You can plant garlic cloves in the fall. This pungent bulb is a healthy way to add flavor to many recipes. Choosing the suitable variety for your climate and cooking is crucial before you plant. Find out more about growing garlic.
Planting Garlic — From a Clove
You can plant a garlic clove and cover it with mulch in the fall. Then, harvest the crop during summer, when the vegetable garden is in full swing. After cleaning out and gathering the previous one, You can plant another crop on the same bed.
Garlic leaves, or “scapes,” are also available in the early spring. You can enjoy them in salads or stir-fried.
The “stinking” rose is not only a culinary delight but also repels insects in the garden and has been used for centuries as a home remedy.
How can you plant store-bought garlic?
This is something other than what we recommend. The majority of grocery store garlic has been treated. Most commercial garlic is grown in mild climates, such as California. This means that it may not grow well in your environment. It may also carry pests and diseases.
Use “seed” cloves of garlic purchased from a local nursery or farmer’s market. You can also order online. Keep some of the best heads from your harvest for replanting! Before you plant garlic, you should know the differences between stiff-neck and softer-neck garlic and which will grow better in your climate. Below are some recommended varieties.
PLANTING
Garlic grows best in full sunlight, so choose a site that receives between 6 and 8 hours of sun daily. Prepare the soil a few weeks before planting by adding a generous amount of aged manure or compost.
Garlic grower Robin Jarry from Hope, Maine, suggests using raised beds heavily mulched if your soil drains poorly or is high in clay. “I use raised beds to ensure good drainage and mulch them with old hay about six inches deep after frozen ground. I don’t water my garlic because I like low-maintenance veggies! Raised beds are 2 to 3 feet wide and 10 to 12 inches deep.
How to Plant Garlic
Garlic cloves are most commonly planted between late September and early November. Plant garlic cloves in areas with a hard freeze 6-8 weeks before the first fall frost date. This will prevent the ground from freezing.
Garlic grows best when it is allowed to experience a period of “dormancy,” which means temperatures below 40@F (4degC), lasting 4-8 weeks. Garlic bulbs planted in the fall have enough time to grow healthy roots before the temperatures drop or the ground freezes. However, there needs to be more time for top growth. By early spring, bulbs will “wake up” and begin to produce foliage, then bulbs before the summer heat stops their growth.
You can still plant garlic in mild climates until February or March. However, the bulbs will be smaller. Garlic scapes can be enjoyed in the summer. The tender green shoots of the plant have a mild garlic taste. Enjoy it on eggs, salads, pizza, or stir-fries! Enjoy on eggs, in salads, as a pizza topping, or stir-fries!)
Garlic Planting: How to Grow Garlic
- Before planting the garlic, mix a few tablespoons of complete 5-10-10 fertilizer into the soil a few inches below the base of each clove.
- Choose large, healthy, disease-free cloves. The bigger the clove you choose, the larger and healthier bulb you’ll get next summer.
- The papery husk of each clove should be left on.
- Plant the cloves upright, 4 to 8 inches apart. The wider side of the root should be facing down.
- Plant rows 6 to 12 inches apart. Depending on the variety, a 10-foot row of fragrant bulbs should yield approximately 5 pounds.
- Mulch garlic beds with leaves or straw in colder climates to ensure a proper winter. Check out our mulching guide to learn more.
- Mulch can be removed after the danger of frost is over. Young shoots cannot survive temperatures below 20degF/-6degC. Cover them.
- As the temperatures warm up, you will see new shoots emerging through the soil.
- Remove any new flowering shoots that appear in the spring. They may reduce the size of the bulb.
- Garlic is an excellent feeder. Early spring, broadcast or side-dress the soil with blood meal, chicken manure pellets, or synthetic nitrogen sources such as pelleted fertilizer.
- Fertilize the bulbs again before they grow in response to longer daylight hours (usually early May for most areas). Repeat if you notice the leaves turning yellow.
- Keep the planting area well-weeded. Garlic is not a fan of competition. It needs every nutrient available.
