How to Grow Garlic

Our favorite bulbous storage crop: Garlic. Garlic is a part of the Allium family which also includes leeks and all types of onions. It is an essential ingredient in our kitchens and medicine cabinets - do not underestimate the magic of garlic. So if you’re trying your hand at growing it this year (or aspire to grow it soon), read on for everything you need to know to learn how to grow garlic!

Garlic bulbs are surprisingly easy to produce. They’re planted at a time of year when we don’t always have a whole lot going on in the garden. Our summer crops have all but faded. Our fall and winter crops are soon to go under row cover. We are otherwise getting the garden ready to rest for the winter. In goes the garlic - as low maintenance and unobtrusive as ever. Come spring, you’ve got gorgeous, disease and deer resistant foliage. Come summer, you’re harvesting garlic bulbs that you can expect to store for months. The flavor of home-grown garlic is unparalleled, for such minimal labor - it’s worth it to grow your garlic at home. 

What to Expect

You know garlic is easy to grow - but what we want you to be prepared for is the time commitment. Garlic can take up to nine months to mature, but it is as close to a set it and forget it crop as you can get. After planting, you may consider mulching the cloves if you tend to experience particularly harsh winters. Just as the weather starts to warm up in spring, and things start to grow, consider fertilizing your garlic. You can do this monthly to ensure large bulbs - but many varieties produce extremely well on their own, so a single application in early spring should do the trick. After this - you’ll just want to be ready to harvest when the time is right! 

Pro-Tip

When growing hardneck garlic, compared to softneck or elephant garlic, there is one extra step in spring time. This is to harvest the garlic scapes - the flower stalk - that this type of garlic will produce. Harvesting this will ensure good bulb development. Scapes are also extremely tasty and make a great first crop. 

Growing Garlic from Cloves

Garlic cannot be reliably grown from true seed that is produced by the flowers of the plants, but it can reliably be grown from the cloves of the garlic bulbs! While a bulb is the entire head of garlic you’d buy at the grocery store, the clove is the individual slice from that head. Meaning one head of garlic can grow anywhere from five to fifteen new heads of garlic depending on the type and variety! 

Selecting Your Garlic

There are two main types of garlic that you can grow and those are hardneck and softneck. While specific varieties will have nuances of flavor and character, there are certain traits that you can reliably expect (or not expect) from the two main types.

Hardneck Garlic

Hardneck garlic has a smaller amount of cloves per head overall but these cloves tend to be larger. Hardneck garlic is well known for producing a late-spring edible “scape” which is the flower stalk of a garlic plant. These scapes should be harvested in order to concentrate the plant's energy back on bulb production. But, we love hardneck garlic because we get two crops for the price of one! 

Hardneck garlic is highly cold tolerant and is most often grown in Northern regions. The protective outer bulb wrapper of the hardneck garlic is not particularly thick, meaning that hardneck garlic tends to not store for as long as softneck garlic.

Traits

• Extremely cold tolerant

• Produces garlic scapes

• Cloves are easier to peel 

• Strong, complex garlic flavor

Softneck Garlic

Softneck garlic has more cloves per head than hardneck but the cloves are smaller. This type of garlic does not produce a scape though there are other valuable perks to it. With its papery skin, Softneck garlic stores for longer than hardneck and is the traditional braiding garlic. Further, it is the only type of garlic that can be grown in warmer climates, zone eight or above. 

Traits

• More heat tolerant than other garlics

• Ideal braiding garlic

• Extremely long storage ability 

• Subtle garlic flavor

Elephant Garlic

Elephant garlic is actually not a true garlic, but rather a form of bulbing leek. The bulbs can get very large and retains a milder garlic flavor that is great for roasting. Plant the cloves as you would for garlic but with increased spacing of eight to twelve inches. Sometimes the plants make a flower stalk. Snap these off if they appear and treat it like a scape or leek flower. Harvest the bulbs when the edges of the leaves begin to brown but are still quite green. Cure and store as you would garlic. 

Traits

• While technically a garlic, it is better known as a bulbing leek.

• Extremely large cloves

• Can produce scapes, but not reliably

Garlic Growing Conditions

Growing garlic requires a long season that offers an array of temperature changes and soil conditions. Luckily, these conditions almost always occur on their own accord! Garlic will grow best in well-draining soil with a pH between six and seven. Garlic will require full sun! At least six to eight hours of sunlight per day. While most alliums can be grown both in the spring and fall. Garlic is best planted in the fall, because it requires vernalization. This is to bulb development as stratification is to germination. A period of cold temperatures will help to trigger proper bulbing. Spring planted garlic tends to be smaller and doesn’t typically bulb up correctly. 

