Growing Garlic

Garlic is used for both culinary and medicine (we make garlic, apple cider vinegar, and honey mixture every time we get sick) and is generally easy to grow unless you live in a hot climate.

When should you plant garlic?

This is a common question about growing garlic, and the answer depends on your location and how you plan to eat it.

If you live in a location that doesn’t get cold winters, garlic is harder to grow. Garlic bulbs overwinter then sprout in the springtime. For zones 7-9 growing garlic can be a challenge, and you’ll have to play around with planting times. In our zone 5, we plant mid-Oct, so warmer climates might not plant garlic until December.

When you harvest garlic bulbs, the size changes depending on when it was planted. If you would like to cure and harvest the large garlic bulbs for storage then you need to plant your garlic in the fall. If you wish to eat garlic shoots, green garlic, or if you plan on eating garlic fresh and not storing it, then you can plant garlic in the spring. Planting in the fall will allow the garlic to grow larger bulbs than in the springtime.

Fall Planted Garlic Timing is Important

In general, you plant garlic in the fall a few weeks before the hard freeze. This is when the ground freezes, not the first fall frosts. If you plant garlic bulbs too early they might start producing green shoots and die during the cold snap of winter.

You want to time your bulbs to start growing roots under the earth before winter where they’ll stay dormant until spring.

Planting Garlic Seed vs Garlic Bulbs

In general, most gardeners plant garlic bulbs and not the seed because it’s a lot easier. It’s actually also hard to find garlic seed. Garlic seed should still be preserved and the increase of garlic disease from the continuous planting of garlic bulbs.

It’s much easier to grow garlic bulbs than garlic seed & you should avoid planting store bought garlic

Planting Store Bought Garlic

I keep seeing posts online about growing store bought garlic and how easy it is. True, garlic seed for planting (which are just garlic cloves) is the same as garlic from the store in appearance. However, you have to be very careful when planting store bought garlic & there are some big reasons why you shouldn’t.

Most garlic in North America actually comes from China where it’s heavily fumigated and sprayed.

You’ll notice the roots of Chinese garlic have to be taken off so that they don’t potentially spread disease.

If you can find local organic garlic at your store than you can plant.

The downside is that you have no idea what the variety is, and whether it’s a hardneck or softneck garlic.

Planting Sprouted Garlic

Has your garlic sprouted? This happens towards the end of winter if you stored your own garlic, or sometimes if you brought store-bought garlic and your home is too warm and you forgot about it. Can you plant sprouted garlic? Yes you can, but I’d recommend you grow it for green garlic or spring garlic shoots instead of large bulbs.

If you plant sprouted garlic without separating the cloves first, you’ll end up with a mass of green garlic shoots which taste great.

Hardneck vs Softneck Garlic

There are two types of garlic: hardneck and softneck. Softneck is the variety you most commonly see at the grocery store because it lasts longer in storage. You can braid softneck garlic. Hardneck varieties grow a central garlic scape. Garlic scapes should be harvested to create bigger bulbs, they also taste fantastic. If you wanted to save garlic seed, you would need to grow hardneck garlic.

Where to Buy Garlic Bulbs

In the fall most garden centers will sell garlic bulbs to plant. In fact, anywhere you can buy bulbs or seed in your location should sell planting garlic come fall time. You can also special order it via seed catalogs from great seed companies. You can also google garlic farms in your area as they often sell bulbs to plant and offer more choices in garlic varieties.

We go to the Hills Garlic Festival as we have many specialty varieties to choose from.

When looking at the description pay attention to the taste (some garlic varieties are spicy, some are better roasted)

I love the red & marbled varieties as they’re beautiful.

Growing Garlic Stages

Preparing your garden bed

Garlic needs loose soil well drained soil amended with compost or decomposed manure. I’ve grown garlic in the ground or raised beds, they do like drainage in case you get many weeks of rain it can increase the chance of garlic diseases. We also add azomite trace minerals to help the garden soil.

You need to separate garlic cloves from the garlic bulb to plant

If you don’t separate the individual cloves to plant you’ll end up with a large mass of garlic shoots. These still taste fantastic, but you’re not harvesting garlic bulbs.

Planting the largest cloves will give you the largest bulbs

After you’ve broken apart all your garlic cloves, you want to organize them by size too. You want to plant the largest garlic cloves to grow the largest bulbs.

• Space the cloves 4-6″ apart in rows spaced 1 foot apart.
• Plant your cloves with the pointed end up and the blunt end down.
• Plant each clove 1-2″ into the ground, cover with soil and compost and water the garden bed.
• If you live in a cold climate you’ll need to mulch the garlic with straw, hay and/or fall leaves. Wood chips are too heavy.
• In the spring remove the mulch once the risk of hard freezes are gone.
• Your garlic will grow well very quickly, keep the bed weeded and watered throughout the summer.
• Stop watering a month before harvesting (read more below).

Harvesting Garlic

• A few weeks before you harvest you’ll want to stop watering so the lower leaves start to dry up.
• If you have hardneck garlic you’ll want to harvest the garlic scapes.
• Always dig out your garlic, preferably with a fork not a shovel, instead of pulling them up as you’ll damage them and they won’t store well. If you do use a shovel you might accidentally cut the bulb, which is fine to consume right away but can’t be used for curing and storing.

• Be gentle with your garlic! Don’t throw your bulbs or toss them onto the ground, the more rough handling the increased chance of bruising which reduces storage ability.
• The best time to harvest your garlic is when the lower leaves are yellow and the tops are still green. If you harvest them too early they’ll be smaller and the wrapper won’t be as developed. If you harvest too late when all of the leaves are yellow the bulbs will start splitting and won’t store well.
• Double check for garlic disease, which tend to all be fungal related. The bulb will look bad and be white or black and look like they’re decaying/rotting.

How to Cure Garlic

• Once you’ve harvested you’ll want to keep them out of the sun and in a well ventilated area.
• Brush off any dirt on the garlic bulbs but keep the bulb and tops together.
• Hang up your garlic in bunches of 5-7. They need lots of good air flow to dry, out of the sun but in a well ventilated area.
• Let dry for 2-4 weeks. This time depends on how much humidity is in the air, temperature etc. You want all the green leaves to turn yellow.
• When they’re all dry you can clean up the bulbs and gently brush off any dirt.
• Cut the garlic at the base of the stem and store in a cool dark place.
• You can braid softneck garlic.