Homegrown Garlic: How to Plan and Plant Your Crop for a Top-Quality Harvest

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When we first started growing vegetables, garlic was not really on our radar. It’s not particularly expensive to buy at the store any time of year, so we were dedicating all our time and space to higher-dollar crops.  

Then, I noticed it was getting kinda hard to find fresh garlic on the shelves in our area. Who wants garlic that’s already drying up and sprouting by the time it reaches your pantry? At that point, it has a noticeably pungent “off” taste that just doesn’t do your pasta justice. Garlic harvested straight from the garden is a serious upgrade in flavor, compared to garlic that’s been sitting in a warehouse for months.

Though it takes a good bit of time for the bulbs to mature, garlic is a breeze to grow compared to onions, its allium cousin. It also doesn’t require a ton of room in the garden. All you really need to grow garlic is good planning and some patience. Nowadays, this humble crop I once didn’t even think about has become one of the harvests I look forward to the most.

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Planning Your Garlic Crop

To plan your crop successfully, you first need to know the lowdown on garlic’s growth cycle. Much like potatoes, it’s most practical to grow garlic from garlic rather than true seed. Individual “seed garlic” cloves are planted directly, each of which will produce a new garlic plant and, later, a full garlic bulb.

Garlic cloves require a process called vernalization, or a period of cold exposure, to trigger bulb development and clove division. Unlike most summer-harvested crops, garlic needs to be planted in the fall rather than the spring. This way, the cloves can experience cold winter temperatures before vegetative growth begins.

For good bulb formation, your garlic needs about 40 total days below 40 degrees F during the winter. Without that vernalization, some garlic varieties may not produce bulbs at all. Best case scenario, you’ll end up with “rounds,” or one solid bulb instead of properly divided cloves. Rounds will have a weaker flavor and won’t keep in storage.  

If you live in a southern climate that doesn’t see reliably cold weather throughout the winter, you can still grow garlic. You’ll just need to simulate the vernalization process yourself before planting. To “vernalize” garlic, you can place the bulbs in a breathable container, like a paper bag or small box, and stick them in your fridge for six weeks or so.

So, now you see why it’s important to plan ahead for growing garlic. You’ll need to source your seed garlic, get your planting spot prepared, and start fridge vernalization if necessary nearly a year before your intended harvest time!    

What Type of Garlic Should You Plant?

While the garlic you get from the store all looks pretty much the same, there are actually quite a few unique garlic variety options out there when you grow your own. For starters, you’ll need to decide whether to grow hardneck garlic or softneck garlic (or both, of course).

Softneck garlic has a softer central stem and produces many smaller cloves per bulb. The bulbs will keep for up to a year in storage, making this the go-to type for commercial garlic growers. Hardneck garlic has a rigid central stem and yields fewer but larger clovers per bulb. Its storage life is considerably shorter, around 3 to 6 months depending on storage conditions.

Beyond clove size and storage potential, here are some other things to consider when deciding between hardneck and softneck garlic:

Weather Tolerance: All garlic is quite cold hardy, but hardneck garlic can survive more extreme temperatures without casualties. As a rule of thumb, softneck varieties can tolerate winter temps down to 0 F or a bit colder with some mulch. Hardneck varieties can take as low as -30 F!

Hardneck garlic is also pickier about vernalization. It’ll bulb best with longer and colder vernalization times, and it’s more likely to fail if you don’t get quite enough cold days. Meanwhile, softneck garlic is more forgiving, here. It’ll still produce nice (though maybe a bit smaller) bulbs even if you don’t hit the 40-day vernalization mark.

Generally, hardneck garlic will produce most reliably for folks in USDA Hardiness Zones 1 – 5, where extreme cold is common during the winter. Softneck varieties are best for zones 8 and warmer. Those in zone 6 or 7 can usually grow both types without any special treatment. If you like to bend the rules, it’s pretty easy with garlic. Colder zones can grow softneck garlic with deeper mulch for winter protection, and warmer zones can grow hardneck garlic with the fridge vernalization method.   

