How to grow Garlic

Allium sativum · hardneck garlic, softneck garlic

A pungent bulb vegetable planted in autumn to overwinter and harvested in early to mid-summer. The cloves need one to two months of cold to form good bulbs.

Quick facts

Type	Vegetable
Family	Amaryllidaceae
Light	Full sun
Soil pH	6–7
Frost	tolerates light frost
Germination	150 days
Sowing to harvest	250 days
Where it grows	Open ground

When to plant

Plant in autumn, about a month before your first autumn frost, so the roots grow before winter; it flowers or crops the next season.

Harvest comes about 8 months after planting.

Dates for your city are on the frost dates page.

Frost dates · When to plant

Care

Open ground

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Growth	every 7 days	-5…15 °C	nitrogen, at the start of the stage; nitrogen, 28 days into the stage
Flowering	every 7 days	—	—
Harvest	—	—	—

Growing notes

Light

Needs full sun, at least 6 hours of direct light a day.

Soil

Deep, well-drained soil rich in organic matter, pH 6–7. Heavy clay gives misshapen bulbs, and wet soil makes them rot.

Care

Plant single cloves 5 cm deep with the pointy end up and mulch once the ground freezes. In spring water about 25 mm a week in dry weather and feed nitrogen as growth starts and again a few weeks later; stop watering about two weeks before harvest. Snap off the flower scapes of hardneck garlic when they curl. Lift the bulbs when the lower third to half of the leaves have turned yellow.

Pests and diseases of Garlic

Bacterial soft rot
Downy Mildew
Onion fly
Rust

Sources

Figures checked against these sources.