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Growing Garlic
Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Garlic
Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Garlic
Garlic is best planted in mid-autumn.See our tips on both planting and harvesting garlic. It’s so easy to grow—and frost-tolerant, too!
Garlic cloves from grocery stores are often old and mushy. It’s so simple to plant your own cloves.
Beyond its intense flavor and culinary uses, “the stinking rose” is also good in the garden as an insect repellent and has been used for centuries as a home remedy.
See our video on growing garlic from planting to harvesting.
Planting
When to Plant
- We advise fall planting. Yes, garlic can be planted in the spring as soon as the ground can be worked, but fall planting is recommended for most gardeners. Garlic roots develop in the fall and winter, and by early spring they can support the rapid leaf growth that is necessary to form large bulbs.
- In areas that get a hard frost, plant garlic as early as 6 to 8 weeks before the first expected fall frost date, before the ground freezes. The timing may vary with local climate; the aim is to give a long enough period before the ground freezes for the plant to develop good roots, but not enough time to for it to form top growth before freezing temperatures set in. In northern climates, planting is usually between September and November. In southern areas, February or March is a better time to plant.
- Select a sunny spot.
Best Soil for Garlic
- Garlic likes fertile, well-drained soil with a pH of 6.5 to 7. If your soil is on the thin side, add healthy additions of compost, plus aged manure or 5-10-10 fertilizer. (Don’t use fresh animal manure, as it can cause diseases.)
- For an easy and large harvest, garlic grower Robin Jarry of Hope, Maine, suggests using heavily mulched raised beds, especially in heavy soil. “I plant in raised beds for good drainage, and then mulch with about six inches of old hay after the ground freezes. I never water my garlic – I like low-maintenance vegetables!” Raised beds should be two to three feet wide and at least 10 to 12 inches tall.
- Lime the soil if you haven’t done so recently. Before planting cloves, work a couple tablespoons of 5-10-10 complete fertilizer, bone meal or fish meal into the soil several inches below where the base of the garlic will rest. Select healthy large clovers, free of disease. The larger the clove, the bigger the bulb you will get the following summer.
Planting the Cloves
- Get cloves from a mail order seed company or a local nursery.
- Do not plant cloves from the grocery store. They may be unsuited varieties for your area, and most are treated to make their shelf life longer, making them harder to grow.
- Break apart cloves from bulb a few days before planting, but keep the papery husk on each individual clove.
- Place cloves 2 to 4 inches apart and 2 inches deep, in their upright position (the wide root side facing down and pointed end facing up). Plant in rows spaced 10 to 14 inches apart. A single 10-foot row should yield about five pounds of the fragrant bulbs.
Care
- Northern gardeners should mulch heavily with straw for overwintering.
- Mulch should be removed in the spring after the threat of frost has passed. (Young shoots can’t survive in temps below 20°F on their own. Keep them under cover.)
- Cut off any flower shoots that emerge in spring. These may decrease bulb size.
- In the spring, as warmer temperatures come, shoots will emerge through the ground.
- Fertilize garlic in the early spring by side dressing or broadcasting with blood meal, pelleted chicken manure or a synthetic source of nitrogen.
- Fertilize again just before the bulbs begin to swell in response to lengthening daylight (usually early May in most regions).
- Weeds should not be a problem until the spring. However, keep well weeded. Garlic doesn’t do well with competition. It needs all its nutrients.
- Garlic is a heavy feeder which requires adequate levels of nitrogen. Fertilize more if you see yellowing leaves.
- Water every 3 to 5 days during bulbing (mid-May through June). If May and June are very dry, irrigate to a depth of two feet every eight to 10 days. As mid-June approaches, taper off the watering.
Pests/Diseases
Garlic has very few problems with pests in the garden (in fact, its a natural pest repellent!), and also very few problems with the diseases that plague other veggies. White Rot is one concern, but you should also keep an eye out for the same pests that plague onions.
- White Rot is a fungus that may attack garlic in cool weather. Not much can be done to control or prevent that problem except rotating your crops and cleaning up the area after harvesting. The spores can live in the soil for many years. The fungus affects the base of the leaves and roots.
Harvest/Storage
- Harvest from fall plantings will probably be in late July or August. In Southern climates, it will depend on your planting date. The clue is to look for yellow tops. Harvest when the tops begin to yellow and fall over, before they are completely dry.
