How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Garlic
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Garlic does best in full sun, so select a planting site that receives 6 to 8 hours of sunlight per day. A couple weeks or so before planting, prepare the soil by mixing in a healthy helping of compost or aged manure.
If your garden soil is poorly draining or high in clay, garlic grower Robin Jarry of Hope, Maine, suggests growing in heavily mulched raised beds instead. “I plant in raised beds for good drainage and then mulch with about 6 inches of old hay after the ground freezes. I never water my garlic—I like low-maintenance vegetables!” Raised beds should be 2 to 3 feet wide and at least 10 to 12 inches deep.
When to Plant Garlic
Garlic is most often planted in the fall (between late September and November) in areas that get a hard frost. Plant garlic cloves 6 to 8 weeks before the first fall frost date, before the ground freezes.
Garlic does best if it can experience a “dormancy” period of colder weather—at least 40˚F (4°C)—that lasts 4 to 8 weeks. By planting garlic bulbs in the fall, they have time to develop healthy roots before temperatures drop and/or the ground freezes, but not enough time for the garlic to form top growth. Then, by early spring, the bulbs “wake up” from their dormancy and start rapidly producing foliage, followed by bulbs, before the harshest heat of summer stops their growth.
You can plant garlic cloves in mild climates as late as February or March, but the resulting bulbs won’t be as large. However, you can still enjoy the garlic scapes during the summer. (Scapes are the plant’s tender green shoots with a mild garlic flavor. Enjoy on eggs, in salads, as a pizza topping, or in stir-fries!) If you plant in the spring, wait until after the soil can be worked, and it crumbles apart easily.
How to Plant Garlic
- Immediately before planting, work a couple tablespoons of 5-10-10 complete fertilizer, bonemeal, or fish meal into the soil several inches below where the base of the garlic cloves will rest.
- Select large, healthy cloves, free of disease. The larger the clove, the bigger and healthier the bulb you will get the following summer.
- Break apart cloves from the bulb a few days before planting, but keep the papery husk on each individual clove.
- Plant cloves 4 to 8 inches apart and 2 inches deep in their upright position (with the wider root side facing down and pointed end facing up).
- Plant in rows spaced 6 to 12 inches apart. Depending on the variety, A 10-foot row should yield about 5 pounds of the fragrant bulbs.
In this short video, Ben shares his tried and tested techniques for planting a truly spectacular crop of garlic.
- Gardeners in areas where the ground freezes should mulch garlic beds heavily with straw or leaves to ensure proper overwintering. Read our mulching guide for more info!
- Mulch should be removed in the spring after the threat of frost has passed. (Young shoots can’t survive in temps below 20°F / -6°C on their own. Keep them under cover.)
- In the spring, as warmer temperatures arrive, shoots will emerge through the ground.
- Cut off any flower shoots that emerge in spring. These may decrease bulb size.
- Garlic is a heavy feeder. In early spring, side-dress with or broadcast blood meal, pelleted chicken manure, or a synthetic source of nitrogen such as a pelleted fertilizer.
- Fertilize again just before the bulbs begin to swell in response to lengthening daylight (usually early May in most regions). Repeat if the foliage begins to turn yellow.
- Keep the planting site well-weeded. Garlic doesn’t do well with competition—it needs all available nutrients!
- Water every 3 to 5 days during bulbing (mid-May through June). If May and June are very dry, irrigate to a depth of 2 feet every eight to 10 days. As mid-June approaches, taper off watering.
- Harvest from fall plantings will range from late June to August. If you planted in the spring, calculate your approximate harvest date based on the “days to maturity” of the garlic variety you planted.
- In general, the clue is to look for yellowing foliage, but this isn’t the case for all garlic varieties. Harvest when the tops begin to yellow and fall over, but before they are completely dry.
- Before digging up your whole crop, it’s a good idea to sample one bulb. Lift a bulb to see if the crop is ready. 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. 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 easily disintegrate.
- If left in the ground too long, the bulbs sometimes split apart. The skin may also split, which exposes the bulbs to disease and will affect their longevity in storage.