Soil Preparation for Garlic

You’ll want to prep your garlic bed a few weeks before planting. Hoe or till the bed to kill any weeds and add a hefty layer of compost and organic matter. If added early enough, this should start to decompose and there will be plenty of nutrients available at planting time. Alternatively, if you’re on a tighter time frame, you can add a water soluble organic fertilizer ahead of planting that will have readily available nutrients when it's applied.  

Many of us have to deal with clay soils in our garden. This, of course, can cause problems for root crops of any kind. Clay soils do not tend to drain effectively and often need lots of and continuous amending over the years. Alternatively, your garlic can be grown in mounds or raised beds. These slight adjustments will allow for better drainage which can help avoid rot and allow the bulbs to grow huge!

Planting Garlic

Once your bed is adequately prepped, it’s time to plant! Most suppliers will ship you your garlic in September or October. If you’re not ready to plant right away - fear not! High quality planting garlic will store for up to a couple of weeks. Just be sure to store it in a cool, dry place until you are ready. 

When to Plant

Garlic can be planted in fall. For most parts of the US, you should plant your seed garlic in October. If you are very far north, you may need to plant in mid-September. If you are very far South, it may be December or January. You should check with your local Agricultural Extension Office for information about the best planting time for your region. 

However, there’s no need to fret. Garlic is cold hardy and resilient. Typically, if you plant in fall, give or take two weeks around your first frost date, you’ll get to harvest delicious garlic come summer. 

How to Plant

Garlic can bruise easily, so be very gentle when handling the bulbs during planting, harvest, and storage. When you receive your seed garlic it will either be as loose cloves or whole bulbs, or some combination of the two. 

If it is in whole bulbs, you’ll want to “pop” the cloves. This means removing the outer paper and separating the individual cloves. There’s no need to fully unwrap individual cloves (as you would for cooking), but if the skin comes off, it’s still fine to plant.

Lightly squeeze the bulb to check for damage or softness. If you do find some, those cloves should not be planted - though they can be eaten! With any garlic bulb there are always one to three naturally occurring very small cloves. Only plant the big ones for bulbs and save the smallest for eating. You could also plant those tiny ones close together and harvest them early as garlic scallions! 

Plant your garlic cloves pointy-end up and root-end down, about two inches deep. Ensuring the cloves are oriented correctly will result in roots growing in the right direction, leaving the tops of the cloves to sprout and send their leaves above ground. The cloves should be spaced six to eight inches apart. This garlic spacing allows the bulbs to reach their full size. 

You have the option of mulching heavily for winter. This is encouraged in colder areas but regardless of your location, mulching helps to prevent weeds and keeps the soil nice and moist for the long nine months ahead.

Stages of Growing Garlic

Garlic takes nine months to reach maturity and thus goes through many stages of temperature and weather. Caring through garlic throughout this time is quite simple. 

Winter

Because garlic is planted in the fall, it’s important to prep your young plants for the cold winter ahead. While their little green leaves won’t be popping out of the ground yet - rest assured that there’s tons of action happening under the soil’s surface that you want to protect. 

Garlic remains dormant in the winter but this process actually helps them ultimately germinate come spring time! When growing garlic in colder areas, gardeners should mulch the beds heavily with straw or leaves over the winter and remove this mulch come spring time. 

Spring 

As the birds are chirping in early spring, your garlic starts to pop out of the ground! At this point it’s a good idea to fertilize with a high nitrogen fertilizer to ensure adequate growth.

Summer

Early summer is the most important time for making sure your garlic will bulb up to that glorious size. This means continuing to fertilize as well as keeping everything well-watered. A dry spring can result in small bulbs. Water well every three to five days, tapering off towards the middle or end of June. Tapering off watering at this point is in preparation for the coming harvest so that your bulbs will be ready to be cured. 

How to Water Garlic

Garlic plants like a consistent and balanced supply of water over the course of their growing season. Like most other crops, this means about an inch of water per week. If your soils have particularly poor drainage, you can lighten up on this rule of thumb a touch. Alternatively, if your soils are very sandy, you could water even more.

