 5 heads from our local farm feed & seed store, separated them, put the cloves in a bowl with a few teaspoons of water, roots started to emerge in about 2 days, then I planted them in a prepared raised bed. I’ll wait for a frost (Central Virginia has pretty mild winters) and then cover with hay mulch. Thank you again.
Friends,
Gentleness with one another, please. We all just want to learn about growing garlic. : )
And a thought meant kindly for all of us-
I can understand that converting might be frustrating, and if you send an email to the customer service department and ask them to list both types of measurements I bet they’ll be happy to do it.
Happy planting, all! Can’t wait to harvest and braid mine!
- C
Re your comment: "Bulbs should be stored in a cool (40°F / 4°C), dark, dry place...Do not store garlic in the refrigerator, either." I live in Houston, where it is hot and humid 5 months out of the year, and warm and humid another 6 months out of the year. It is mid-October, and until yesterday the high temperature every day has been in the 90s since early May. Even my garage doesn't stay at 40 degrees consistently over several months...so where do I store garlic that is 40 degrees but not a refrigerator? It may sound like I am jesting, but I am asking this question in all seriousness. Thanks.
Howdy, Barbara, I live in the Austin area. We are humid but not as much as Houston. A possible solution to yours and my storage situation would be to get a wine cooler. They can be set to range between 50 and 60 degrees. Controlling the humidity in there might be more of a challenge. TBD But at least it won't be 100% humidity at 99 degrees.
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