How to Plant Garlic: Full Clove-to-Harvest Growing Guide

by Jordan Mara August 24, 2024

If you want to learn how to grow huge, HONKIN’ heads of garlic then you are in the right place!

I’ve run COUNTLESS garlic experiments over the last five years figuring out exactly what garlic needs to grow to its fullest potential and today, I’m going to consolidate all those learnings into one succinct guide for how to grow garlic from clove all the way through to harvest.

Now I know how to help garlic absolutely thrive, I’m super excited to share with you today the culmination of all my experiments!

Image of garlic growing experiment results

Which garlic variety should I choose?

The first step is to figure out which variety to grow. There are really just two garlic families that we need to be thinking about: softneck and hardneck. The key difference between the two of them has to do with the climate they thrive in.

Image of two heads of garlic: soft neck variety vs. hard neck variety

Softneck garlic

These varieties grow better in warmer climates. So, if you’re in zone 10 and above, I encourage you to go with a softneck garlic. Some popular varieties include:

California Early
Silver Rose
Silver White

Hardneck garlic

For us folk in the cooler climates, it’s best to go with a hardneck garlic. So for zones 10 or below, a few different suitable varieties include:

Chesnock
Majestic
Red Russian - one of my absolute favourite types of garlic!

Red Russian garlic is absolutely delicious and is one of the hardiest varieties you can grow!

(Hint: It’s not just the garlic variety that’s important — I also discovered that the size of the clove has a BIG impact on how well your garlic grows!)

Planting garlic cloves: large vs. small

One of the MOST important things for you to remember is to plant the BIGGEST garlic cloves possible!

A few years ago I was curious about whether or not this actually mattered. So, I ran an experiment to figure out what impact the size of garlic clove has on the harvest nine months later.

To do this, I picked 15 of the biggest cloves that I could find and also 15 of the smallest cloves I could find.

I then planted one row of the biggest cloves and one row right beside it with all of the smallest cloves of garlic.

I kept every other variable the exact same so that I could see exactly how big of an impact the size of the clove we plant ultimately has on the head we harvest.

Results growing garlic cloves experiment

If you want to get the biggest harvest possible this coming season, make sure to plant the largest garlic cloves you can find!

When I harvested the garlic nine months later, the smallest cloves yielded an average weight of 29.2 grams per head. On the other hand, the row that had the largest cloves yielded an average weight of 71 grams per head — that’s more than double the size!

Tip: Use those small cloves in the kitchen for your next meal and save the largest cloves for growing HONKIN’ garlic heads!

Where should I plant garlic?

Even if we do everything else perfectly, pick the wrong location and our garlic will simply not grow to its fullest potential. The reason? Garlic LOVES a full-sun environment!

I grow garlic in one of the sunniest spots in my garden. Since garlic is one of my absolute favourite crops, I make sure to dedicate some of the prime garden real estate to growing garlic in order to get as great a harvest as possible.

If your garlic plants don't receive full sun, they won't have enough energy to produce the BIGGEST bulbs.

When should I plant garlic?

When it comes to planting garlic, you’ve got a bit of a window that runs anytime during the fall.

What’s most important is to get the garlic into the ground a few weeks before it starts to freeze for the winter. So if you’re in a really cold growing zone (3-7), you’ll want to aim for the earlier parts of October. If you’re in a warmer growing zone, you can probably wait until around mid-November.

What is the best soil for growing garlic?

Garlic plants grow best in a soil that has good drainage and that is full of nutrients and microbial life!

This is another area that I’ve experimented with extensively! A couple of years ago, I built three identical raised beds, the only difference being that I filled each of them with a different soil blend.

Soil Experiment Bed #1: 100% compost.
Soil Experiment Bed #2: 75% compost, 25% vermiculite.
Soil Experiment Bed #3: 50% compost, 50% native soil.

I kept every other variable exactly the same — I planted them on the same day, used the same spacing, applied the same fertilizer, and harvested them on the exact same day.