- During bulbing (mid-May through June), water every 3 to 5 days. Irrigate to a depth of 2 feet each 8-10 days if May and June have been dehydrated. Reduce watering as mid-June nears.
RECOMMENDED RANGES
Consider your area’s climate before choosing a garlic variety. This will determine whether you want to plant a softneck or hardneck variety. Consider what you cook, as different types can have different tastes.
- Hardnecksare an excellent choice for northern gardeners. These are very cold-hardy and can withstand harsh winters. They have a single ring of cloves that are fat around a stem with fewer, but larger, cloves than softnecks.
- Bonus! Hardnecks have flower stems (aka “scapes”) that must be removed to allow the bulbs to grow to their fullest potential. The scapes are a tasty treat for early summer, especially when chopped and added to salads or stir-fries.
- Popular stiff neck variety: “Music” (on the milder side, yet rich and mellow); “Chesnok Red” (sweeter and creamy texture, won’t overwhelm dishes); “German Red” (a robust classic flavor that cooks love); and, Spanish Roja (spicy, hot, heirloom garlic with definitive flavor).
- Softness grows well in warmer climates and during warm winters. The flavor is more intense, and they tend to have larger bulbs, with fewer cloves per bulb. This is because the energy diverted towards top-set bulblets in stiff necks goes to growing more giant bulbs.
- Hardnecks do not have scapes but store better. They have soft necks, as their name implies, which is why you see them braided.
- Popular softneck types include: ‘California White Early (classic mild garlic flavor), ‘California White Late (harvesting in summer); Inchelium Red (an excellent but mild garlic taste, with superior storage life); Silver White (classic white garlic good storage, ideal for beginners); and ‘Lorz Italian (hot, zesty, heirloom garlic that is popular among cooks).
- Elephant Garlicisn’t a true variety of garlic but is grown in similar conditions to stiff necks and requires an excellent, long growing season from zones 3 through 9. Harvesting most types takes 90 days once the growth begins. Despite its size, it has a mild taste, similar to onions and shallots. The cloves and bulbs can weigh up to a pound! Only a few cloves are found in each bulb.
Harvesting
- Fall plantings can be harvested from late June through August. Calculate your approximate harvest date by calculating the “days until maturity” for the garlic variety you planted.
- Garlic varieties can vary in the yellowing of the foliage. Harvest the garlic when the tops begin to yellow but not completely dry.
- It’s best to test one bulb before digging up the entire crop. You can test the maturity of your produce by lifting a bulb. Some garlic varieties are ready sooner than others, so we often dig up the bulb before it turns yellow. The garlic cloves will be prominent and plump, and the outer skin will be dry and thick.
- The bulb wrap will easily crumble if it is pulled out too soon.
- The bulbs can split if they are left in the soil too long. The bulb’s skin may also break and expose it to disease, reducing its longevity.
- Harvesting bulbs is done by carefully digging them up with a garden fork. Do not pull or yank the stems. You should avoid damaging the roots, particularly the root plate where they attach to the bulb. Lift the plants, and brush away excess soil. Do not remove foliage or roots.
Garlic: How to store it
- Cure the garlic for two weeks in a shady and dry place that is airy. Hang them upside-down on a string in groups of four to six. Or place them on a homemade rack from a chicken wire stretched across posts. Ensure that all sides receive good air circulation.
- The garlic should be dehydrated after a few weeks and ready for storage.
- When the roots and wrappers have dried and become papery, the bulbs are ready for storage. The seeds should be dry and hard. They can also be easily cracked.
- You can store the bulbs once they are dried. Remove only the dirtiest wrappings, brush off dirt (do NOT wash), and trim tops from 1 to 2 inches. Trim roots to 1/4 inch.
- Store bulbs in a dark, cool place (55degF/13degC) for several months. Store bulbs in a dry, cool place. Avoid storing them in a humid basement. Garlic should not be stored in the fridge because it is too humid and cold.
- As the bulbs dry, their flavor will improve. Garlic appropriately stored should last until next summer’s harvest.
- Save your best and largest bulbs for planting in the fall if you plan to plant garlic next year.