- It’s time for a sample! Lift a bulb to see if the crop is ready. 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 disintegrate. If left in the ground too long, the bulbs sometimes split apart. The skin may also split, exposing the cloves and causing them not to store well.
- Dig, don’t pull! 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. Careless harvesting can ruin a fine crop of garlic.
- To harvest, carefully dig up the bulbs with a spade or garden fork. Lift the plants, carefully brush off the soil, and let them cure in an airy, shady, dry spot for two weeks. We hang them upside down on a string in bunches of 4 to 6. Make sure all sides get good air circulation. Be careful not to bruise the garlic or it won’t store well.
- 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. Remove any dirt and trim off any roots or leaves. Keep the wrappers on—but remove the dirtiest wrappers. Remove the tops and roots.
- Bulbs should be stored in a cool (40 degrees F), dark, dry place, and can be kept in the same way for several months. Don’t store in your basement if it’s moist! Do not store garlic in the refrigerator!
- 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.
Recommended Varieties
What type of garlic should you plant? There are three types of varieties of garlic: Softneck, Stiffneck, and Great-headed (Elephant). Most types are about 90 days to harvest, once growth starts.
- Hardneck varieties grow one ring of cloves around a stem, there is not a layer of cloves as there is in softneck varieties. They are extremely cold hardy, but do not store as well or long as other varieties. Flavor is more mild than softnecks. Common hardneck types include Korean Red, Duganski, Siberian, Music, Chesnok Red, German Red and Spanish Roja. These varieties produce tiny bulblets at the end of a tall flowering stalk in addition to a fat underground bulb of cloves.
- Softneck varieties, like their name suggests, have necks that stay soft after harvest, and therefore are the types that you see braided. Especially recommended for those in warmer climes, as it is less winter-hardy than other types. Strong, intense flavor. They tend to grow bigger bulbs because energy is not being diverted to top-set bulblets like hardnecks. Softneck varieties include Silverskin, Inchelium Red, California Early and California Late.
- Great-headed (Elephant) garlic is not recommended if you’re looking for a garlic taste. It’s less hardy, and more closely related to leeks than other varieties. The flavor is more like onion than traditional garlic. Bulbs and cloves are large, with about 4 cloves to a bulb.
Garlic can be harvested in early spring like green onions and sautéed as a side dish. Or, you can allow them to mature until mid-July when they become the traditional bulb with cloves.
Wit & Wisdom
A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat.
–Yiddish proverb
Rub raw garlic on an insect bite to relieve the sting or itch, and find out more uses for raw garlic and more about garlic’s long history of healing.
Recipes
Cooking Notes
- You can also harvest just the green scapes of hardneck garlic varieties. Harvest when the scape begin to curl (often around mid-June). This doesn’t hurt the bulb; in fact, the plant can put more 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.
- Learn how to make your own garlic powder to easily spice up a recipe.
- Roasted garlic bulbs are also a favorite of ours!
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Reader Comments
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Great group on facebook to join is Kenosha Garlic collectors.
Kenosha Garlic collectors is a great group to discuss garlic planting, and varieties. Global group for anyone interested in growing.
Dividing and Re-planting Volunteer Garlic
I discovered garlic sprouting in a bed from last year. It's sporadic and cloves are clumped together. It's April in Central Oregon and soil is workable. Can I pop them out, divide and replant? Other than small bulb size, any risks to this? Also, is it true if you clip the greens, the bulbs will get bigger or does that apply mostly when it gets to the scape phase? Thank you!
Garlic in intertropical weather
Hi,I’m brazilian and I live in the countryside...I started my garlic plantation in the end of my summer(now it’s autumn season),owing to my in unawareness of the seasons importance :(
Now I know that garlic should be planted in places that are colder than my city,how should I proceed with watering and harvesting and everything?I live in Presidente Prudente,which I believe the hot season is about 6,2 months and the medium temperature is 30 celsius.I beg your pardon for my english,it’s been about a year I don’t write anything.I appreciate a lot this site and I hope you can help me!Thank you since now!Bye!
Garlic
Planted my garlic and mulched. My garlic is 6 inches above the mulch and temps are forecasted for single digits? Will it hurt the garlic?
garllic poking up
The greens that are poking up with be frozen and die back but that should not affect the bulbs long term. Mulch more! Several inches—6!—is not too much. You can use fallen leaves; the mulch doesn’t have to be fancy (storebought).