Flavor: Hardneck garlic varieties are known for a “spicier” and more pronounced garlicky flavor. Meanwhile, most softneck varieties have a little less kick.

Scapes! Hardneck garlic produces garlic scapes, or a garlic plant’s weird attempt at a flower. These edible shoots are somewhat of a delicacy among garlic growers. They have a mild “green garlic” flavor and are delicious in pesto and stir fries.         

Sourcing Seed Garlic

If you’re planning your first garlic crop, I recommend starting with certified seed garlic rather than using storebought garlic bulbs. For one, you’ll have a lot more variety options this way. Most grocery store garlic is the same generic softneck variety.

Secondly, seed garlic crops are carefully managed and inspected to make sure no diseases are present. Storebought cloves could be harboring viral or fungal pathogens that could interfere with your garlic harvest. That said, planting storebought garlic isn’t as risky as planting storebought potatoes. If you’re not picky about variety, I’ve known folks who’ve done it without any problems.

Most seed garlic vendors begin stocking and selling bulbs as early as midsummer and often sell out by early fall. To get the varieties you want, start garlic shopping in July, before the pickings are slim. We like to buy our seed garlic from Keene Garlic.

Starting from certified seed garlic is a little expensive, but unless you want to keep adding more varieties to your garlic patch, you’ll probably only need to buy it once. Beyond that, you can just set aside a few of the bulbs you harvest to use as seed for your next crop.   

When to Plant Garlic

When planting garlic in the fall, the goal is to allow just enough time for a good root system to develop before the ground freezes. Plant too early, and the garlic will waste energy on top growth that will be killed back by harsh temperatures. With optimal timing, the garlic should sprout and get two or three inches tall before winter sets in.   

In our zone 7 garden, we wait until two or three weeks after our first fall frost to plant garlic, which is early November for us. At this point, there’s not much risk of a big warmup that could trigger too much growth. Folks in colder zones plant as early as September or October. If you’re in a warmer zone, you may want to wait until as late as December, or when the soil has cooled off some (55 degrees F is ideal).  

The perfect timing varies a lot from one location to another, even within the same hardiness zones. It’ll be a little bit of a trial and error process for the first year or two. As a rule of thumb, you’ll usually get better results if you plant a couple weeks later than you think you need to.

Fortunately, garlic is very forgiving. If your garlic gets 1.5 feet tall before freezing weather and winter storms hammer the foliage, it’ll still push new growth in the spring. The worst possible outcome is that your bulbs might be a tad smaller.

Can You Plant Garlic in the Spring?

You can technically plant garlic in the early spring as soon as the ground is workable, if you vernalize it in your fridge first. The main problem is that garlic doesn’t love hot weather. Fall planted garlic typically reaches harvest size from June to early July, before the “dog days” of summer. Meanwhile, spring-planted garlic must finish maturing during the hottest part of the year.

Planting garlic during the spring will almost always result in smaller bulbs, especially in climates where summer temperatures shoot through the roof. Still, I guess smaller bulbs are better than no bulbs, if you miss the window for fall planting!

Preparing the Planting Site

Garlic prefers loose, well-drained soil to produce large bulbs. Clay-heavy soil that’s prone to compaction and waterlogging can lead to reduced bulb size, rotting, and fungal disease. Garlic is also a pretty heavy feeder, so you’ll get best results if the planting site has plenty of organic matter for nutrients.

Since fluffy, well-aerated soil yields the largest garlic bulbs, we like to grow our garlic in one of our raised garden beds. Raised beds with the proper soil medium have excellent drainage, which reduces garlic plant casualties over the winter. Without optimal drainage, cold temperatures combined with lots of moisture from snow and ice can lead to rot or disease in your garlic patch.

If you don’t have raised beds or prefer to save the space, you can amend your planting site with lots of fine-textured, good quality compost and hill the soil into raised rows to provide good drainage for your garlic.

Planting Garlic Cloves

Seed garlic usually comes in whole bulbs that need to be separated for planting. If your seed garlic arrives weeks before it’s time to plant in your area, store it whole until planting day in a cool, dark, and dry place.

