Planting garlic cloves is incredibly easy and fun! You do not need to be an expert gardener, in fact you don’t even need a green thumb. There’s just a few simple steps involved and some inexpensive items needed. And before you know it, you will be well on your way to growing your very own garlic!
Plus homegrown garlic fresh from your garden beats any other garlic you have tasted!
Soft Neck Vs Hard Neck Garlic
Before you start, it’s important to decide what type of garlic you want to grow. There are softneck garlic varieties and also hard neck varieties. The “neck” simply refers to the stock of the garlic, where the leaves sprout from.
Softneck garlic typically grow smaller cloves in each bulb, as well they do not grow scapes like hardneck garlic varieties. Lastly, and most importantly, if you are looking for a garlic that will have a long storage shelf life, then softneck garlics are the way to go!
Hardneck garlic has a much stronger flavor than the softneck varieties. They also tend to be bigger, but have fewer cloves in each bulb. Additionally, they produce garlic scapes which is an edible part of the stock! Hardneck garlic also has a shorter storage life than their softneck counterparts.
After you have decided whether you want to grow a hardneck vs softneck garlic, you need to obtain the “seed” garlic of the variety you have chosen. Seed garlic does not mean an actual “seed”, rather it is essentially a bulb of garlic which generally has bigger cloves. This is because the biggest garlic bulbs harvested, are generally used for the following years “seed.”
Planting Garlic Cloves
Garlic is a bulb from the onion (or allium) family, and within each garlic bulb are individual cloves. These cloves can be separated from the bulb itself to be planted individually. These cloves will then each produce, or yield, their own garlic bulb!
Here’s how to plant:
- Choose your “seed” garlic (softneck vs hardneck) *Check with your local garden center as they may carry their own seed garlic!*
- Plant in either early spring or late fall
- Use compost or soil amendment (like Biotone) to work into the soil for added nutrients to grow stronger bulbs!
- Separate the cloves from each bulb, while keeping as much paper around each clove. (This helps to protect the clove in your soil)
- Plant each clove pointy side up, 4″-6″ inches apart, 2″-3″ inches deep and cover with 2″ inches of soil with rows 10-14″ inches apart. Add some mulch on top if you plan to grow in fall through winter. (I just mulched up some of our leaves and spread on top.)
- Water in!
- Watch for your garlic to sprout and harvest once the leaves turn brown.
- If growing in winter, you will notice the garlic sprout in the fall and die back, do not worry! It will re-sprout again come spring and you will harvest typically late summer (around the end of July).
- If growing in spring (typically started in late March or April), add additional water throughout the months when dry, but be careful to not overwater as you do not want to rot your bulbs.
Best of luck on your garlic planting journey!
-Kate