Early in the season, the water is essential for adequate root development ahead of a long, cold winter. In the springtime, regular and consistent watering is essential, as drought stress at this time of the growing season can result in stressed plants that produce small bulbs. One to two weeks before you’re ready to harvest, ease up on watering. If your plants are on the dryer side at harvest time, they will have an easier time curing for storage without rotting first. 

Watering your garlic from below can help ensure that the roots are getting the moisture they need and you’re not spreading disease by getting the foliage unnecessarily wet. That being said, you can also make a point to water in the morning. This will give the foliage plenty of time to dry off before the cooler nighttime temperatures roll in. 

Garlic Plant Care

Garlic is a very resilient crop that largely takes care of itself. That being said - here are some things to keep in mind to make sure you get to harvest the most beautiful crop come early summer! 

Weeding 

Garlic does not want to compete with weeds. Competition limits the amount of moisture and nutrients that garlic has access to and may result in poor growth or small bulbs. Because of the time of year garlic is planted, late fall, weed pressure is relatively low in most growing zones for the first few months of establishing your crop, assuming you’ve weeded the bed ahead of time. Come springtime, when weeds start to pop up, it’s very important to keep the bed regularly weeded. Hand weeding is typically preferred to hoeing, as tools can damage developing roots more readily than pulling weeds by hand.

Mulching 

All that being said, mulching is a great way to not only conserve moisture in the soil and protect your garlic from harsh winters, but it also keeps down weed pressure! Mulching with straw or  leaves covers the soil and makes it difficult for weeds to germinate and grow. Mulch is best applied at planting time in harsh climates, or can be applied as the plants start to pop up in the spring, and before weeds become established. If you do apply it in the fall, be sure to thin it slightly in late winter so that the garlic has plenty of room to grow tall.  

Garlic Scapes

Garlic scapes will emerge in late spring on all hardneck varieties. Softneck varieties do not produce garlic scapes, They emerge in a curly-que of spring green and they have to be harvested to encourage bulb development. Harvest the scapes as soon as you see them emerge. They can mature pretty quickly, in fact, it might seem like they’ve all grown overnight! The younger you harvest them, the more tender they’ll be. Use a pair of sharp shears to cut them as close to the top leaves of the bulb as possible, leaving the leaves intact underneath the scape. 

Garlic scapes are an edible crop. They can be used in recipes like garlic would be and can also be a substitute for green onions. They also are a stunning addition to flower arrangements. They make a delicious pesto. They can be grilled whole and topped with grated parmesan. Garlic scapes are also delicious pickled! 

Fertilizing 

Garlic benefits from being planted in good quality soil, high in organic matter. Fertilizing your garlic is not strictly necessary, but can be beneficial to ensuring a large, strong crop. When garlic grows, most of the root development happens before winter arrives, but will continue slowly throughout winter.  Ahead of planting, mixing in an organic fertilizer high in phosphorus and potassium can assist in moving this process along. 

As mentioned, spring is when our top growth starts to pop out. This is an excellent time to begin fertilizing your garlic monthly until harvest time. Top or side dress your garlic with a nitrogen heavy fertilizer, such as blood meal, to encourage top and bulb development. 

Approximately one month before you’re ready to harvest, stop fertilizing. For hardneck varieties, you can stop fertilizing once the garlic scapes emerge. Over-fertilizing, or over-watering for that matter, at this important time can affect the quality and curing process of your bulbs. 

Garlic Companion Plants

Companion planting is the practice of planting different crops near each other that support each other’s growth. These combinations can help control pests, support nutrient requirements, pollination, and more. The idea being that a more diverse garden is a healthier and happier garden. All crops have their pairs. These are the best companion plants for garlic. 

Beets

Beets make a great companion for garlic. They mature comparatively quickly in the spring, so, with an appropriate planting distance, won’t squeeze out your garlic. The strong scent of garlic helps to hide the beets from borers, mites, and maggots. Further, at that point in the growing season they are utilizing different nutrients, so they don’t have to compete in that way. 

Celery

We know that celery is a sensitive crop and can suffer the wrath of many pests. Garlic, with its strong scent, can help to repel pests that might otherwise enjoy a munch on your celery. 

Lettuce

Garlic also lends its pest repelling properties to lettuce, when interplanted, but also, this shallow-growing green can act as a living mulch early in the springtime. They grow at different levels in the soil, so won’t be competing for nutrients. 

What Not to Plant with Garlic

Garlic can inhibit the growth of beans and peas when planted together because compounds released by garlic can affect the nitrogen fixing abilities of these legumes. This can result in limited yields. Asparagus and garlic both grow at similar levels in the soil and require similar nutrients, making them fierce competitors. Keep their growing spaces separate. 