Sure enough, there was a significant difference between the beds! The 100% compost bed yielded 411 grams of garlic, the 50/50 compost/native soil bed yielded 451 grams of garlic, and the 75/25 compost/vermiculite bed yielded a huge 489 grams of garlic!

The total garlic harvest increased by almost 20% just based on the soil it was planted in.

So to get the most out of your harvest, I’d recommend using the 75% compost, 25% vermiculite soil blend. Not only does it work great for garlic, but it is my hands down favorite raised bed soil blend!

To make it, simply measure three parts compost to one part vermiculite and mix it up until it’s consistent. You’ll want to make enough to fill whichever area you’re planting into.

Garlic planting depth and spacing

You guessed it! This is another area that I have experimented with A LOT over the years. I ran a whole garlic spacing experiment that compared 6-inch spacing with 7-inch off-centre spacing. Now, I’ll spare you the extensive details as I have a full video on that experiment for you to check out. But the results were really exciting!

My experiment revealed that while 6-inch traditional garlic spacing produced great results, the 7-inch off-centre spacing meant I could produce a much larger harvest! What’s more, I found that the size of the garlic heads produced was no smaller than those grown in the 6-inch traditional spacing bed.

By adding in the extra row you have almost doubled the amount of garlic that you’re planting into the exact same space!

So if you want to get a little more total yield out of your bed, I encourage you to play around with the 7-inch off-centre garlic spacing. Simply measure out your transplant holes every 7 inches, then, right between the two rows, make an additional off-centre row.

Tip: I find the Hori Hori Knife to be the absolute BEST tool for creating your transplanting holes! It has an etched measuring tape, which makes it super easy to perfectly space your plants and the knife easily cuts through the soil — great for digging, transplanting, and even harvesting!

When it comes to garlic planting depth, you’ll want to dig each of the transplanting holes 4 inches deep. This depth makes sure our garlic stays warm over the winter as the soil above will act as insulation and protect it from cold temperatures.

My Hori Hori knife makes it super easy to dig and measure holes that are 4 inches deep!

How to plant garlic: step-by-step

Step one: Dig your transplant holes at either 6-inch or 7-inch off-centre spacing.
Step two: Add about one handful of worm castings and one tablespoon of 444 Superfood organic fertilizer into each hole. This will provide some nutrients as well as a whole bunch of microbial life — just like we have a microbiome, so do our plants! The worm castings really help our plant babies develop as strong, hardy, and healthy as possible.
Step three: Break all the cloves from the head and select the biggest ones ready for planting. What’s important here is to make sure to plant the garlic clove with the flat end facing down and the pointed end facing up.

The roots will grow down from the flat end and the stems and foliage will grow upwards from the pointed tip of your garlic clove!

Step four: Once you have all the cloves in the ground, you can go ahead and back fill them with the surrounding soil.
Step five: Cover the entire bed with 2-3 inches of leaf mulch. This will act as further insulation to ensure that they’re able to survive the winter and begin developing those really beautiful and strong root systems beneath the surface.

PS- If you’re wondering where to get these huge garlic cloves, worm castings, and fertilizer, don’t worry! I’ve put together a Garlic Kit that includes everything you need that I can ship directly to your door! With JUMBO garlic heads, as well as all the microbial life and nutrients in the worm castings and organic fertilizer, this kit will help you produce an IMPRESSIVE garlic harvest!

The great thing about growing garlic is that the majority of the work happens during fall and it’s pretty smooth sailing from there! With the cloves planted in the bed and the insulating leaf mulch on top, the garlic is just going to be hanging out beneath the surface through the winter.

How do you prepare garlic for spring growth?

As spring arrives, you’ll notice the first shoots beginning to emerge. Once these shoots are about 4–5 inches tall, you’re ready to take the next steps to prepare your garlic for the growing season

Step one: Go ahead and remove the leaf mulch — you can put that into your compost pile to continue decomposing! Removing the mulch means that you can get right down to the soil level to give the garlic a nice big feed for the spring.

Man applies fertilizer to garlic plant shoots

Our 444 Superfood is a perfectly balanced, all-round organic fertilizer to give your plant babies all the macronutrients and micronutrients they need to grow big, strong, and healthy.