Once you’re ready to plant, gently separate the garlic bulbs into individual cloves. You might have to peel away some of the outermost bulb wrapper, but the goal is to leave the papery “skin” around each clove intact. This helps protect the cloves from disease and the occasional pest after planting.

If you don’t have enough room to plant all of your cloves, prioritize planting the biggest, nicest ones first. These will yield the best bulbs. You can use any leftover small cloves in the kitchen.

Spacing– plant garlic cloves in rows about 6 inches apart, leaving about a foot in between rows. I think it’s easiest to pre-dig trenches and drop all the cloves in before burying them. This way, you can make sure your rows are straight and your cloves are spaced appropriately.

Planting Depth– Garlic cloves can be planted anywhere from 2 to 4 inches deep. If you live in a cold climate or an area where the ground freezes and thaws repeatedly throughout the winter, planting on the deeper end of this range can help protect the cloves from extreme cold or “frost heave.” Frost heave is the buckling of topsoil caused by freezing and thawing, which can sometimes displace cloves or disturb roots.  

Don’t plant upside down! While it doesn’t matter with most seeds and tubers, it’s important to plant garlic cloves with the “pointy” end facing up. This is where the garlic shoot will emerge. If the growing point is facing down, the new shoot will have to waste energy looping around the clove to find the light.

Water it in– Though garlic doesn’t usually need regular watering until spring growth begins, I like to give my bed a good watering right after planting if no significant rain is in the forecast. This helps settle the soil around the cloves and “wakes them up” so they’ll start root development faster.

Mulching- In cold-winter climates, a thick layer of natural mulch over your garlic planting will help insulate the soil and prevent frost heave or winterkill in extreme cold. When mulching garlic, use a breathable mulch that won’t form a “mat” over the soil. Pine needles, well-shredded leaves, or straw are good options. Avoid whole leaves, since they can clump together and trap emerging garlic shoots.  

I cover my garlic bed with around 3 inches of shredded leaf litter topped with dried pine needles. The leaf litter does a great job insulating the soil, and the pine needles keep it from blowing away.

The amount of mulch you need is dependent on how cold your winters get. If you frequently get sub-zero temps, you might shoot for a 6-inch layer (especially for softneck varieties). If you’re in a mild climate that doesn’t often see freezing temperatures, 1 or 2 inches is ideal to hold in moisture and slow down the weeds without keeping things too wet.    

Winter Care + What to Expect

Several weeks after planting, there’s a good chance you’ll see garlic shoots poking up through your mulch. In cold-winter climates, they’ll likely be bitten back by the cold once they get a few inches tall. In milder winters, they may put on a few additional leaves and continue to grow sluggishly until warmer temperatures and lengthening days kick them into high gear.  

If you don’t see shoots emerge before the ground freezes, it’s nothing to worry about. The cloves are most likely focusing on root development, and the shoots simply never made it through the mulch before colder weather.

Most of the time, you won’t need to do anything to your garlic bed until spring growth begins. You can just let it ride over the winter. That said, if you have a particularly warm and dry winter, you might want to water the bed a few times if you think of it. You’ll also need to pull any weeds that pop up, if weeds grow over winter in your area. Allowing the bed to become overgrown with weeds will negatively affect bulb size at harvest time.  

Realistically, you could forget about that garlic you planted until June or July, and you’d more than likely still have garlic to harvest. When I was brand new at gardening, I planted some sprouting store-bought garlic cloves at completely the wrong time of year, around mid-May. They grew a few inches and promptly died back when temps hit 90. I figured that was the end of the experiment. Then, I saw they’d sprouted again the following spring, when I was out prepping the garden for planting. They went on to produce full-sized bulbs!

Even though garlic is pretty tough and independent, there are definitely some things you can do to grow stronger plants and bigger bulbs. It’s also vulnerable to a few pests and diseases you’ll want to keep an eye out for so they don’t affect your harvest quality. Read this post to learn about spring and summer garlic care, along with tips for harvesting your garlic at the right time and curing it for storage:

Spring and Summer Garlic Care + A Guide for Harvesting and Curing