Garlic Pest Control & Common Garlic Diseases

Garlic is generally considered to be low maintenance when it comes to pests and diseases. That being said, there’s always a possibility you might run into some issues. Here are some of the more common ones you may encounter. 

Diseases

White Rot

White rot is a soilborne fungal disease that can spell big, long-term problems for your garden. It spreads through mycelium, mainly carried by garlic seed. Once in your garden, white rot can stay active in the soil for 40 years. The best method of control is not to bring it into the garden at all! This is why it’s essential to purchase from a trusted source that offers certified disease free garlic seed. Alliums are the only hosts of the white rot fungus, so if this is a problem in your garden soil, you’ll have to take a break from growing them. But a combined number of methods may help in eradicating the fungus faster. Biofumigation with cover crops, like nitro radish, can help to eradicate white rot over time. Continuous plantings of biofumigant cover crops can help decrease presence over several years. You may also pair this with solarization in the hottest part of the year. 

Downy Mildew

Downy Mildew is a common fungal disease that you likely see every year, at least on your squash or basil plants. While plants can typically live with it, if infestations are severe, it can affect the plants ability to photosynthesize. Downy mildew can be handled preventatively by watering in the morning or at ground level, keeping the foliage dry, ensuring that plants are adequately spaced apart from each other, and practicing crop rotation principles. 

Botrytis Neck Rot

This fungal disease is most common when conditions are cool and wet for an extended period of time. The fungus will typically enter the plant through wounds at soil level. You may notice lower leaves yellowing prematurely, and when you harvest the garlic, the neck snaps and the bulbs stay in the ground. Late applications of nitrogen can also exacerbate this issue. Crop rotation, avoiding overly wet soils in the springtime, and using certified disease free garlic seed can all help with controlling neck rot. 

Pests

Onion Thrips

Onion thrips are easily overlooked until your plants start showing signs. Leaves can start to wither and have silvery patches all over them. The pests are sucking water and nutrients out of the leaves. This can reduce harvests since these resources are not being used by the plant. Crop rotation can be especially helpful to keep populations in control year after year. If you do get infested, a strong stream of water can knock them off the plant. 

Bulb Mites

Bulb mites can often go unnoticed. You may notice yellowing leaves with browning tips. When harvested, you can often see signs of feeding on the bulbs, and you may find that the roots separate easily from the bulb. The big risk of bulb mites is that they can weaken plants and make them more susceptible to fungal diseases later in the season. Should fungal disease not be an issue, bulb mites can affect the storage quality of your garlic as well. Crop rotation is very important in managing bulb mite populations and making sure they don’t get out of hand. 

Harvesting 

Garlic is harvested nine months after planting. Yellowing leaves about eight or nine months from planting will tell you when your garlic is starting to mature. If this occurs too early in the season, it may be a pest or disease issue. Softnecks tend to mature quicker than hardnecks, so if you’re growing both, expect to harvest twice. 

Hardneck Garlic

Harvest the scape (flower stalk) in spring by snapping off the tendril at the point where it comes out of the plant stalk. Do not let the plant flower or it will reduce the bulb size. These garlic scapes can be eaten and used similarly to how garlic or green onions would be used in the kitchen! Pull the bulbs when there are only five or six green leaves left on the plant. Don’t wait too long or the bulb will begin to split! 

Softneck Garlic

Softneck garlic does not produce a scape in the summer so there’s no extra labor! Simply wait until there are five remaining green leaves on the stalk and harvest. Softneck garlic can also split so be sure not to wait too long before harvesting.

How to Harvest 

When your garlic is ready for harvest, insert a digging fork or shovel gently into the soil eight to ten inches from the base of the plant. Lift up the soil underneath the garlic bulb to loosen the soil and make it easier to pull out. Handle the freshly harvested bulbs gently, as they can bruise easily. 

Curing & Storage 

When your garlic is pulled, take care not to wash the garlic. Simply brush off whatever soil is stuck to the bulb as well as you can. Leave the above ground stalk intact but trim the roots to the base. Washing the bulbs can make it more difficult to cure and will likely result in rotted bulbs. 