Step two: Put down one tablespoon of 444 organic fertilzer per square foot. Once you’ve covered the bed with that, simply scratch it into the top inch of soil.
Step three: Next, you’ll just add an inch of fresh compost on top, providing some extra insulation as well as more nutrients and microbial life!

How much water do garlic plants need?

As the days start getting longer and warmer, and your garlic babies are putting on all sorts of beautiful growth, they will also need more water.

Just like garlic LOVES the sun, it also needs plenty of water to really thrive!

BUT! The amount we water them will vary for each of us based on how much rain we get and how warm it is in our respective growing zones. So, rather than sticking a strict watering schedule, allow your watering to be guided by the moisture level in the soil. To do so:

Dig down about 2 inches into the soil.
If it’s wet, then there is no need to water yet.
If it’s looking dry to the touch, then water the area until the water begins to pool. Once it pools, move along to the next area.
Give the water time to be absorbed into the soil.
Return to the area you watered first. If it’s now moist then it is sufficiently watered. If it is still dry, repeat the same round of watering, just as the first.

Now, because this is a masterclass for growing garlic, I do encourage you to set up an automatic irrigation system. I’ve put together a full step-by-step video for you to check out on how I set-up the irrigation system in my own backyard. It’s pretty straightforward to do and most importantly, it will save you a bunch of time and will make sure that your garlic gets watered properly!

Two areas that are important to consider when watering garlic are frequency and duration. On that front, my automatic irrigation system is set to turn on every other day for 25 minutes. I’ve found this works well to allow the garlic to grow really big and beautiful!

Harvesting garlic: the best day of the year!

Over the course of March, April, May, and June, you’ll notice your garlic getting taller, greener, and girthier. So the question is: when can I harvest my garlic?

There are two signs that you want to be looking for as indicators that the garlic is ready to harvest.

The first is the garlic scapes, which only emerge on hardneck varieties. This is where the new garlic seed is produced, which takes a ton of energy away from the bulbs developing beneath the surface. Make sure to remove these to redirect the energy toward growing big, healthy bulbs!
The second sign to look for before harvesting garlic is that there are five dead leaves at the base of the stem.

If you harvest your garlic before there are five dead leaves, the garlic heads may not be fully developed.

Garlic scapes

From late spring to early summer, you’ll notice little shoots grow out of the foliage and begin to form a loop. So, what do you do with the garlic scapes?

Prune the scapes off any time from when they’re about 6 inches long to having formed about one full loop. By pruning these off, all the energy is redirected toward growing big, healthy garlic bulbs.

Left on the plant, the scapes would eventually turn into garlic flowers, drawing energy away from the bulb that is developing beneath the surface.

Put the garlic scapes to good use in the kitchen! You can grill them as they are, chop them up and put them into a stir fry…even pickled garlic scapes are delicious!

Tip: Check out my unique Garlic Scape Recipe video and try a delicious Garlic Scape Toum yourself!

How do I harvest garlic?

So, to harvest your garlic, simply dig your Hori Hori knife into the ground about 3 inches away from the base of the plant. Push it all the way down and pull on the stem while also prying the knife underneath it. And voila! It’s honker season baby!

These strong, healthy roots and HUGE bulbs are a great sign of another successful garlic harvest!

How can I dry and store garlic?

Once you’ve harvested your garlic, you’re not going to rinse it or cut it. Simply place it somewhere where it can air dry for about 10-14 days — I personally like to hang mine up in the garage.

Then, after 14 days, you can chop off the neck about 1 inch from the top of the bulb and also chop all the roots off as well.

You want to tidy up your garlic plants AFTER they've hang-dried for 10-14 days.

The best way to store garlic is to simply put it in a dark and cool area, such as your garage, and just pull from it as you need for meals and dinners!

So now you have your masterclass for growing HONKIN’ heads of garlic, make sure to go ahead and grab your Garlic Kit so that you have everything you need ahead of the upcoming garlic season!