- To harvest, carefully dig (don’t pull or yank stems by hand) up the bulbs using a garden fork. Avoid damaging the roots, especially the root-plate (where they attach to the bulb). Lift the plants and carefully brush off surplus soil, but do not remove any foliage or roots before putting them to dry thoroughly.
How to Store Garlic
- Let garlic cure in an airy, shady, dry spot for about 2 weeks. Hang them upside down on a string in bunches of 4 to 6 or leave them to try on a homemade rack made from chicken wire stretched over posts. Make sure all sides get good air circulation.
- After a few weeks, the garlic should be totally dry and ready to store.
- 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. Brush off (do not wash) dirt, remove only the dirtiest wrappers, trim roots to ¼ of an inch, and cut tops to 1 to 2 inches.
- Bulbs should be stored in a cool (55°F / 13°C), dark, dry place, and can be kept in the same way for several months. Don’t store in your basement if it’s humid. Do not store garlic in the refrigerator, either, as it will be too cold and too humid.
- 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.
Gardening Products
- Learn how to make your own garlic powder to easily spice up a recipe.
- Roasted garlic bulbs are also a favorite of ours!
- Around the summer solstice (late June), hardneck garlic sends up a seed stalk or scape. Allow it to curl, then cut off the curl to allow the plant to put its 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.
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I have dried my garlic but some have grown seed heads while drying! Is it ok to plant those with flower/seed heads? They are the biggest of the whole bunch!
Dear Dorrine,
Thanks for the note! As you’ve discovered, some varieties of garlic will flower and create bulbils, especially if the garlic scapes aren’t cut and harvested. Garlic isn’t propagated through seed; it can be grown from bulbs or bulbils. There are pros and cons to planting bulbils: they may be more resistant to rot, but they can take three years to grow a full size head of garlic. Sounds like a great year for you to experiment!
—The Editors
That was useful information but I'd like more on indoor starting in the little cubes. When to start, depth of planting, how big a cube, how long can they grow indoors and when to transplant and how are just a few questions that I have.
Garlic needs to be planted outside in fall so it can have it's dormancy period (this only works in areas that actually get cold in winter, of course!). If it doesn't get that, it won't grow nearly as large.
I made the mistake of washing my garlic after I pulled it out of the ground. (I also made the mistake of looking up harvesting garlic after I harvested it!) What can I do with it now that it is washed? It is still attached to the stalks.
Hi Gwyn-
While not ideal, not all is lost! Cure the garlic as outlined in the article (you need to cure it a bit longer to ensure it is completely dry) and then store it as mentioned. You will want to use it quickly, as the garlic may not store through the winter with the extra moisture that the washing introduced. We can assure you that your garlic will still be delicious!
In the spring, as my garlic plants were looking good, a late frost killed the tops of seven of my 60 plants. I figured the plants were dead as they didn't come up again that summer. I harvested all the other garlic and forgot about the "dead" garlic. The following spring I had 7 of the largest, most beautiful garlic I had ever grown! Now I want to replicate that! Maybe if I plant in middle of summer and let winter freezes
kill the tops? I live in Az, zone 8.
Yes! In your zone, if you plant in October (vs winter), it will overwinter and be up in March and April. Garlic needs the cold stratification. Cover in some light mulch but not too deep or it will get soggy.
I grow Music hardneck garlic exclusively. I move my planting each year to a different 4` x 6` raised bed. I have 18 beds, which allows me to grow in a bed that hasn't had garlic in it in years. Last year, after my crop had cured, I separated out several of the best heads. These heads were separated into individual cloves, peeled each one and filled three small canning jars with the peeled cloves. I covered the garlic with white vinegar, sealed each jar with a lid and ring. I kept these in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator. I am on my third (last jar) and have found the garlic to be just as crisp and delicious as freshly cured garlic. I am amazed with the results. I rinse the vinegar off the cloves right before using in a recipe and have not detected any vinegar flavor in the garlic. I definitely prefer this method of storing garlic.
That is a great tip! Thanks for sharing!
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