Garlic needs to be cured in order to store well (though it can also be eaten fresh). Cure your garlic in a cool, dry place with good airflow. Your garlic can be laid out flat on the floor or be hung up in small bundles of four to six bulbs. A spare room with a ceiling fan works great, but a shed or garage is a common place to cure garlic. Airflow is super important in this stage to prevent mold from forming. Make sure the bulbs aren’t too crowded. Garlic can be cured for two to six weeks under the skin and the neck is thoroughly dried. Cut the neck back one inch above the bulb.

Storage Methods 

Your garlic can be stored in netted bags that offer airflow. Do not keep them in the refrigerator or in direct sunlight. A dark cabinet will do them just fine! Garlic will keep for six to 12 months depending on the type. Softneck garlics store the longest, while Rocambole types tend to store for less time. 

Garlic Confit

Garlic confit is garlic roasted in olive oil. It makes a delectable addition to toast, pastas, salad dressing, and more. Besides the creamy spreadable garlic clove you also get a whole lot of garlic flavored olive oil to cook with. Fresh confit should always be stored in the refrigerator and should be consumed within two weeks. The concoction can also be spread into ice cube trays, frozen, and stored for two to three months. 

Garlic Powder

Garlic powder can be made by peeling the skin off of and drying garlic cloves. The subsequent flavor is a mild allium flavor rather than the sharp and spicy flavor of fresh garlic. This process is easiest with a dehydrator but can also be done in your oven on a low temperature. The plus side of garlic powder is that it doesn’t really go bad, though it can lose its flavor over time. Typically you’d want to use your garlic powder within six to eight months. 

Garlic Vinegar

Because garlic is a low acid food, canning or storage in oil can result in what we know as botulism. While this won’t happen if the right steps are taken, garlic vinegar is a great way to avoid that potential issue altogether. By storing fresh cloves in vinegar, you’re providing a highly acidic environment where bacteria cannot grow. White vinegar or apple cider vinegar will make a delicious mixture that’s great when added to salad dressings or sauces. 

Freezing Garlic

Garlic can also be kept in the freezer! We recommend pureeing your garlic with a touch of oil and freezing in zip top bags. These large chunks of garlic can be cut into squares, making it easy to throw into any dish to cook with! This can be stored for up to six months.

Growing Garlic in Containers 

Working in a small growing space or on your deck or balcony? Garlic can be grown in containers! Containers tend to cool down, heat up, and dry out faster than in ground beds. This means, when container gardening, you may need to keep a closer eye on your plants in the coldest winter months and as temperatures heat up, making sure that your soil is staying evenly moist. 

But short of that, growing garlic in containers is about the same as far as planting date, days to maturity, and harvest time goes. You’ll want to select a pot that’s ten to twelve inches deep at least and not overcrowd the pot, allowing for the six inch planting distance not only between the cloves but also between the edge of the pot. 

Seed Saving 

After harvesting and curing your garlic, keep the largest unbruised bulbs for seed stock. Avoid any bulbs that are soft or discolored. These bulbs can be stored in a cool, dry and dark place until the fall when you can break the cloves apart for planting - it’s that easy! 

Garlic FAQ

If that didn’t answer all of your questions, here are a few more answers before you get ready to plant! 

Why didn’t my garlic sprout?

There are several different reasons why your garlic may not have sprouted. It can be a result of not enough cool temperature in the winter, too wet of a fall and winter that caused the cloves to rot, or perhaps they were planted too shallow and several hard freezes pushed them out of the ground. Whatever the reason, digging into the bed and checking on the cloves should give you the answer you’re looking for. 

Can I freeze garlic?

If curing and storage isn’t for you, fear not! Garlic can be frozen, thawed, and used like fresh garlic. Just chop it up finely or put in a food processor to create a paste. This can then be frozen in tablespoons for easy use when cooking.

Does garlic come vernalized?

No, garlic does not come vernalized. It will need to undergo cool temperatures in order for the bulb to develop. This is why garlic needs to be planted in fall! 

How much garlic should I plant?

The amount of garlic you should grow depends on how much you can expect to use in a year and how much space you have! Check out this helpful blog post to help you figure it out.

When should I order garlic?

Garlic should be ordered early. You’ll find that often, if you wait too long, many places are sold out of it. Planning ahead can guarantee that you get the quantity you need and the varieties you want! At Sow True Seed, we start offering pre-orders for garlic in January and offer pre-orders as available until we sell out, typically in October, which is also when we ship garlic. 

You’re Ready to Plant Garlic

Let’s get to it! Browse our wide variety of garlic bulbs for planting in October. 

	Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons
	About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all.