I peeled my garlic before I planted it.
I know now it was a mistake. Will they grow? Should I dig up 70 plantings? I have had three years of fabulous garlic. This year one came out of the skin. I asked my sister if it’s ok to plant without skin and she said it was. I wasn’t thinking when I peeled them all and planted.
skinless cloves
Your garlic may get a chill sooner than “normal” without its skin but there is no reason to think it will not grow into nice heads.
Forgot to mention
I am in Manchester. North West England.
Garlic
I planted my garlic just this week. I am in Manchester. It is already throwing up shoots. Is this OK? Will I lose my garlic? My over wintering onions are the same. Hope you can help.
Thanks.
throwing up shoots
Spread a few inches of mulch over your garlic. Presumably, if you get a reasonable facsimile of winter (not familiar with usual conditions), your garlic will do just fine. When spring comes in, push off the mulch.
Do the same for the onions.
Watering Garlic
Hi! Thanks for this article! Very helpful. I am very new to gardening and will start my garlic this weekend (zone 8) I do container gardening. I just have one question: once I plant my garlic do I water it then and not again until spring?? Fertilize with seaweed fertilizer and not again until May? Any help? Thanks!
container garlic
Set it into the container and put the container outside, buried in soil to rim level, if possible. If it’s not buried, and there is a freezing rain in Jan or Feb, the bulbs might freeze and never sprout. You can water it; it won’t now if the water came from you or the sky. You can skip the fertilizer until spring. Just get the container outdoors, in the ground, if possible. If you try to grow it indoors, it might 1) rot 2) dry up.
GARLIC HARVESTING
Thanks for the message.After harvesting,it is advised to cure the bulbs in a shade for 2 weeks,also the bulbs are supposed to hang them top down.Now,how and what simple tools are used in hanging the bulbs and what are the side effects if I fail to hang the bulbs/garlic?
Worms in garlic
When harvesting this Spring (I live in Louisiana), I found tiny white worms in two bulbs (one in each bulb.) I had a good harvest, so I discarded those bulbs; but, I've wondered what type of worm would be a pest in garlic! Do you have any idea?
garlic pests
Sometimes garlic can get the same pests as onions do, such as the onion maggot, which, in larval stage, is a white tapered maggot about ¼ inch long. The adult looks sort of like a small gray housefly. Perhaps that was the pest you saw? Usually, they aren’t a serious pest of garlic, but you can discourage them by rotating crops, using row covers, and cleaning up plant debris in fall.
Garlic seeds from top of plant
Can I plant the garlic seeds from the top of the stem in the fall to grow over winter?
garlic from seed
If by “seeds” you mean the bulbils at the top of the stem (that sort of look like mini bulbs) and often referred to as seeds, then yes, you can plant them in fall or spring. If you plant in spring, they will need to have a cold treatment first (place in a breathable bag in the fridge for a few weeks).
If you mean true seeds, you can save the true seeds, but they may not produce plants that are like the parent; the cloves or bulbils are what will be true to type. Not all garlic produces seeds, and those that do produce flowers, may not produce viable seed. If your seed heads are developing, but not mature, then you’ll need to sacrifice harvesting the bulb to let the seed head mature for seeds (which are harvested around October or so), or you can sever the seed stalk (scape) at the base of the plant and place it in water in a sunny location in the hope that it may still mature. It’s best to remove the bulbils early on from the scape (both bulbils and flowers will form at the top of the flower scape) to encourage better seed development from the flowers. The harvested seeds need a cold treatment before they are sown; you can place them in the refrigerator for a month or so over winter. When you sow the seeds in spring, it is likely that the germination rate will be very low for that first generation; successive generations improve. Also, that first round tends to produce problem plants, such as weaker or misshapen, but there’s also the possibility of some with desirable characteristics that you can go on to save further seed or cloves. Garlic is fussy, and has evolved so that it reproduces by cloves or bulbils more often than by seed, so propagating it this way may be a challenge, but could also be a fun experiment! Good luck!
planting year old garlic
I have a lot of garlic left over from the 2017 harvest. Is it too old to plant? I.e. can I use it to plant this fall, or do I have to use the garlic I just harvested?
last year's garlic
It depends. If the cloves are soft and dried out, of course, they are of no value. Often garlic heads “sprout” or send up greens. Some say that the individual cloves in the head can be planted. Depending on the cloves’ condition, you might have success—but plant a few from this year’s harvest (or buy a couple of heads at a farmer’s market) to know that you will have crop next year.
