How To Plant Garlic In The Fall

Planting garlic in the autumn is the ultimate garden tasks of the season. A short amount of arrangement at planting intervals will supply you with an abundant garlic harvest without enough effort.

Fall is sneaking up on us fast, which indicates it's time to plant your garlic in your garden! 

Garlic is one of the rare vegetables that you plant in the winter to harvest in the coming summer. 

Why do you plant garlic in the fall?

Planting garlic in the winter provides the crop a head start in growth, so it grows harder and quicker when springtime rolls nearby.

Fall planting enables the garlic to begin its root growth early without granting it a chance to sprout leaves yet. 

Autumn planting time entirely depends on your environment and growing region.

It's common practice to plant garlic in mid-September and mid-October, but those periods may vary if you're growing in short or very long growing periods. 

Can you plant garlic from the grocery store?

This question is complex.

Yes, you can plant the garlic cloves that you buy from the grocery store, but they may not grow as strongly for you as cloves purchased from a trusted gardening source.

Garlic from Supermarket usually has growth inhibitor sprayed on it so it won't germinate or will demand hard to sprout. 

Additionally, grocery store garlic is possible much strange growing region than your own and possibly won't grow as well in your atmosphere as it would elsewhere. 

With this stated, yes you can, try to grow garlic from the Supermarket. We've done so in a limitation, and it did grow but delivered small bulbs.

Hard neck or soft neck garlic?

Hard neck and soft neck are the two main varieties of garlic. 

Softneck garlic is lighter in taste and usually is what you'll get in your grocery store.

Softneck types tend to be simpler to store and last longer for nearly more than nine months in the proper conditions. Because of the soft neck variety of garlic can be braided commonly for storage. 

Hardneck garlic is famously identified for being hardier and thriving in nearly any garden, significantly colder environments.

Hardneck types produce the characteristic garlic scape, a flowering stalk, throughout the summertime. The scapes are delicious and should be broken from the plant and not to take affected energy away from the garlic bulbs' maturity. 

Hardneck garlic provides a unique row of cloves around the stalk, very separate from the softneck, which grows several cloves bunched together.

Unlike the softneck variety, this type of garlic will not store as long, it will generally only last about six months after harvesting. 

As far as taste goes, most chefs and gardeners agree that hardneck garlic is more flavorful, and it’s prized for use in savoury dishes.

3 garlic varieties to try growing

Fresh California Garlic:

A softneck variety that’s easy to grow and a prolific producer. Mild flavour and great for storing. Purchase bulbs for planting here.

Chesnok Red Garlic Bulbs:

 A hardneck variety that can be grown in fall and harvested in early spring – or planted in spring and harvested in mid to late summer.

Elephant Garlic:

This isn’t really garlic at all – but a bulb forming leek. Elephant garlic, as the name suggests, grows to an impressive size that will create a real talking point. It has a milder flavour. 

Where do you buy garlic cloves for planting?

Garlic cloves for gardening can be purchased at most farm stores, garlic farms, and seed catalogues. Do make sure you shop early though, seed catalogues, in particular, tend to sell out of garlic in the fall! 

Most online catalogues allow for pre-order of garlic cloves starting in August or early September. Getting on that list will ensure you’ll have garlic when it’s time to plant. 

Amazon – who act as a merchant for a number of specialist garden suppliers – also offer many varieties of garlic bulbs for sale that are ideal for both eating and planting. You can view the range here.

How to plant garlic cloves in the garden

Planting garlic is super simple.

Gently break up the garlic bulb to free all the cloves. Leave the cloves in their papery skin, but separate them from the bulb and from each other. Do so carefully so as not to damage the clove or tear the protective skin. 

Remove any cloves that are pitted, mouldy, squishy, or tiny. They won’t grow well in the garden and aren’t worth planting. You’ll be left with all the large and healthy cloves for your garden stock. 

Each clove will be planted in its own hole. Dig the holes about three inches deep, and at least six inches apart from each other.

Drop the cloves of garlic into the holes, pointed side up. Cover the holes with soil and press down gently.

If you have fertilizer, aged manure, or compost, now is a great time to add it to the garlic bed!

Water the garlic bed then it’s time for mulching! 

Mulching the garlic bed

You can use a variety of materials to mulch the garlic bed.

Organic materials like mulched leaves or straw are the best materials to use for mulching the garden. These will help to insulate the garlic in the winter, conserve moisture, and keep the weeds at bay.

In the spring, the garlic will be one of the first crops you’ll see as it sprouts right through the layer of mulch.

Lay down the mulch in a thick 4-inch layer. This will help protect the cloves throughout the winter, yet will be easy enough for the garlic sprouts to push through in the spring. 

If your region experiences an unusually warm and wet fall, your garlic may try to sprout a little early.

Don’t worry a bit about this, the leaves that sprouted will die when the cold hits and new leaves will sprout in the spring.

Your garlic bed is now ready for the long winter, and we’ll see you back here in the spring when it’s time to harvest!

Harvest and Curing Garlic

The garlic will be ready to harvest in the middle of summer. You’ll know it’s time when the outer leaves of the plant die off and turn brown. To harvest your garlic crop, carefully dig each bulb out of the ground.

It’s important to cure garlic before storing it.

Keep the green stems on the garlic and don’t wash it before curing. Lay each plant down flat in a row, then stack the next plants on top in a criss-cross manner so the bulbs aren’t touching. Leave the garlic to cure in a cool, dry area with plenty of ventilation.

In 2-4 weeks your garlic will be ready to store!

At that point, you can remove the stem, cut off the roots, and wash the garlic before storing it.