Growing garlic is a hot gardening trend with no sign of slowing down, and here are some garlic planting tips to help maximize garlic growth in your garden.
When is the Best Time to Plant Garlic?
Garlic is a long-season crop, meaning it takes a long time to grow from a clove to a mature cloved bulb.
Garlic can be planted in the spring or fall, but cloves develop best if it is planted during September or October.
This doesn’t mean that planting garlic in the spring is a waste; it’s just that the bulbs don’t have enough time to develop full, plump cloves.
Garlic isn’t a fall bulb, but it behaves much like one in that the cloves experience initial root growth before frost to prepare it for explosive growth in the spring following a winter nap.
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Garlic Planting Tips
Garlic can be grown in the ground, in raised beds, in large planters, and in pots.
Regardless of where garlic is grown, the planting details from which garlic varieties to choose and planting techniques are the same.
About Choosing Garlic for Planting
Start with high-quality hard neck garlic varieties and check that the garlic is hardy for your plant-growing zone.
Are you new to the differences between soft and hard neck garlic? How to Grow Garlic in Alberta and on the Prairies digs into all of those details.
Related: What are Plant Hardiness Zones & How do They Work?
You may use Garlic that has been saved from your own garden crop or purchased from a reputable garden center.
Never use grocery store garlic because grocery store garlic isn’t designed for growing in a garden.
Clove size correlates to grown bulb size, so use large, large, firm, unblemished garlic bulbs with snug outer sheaths and wait to separate the cloves until planting time.
Soil Preparation for Planting Garlic
Garlic grows best in highly fertile, loose soil.
Garlic can be planted in rows or individually in a checkerboard pattern; I prefer to grow garlic in rows because it’s quicker.
I dug my rows extra deep in the above video because I wanted to do some trials on soil amendments.
Garlic has high nutrient requirements and benefits from soil supplements that increase fertility.
I have always supplemented the soil with bone meal, but I wanted to try some new amendments to see how they compare.
I augmented each row with a generous bottom layer of a different soil additive as follows:
- Row 1 – Compost
- Row 2 – Worm Castings
- Row 3 – a 50/50 mix of Compost and Worm Castings
- Row 4 – a 50/50 mix of Compost and Vermiculite
- Row 5 – a blend of Compost and Bone Meal.
This isn’t a pure experiment because the rows are pretty close together in my raised bed, and the supplements could influence each other. Also, the middle rows may grow larger because they would have better insulation, but seeing what will happen is fun.
It turns out that the worm castings yielded the largest cloves.
Garlic Planting Depth
Plant cloves at a depth that is 2-3 times their width. Mathematically, that turns out to be around 7.5-8.0 cm (3″).
In Growing Zones 3 & 4, planting garlic directly in the ground is best for the most significant insulation influence through winter.
In my photos and videos, you can see that I’m planting in a raised bed and, for the last 4 years, I have had success, but I may get bit on the booty one of these years because raised beds don’t offer the insulation that the ground does.
Placing Garlic in the Soil
Place the garlic cloves into the soil at a depth of 7.5 cm (3″) from the top of the soil, 7.5 cm (3″) apart, with the pointy tip up.
The garlic roots grow from the flat-looking base of the clove.
Covering and Watering Garlic
Garlic needs to be covered and watered thoroughly to get the roots growing, and I do that in 2 steps.
First, I cover the rows halfway and water them in well. I check that the water has penetrated to the bottom of the cloves.
Next, I fill the rows to soil level and then water that layer thoroughly.
The final step is to top off the garlic with mulch. Mulch is a soil covering that helps to maintain moisture levels, insulate the soil, and hold weed growth at bay.
I add a 5-7.5 cm (2-3″) mulch layer on top of the soil and spread it evenly.
Let the Garlic Grow!
As soon as the garlic cloves are planted, most of the work on our part is done. They drink in water, begin to grow their initial roots and depending on the season, they will take a nap over winter or they will continue to grow.
If you’d like to dig deeper into growing Garlic, hop over to my blog called How to Grow Garlic in Alberta & on the Prairies for all the dirt on this fascinating vegetable.
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©Sharon Wallish Murphy ©Gardening with Sharon