Garlic Scapes
I have experimented with growing on a couple of Garlic Scapes.... I let the Scapes of a couple of bulbs do their thing until the plant was almost done, just as the scape had started to peel, I took it and dried it for a while then split the Scape open, I've planted a couple of pots of the tiny garlic bulbs that came from the Scape, now I get 100's of tiny Garlic Plants that I use as Chives in all manner of ways, they are wonderful sprinkled over fluffy mashed potatoes or on top of fresh baked Pizza. . . oh and make brilliant dough balls, just chop finely and sprinkle into the dough before it's final knead. The best way I use is when I have a lot I trim off the garlic chives, chop finely and then add to a pound of clarified butter in a pan, once cooled enough I place in Ice Cube Trays and freeze, these work wonders for a bowl of Pasta or place a defrosted cube on a Jacket Potato. . . There are endless uses for my Garlic Chive Butter. . . . incidentally I use this method to store all manner of soft leaf herbs. Thyme, Coriander or Cilantro, Basil, Rosemary, Sage . . . in fact most of the herbs in my garden get stored in Butter in ice cube trays.
scapes galore
It all sounds ambitious and delicious, Reg! Thank you for sharing so many ideas.
garlic rotting over winter in the soil. Planted in raised bed
with drainage along the sides. This was seed garlic from cat. HELP ! Please. THANK YOU
Rotting garlic
It’s hard to tell what you have without pictures. Often rot comes from drainage issues but it sounds like this wasn’t the cause. Also, rot can happen with excessive watering after leaf development stops. Unfortunately, if you have rot, you want to pull it all or the disease spreads. And you have to avoid this soil next season. This page might help you diagnose what’s going on and what to do about it. http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/factsheets/garlicdiseases.pdf
Mini bulbs
Just harvested some hardneck garlic. Two of the heads had mini bulbs growing off the bulb. None of the other bulbs had them. What are these?
bulblets
Hardneck types of garlic usually produce a flower stalk that will produce small bulblets. These are called “topsetting” garlic varieties. You can still eat these small bulbs!
Garlic drooping
I know you aren't supposed to use store bought garlic to plant but figured since I have an apartment I'd try it since I've no yard. I first tried one in a pot inside in my south window and it had been looking great, but because some of the leaves were so long I stupidly trimmed them and used them for cooking. They grew back out but now the bottom two are getting dry while the top long ones have flopped over but still feel normal otherwise. But I'm concerned about them flopping and don't know what to do or what that means. I planted April 25 in the pot and it was shooting within 7-10 days so has only been growing for about a month and a half so surely can't be ready. Should I put it outside? Try attaching it to something to hold up the leaves? Transplant? It was looking so good 'til about two days ago... And I didn't even think it'd grow initially since it was store garlic and inside. ☹️
floppy garlic
Your first instinct is probably the wisest: You aren’t supposed to plant store bought—better to say, actually, that it often has been treated so as not to grow. You know how sometimes an onion, if left sitting around will send up greens? These are edible. Well, even store-bought garlic does the same thing if you wait long enough, and this is what it sounds like yours did. Transplanting will do nothing but weaken it; it would have to start (whatever it’s doing) all over again. Put it outdoors, if you like. But consider it purely as an experiment. In the fall, get a locally grown fresh garlic head at a farmer’s market and plant its cloves in a pot or in the soil. Just give it some winter and it should be ready to harvest in summer. For details, see above.
Planting in containers in May, when to harvest?
I live in northern California, hardiness zone 9B, and I'm trying my hand at growing garlic for the first time. I have an apartment with no yard so planted my garlic in a container with drainage holes using potting soil May 4th and have it on my balcony. I read when you plant in fall it takes 8-10 months but saw your page said 90-150 days between sprouting and harvest. I had sprouts by mid May, so about when should I expect to harvest, assuming they actually created bulbs and not just scapes? Thanks!
potted garlic
Scapes are a good sign. Cut them off to use in cooking (or just discard; the point is, if you leave the scape on, it will use the energy that would have gone into the head). Wait until the greens/foliage dies back then uproot it to see if the clove you planted produced a head.
Blooming garlic
I planted garlic among my roses to help repel insects. Now it is blooming with long stalks with a flower at the top. Do I harvest the garlic after these blooms and stalks turn yellow?
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