Plant Garlic This Fall for Next Summer's Harvest

Garlic is one of the easiest things you can grow, and it is one of the few crops you plant in the fall and mostly forget about until summer. You set cloves in the ground before the freeze, they quietly root over the winter, and by early summer you are pulling fat heads of garlic that kept all winter with no fancy equipment.

It is also forgiving. Get the timing a week off and you will still get garlic. Skip the fertilizer and you will still get garlic. Plant a clove upside down and you will get garlic, just a smaller one. Few crops reward a beginner this generously.

This guide covers when to plant, what to buy, how to set the cloves, and the small spring routine that turns them into a real harvest.

Why Fall, Not Spring

Garlic needs a period of cold to form a proper bulb. Planted in spring, it often produces a single small round instead of a head with separate cloves. Planted in fall, the cold does the work for you.

In the fall, the clove puts down roots before the ground freezes. Those roots anchor it through winter. Come spring, when the soil warms, the plant is already set up to grow fast, send up leaves, and then size up a bulb by early summer.

Buy Seed Garlic, Not Grocery Garlic

Grocery-store garlic is usually not the right thing to plant. Much of it is treated to keep it from sprouting, and the varieties often do not match your climate. It can sprout poorly or grow into something weak.

For a first planting, buy seed garlic from a garden center, a seed catalog, or a local grower. Good seed garlic:

• Comes from a healthy bulb you can see and feel.
• Is suited to cold winters if that is where you live. Ask for hardneck garlic, which tolerates freezing well.
• Grows a flower stalk in summer. That stalk, the scape, gets cut off to send energy to the bulb.
• Is firm, dry, and free of soft spots or mold.

A garden center will often sell whole bulbs meant for planting. That is all you need for a first year. Save a few of your best heads and you can replant next fall for free.

Time It by the Ground, Not the Calendar

The exact date depends on where you live, so use the ground as your guide. Aim to plant roughly four to six weeks before the ground freezes solid. In many cold-winter regions that lands in late September through October. In milder zones it can be later, into November.

The goal is simple. You want the cloves to grow roots before the freeze, but you do not want them to push up a lot of leafy growth that then gets killed. A little top growth is fine. A lot is not.

A useful rule of thumb: plant when the soil temperature at planting depth has cooled to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. In practice, that is usually a few weeks after your first frost, in that window before the soil locks up for winter.

Prepare the Bed

Garlic wants a spot with full sun and soil that drains. Garlic that sits in standing water over winter tends to rot, so pick a place that does not hold puddles.

Before planting:

• Loosen the soil to at least six inches deep. Garlic forms its head in the top few inches, so loose soil helps the bulb swell.
• Mix in some finished compost if you have it. This is enough for most gardens.
• Do not add fresh manure right before planting. Too much nitrogen makes leafy growth instead of bulbs, and fresh manure can burn roots.
• Skip heavy feeding at planting. Save fertilizer for spring.

Break the Bulbs and Set the Cloves

Do this at planting time, not earlier. Crack apart the bulb into individual cloves, keep the papery skin on each one, and choose the plump outer cloves over the tiny inner ones if you want bigger heads.

Then plant each clove:

• Pointed end up. The flat basal plate, where the roots come from, goes down.
• Two to three inches deep, measured from the top of the clove to the soil surface. In very cold regions, plant on the deeper side and rely on mulch.
• Four to six inches apart so each plant has room to form a big bulb.
• Rows six to ten inches apart, which keeps weeding simple.

Press each clove into place firmly so the bottom touches soil, then cover it. Do not jam them into hard, compacted soil. If the ground is tough, make the hole first.

Planting a clove upside down or sideways still gives you garlic. It will just be smaller and a little misshapen. Do not stress over it.

Mulch for Winter

A thick layer of mulch does several jobs at once. It keeps the soil from freezing and thawing in a cycle that can heave shallow cloves out of the ground. It holds moisture, keeps down spring weeds, and protects the young plants.

After planting, spread four to six inches of straw, shredded leaves, or hay over the bed. Let it stay through winter. Some gardeners pull a little of it back in spring once growth takes off; leaving it in place works too as long as it is not smothering the young shoots.

The Simple Spring Routine

Garlic asks for almost nothing in spring, but a few small jobs make the difference between a good harvest and a great one.

• Feed once in spring with a little balanced fertilizer or compost, around the time leaves are growing steadily. A side-dress of nitrogen in late spring helps bulbs size up.
• Water during dry spells, but ease off about two to three weeks before harvest. Too much water late makes garlic store poorly.
• Cut the scapes. Around early summer, hardneck garlic sends up a curled flower stalk. Snip it off so the plant puts its energy into the bulb instead of a seed head. The scapes are edible and taste like mild garlic.
• Pull weeds. Garlic does not like competition for water and nutrients.

Harvest When the Leaves Tell You

Most garlic is ready in early to mid summer, usually late June through July depending on your climate. Watch the leaves, not the calendar.

When the lower leaves turn brown and a few of the top leaves are still green, the garlic is usually ready. Dig it up gently with a fork rather than yanking it. Too-early garlic is small; garlic left too long splits open in the ground and does not keep.

Shake off the loose soil but do not wash the heads. Let them cure for a couple of weeks in a dry, airy, shady spot, then trim the tops and store the heads in a cool, dry place. Kept right, homegrown garlic will carry you through the winter, and a few saved heads become next fall's planting stock for free.

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— C. Steward 🥕