I hear about a lot of people planting garlic in winter or even early spring. In most cases they never report how well the crop turned out so I wondered, how good is the crop if you plant late? Can you plant in spring, in a cold climate, and still get a good crop?
Best Time to Plant Garlic
Garlic can be planted most of the year in warmer climates, but in cool climates the traditional planting time is October (zone 5).
In a previous report I looked at the results of planting earlier than this date, and those results can be found in Planting Garlic – When is the Right Time.
One reason for planting earlier is that it gives the cloves time to set down roots in the warm fall soil. The picture to the right shows how much root growth takes place in one month after an October 1 planting. In theory, more roots in fall equals bigger bulbs in summer.
Garlic planted in December or early spring will be sitting in cold soil and will not make as large a root system. Then in spring when things warm up, such plants will be behind other garlic that was planted in mid fall.
Testing Garlic Planting Dates
I have grown garlic in the same bed for a number of years and they always produce a great crop with very large cloves. I am in zone 5 and grow hardneck garlic. I know from past experience that the whole bed produces about the same size garlic.
In fall of 2017 and spring 2018, I made four different plantings around the first of October, November, December and March. The ground was too frozen in January and February to plant anything.
Planting depth and spacing (4-5″) were the same for all bulbs. The bed was mulched with 3″ of wood chips after planting. Urea fertilizer was added the following spring. The beds were watered as needed to keep the soil moist. I find that the combination of clay soil, rain and mulch are enough to keep the soil moist most of the time.
Garlic Growth in Spring and Summer
The October and November plantings looked similar with respect to plant height and thickness of leaves. The December plants were clearly smaller in size and the March ones were even smaller. The March planting also had fewer leaves per plant.
Plant Size at Harvest Time
The picture below shows the size at harvest time. From left to right, early October, November, December and March.
The bulb size matched the top green growth, which is not surprising. October had the largest bulbs, closely followed by November. The bulbs from a December planting were significantly smaller and the March were even smaller. The largest of the March cloves were about the same size as the smallest October cloves and are considered to be too small for seed garlic. They will grow as seed garlic, but they would not produce large bulbs.
Should You Plant in Winter or Spring?
The results clearly show that earlier plantings will produce larger cloves, and a larger crop.
What is a surprise to me is that a March planting produced anything at all. I expected much smaller cloves from such a planting.
If you can, it is best to plant in October for zone 5. However, early December plantings will still produce a decent crop. Consider a spring planting only as a last reserve. It won’t produce much of a crop, but it is better than no crop. The other benefit of planting in spring is that it allows you to preserve the bulbs for a future planting. If, instead of planting in spring you had tried to hold the bulbs over until the next fall, they would have dried up and been useless. At least a spring planting gives you seed bulbs to plant in fall.
Garlic as a Companion Plant
Garlic is one of the most popular companion plants. It can be grown next to most plants as a natural pest and fungus deterrent. It takes up little space, is not fussy about soil and can grow in most conditions.
But does it actually work as a companion plant? Garlic – the King of Companion Planting
Growing Garlic
If the above does not play automatically, try this link: https://youtu.be/NuCqoGZEcks
Garlic Nematodes
If you grow garlic, take the time to understand this pest. It can destroy your crop.
If the above does not play automatically, try this link: https://youtu.be/hJdJV95WEMU
More Information On Growing Garlic
Soak Garlic Before Planting – Good Idea?
Garlic – the King of Companion Planting
Chives, Garlic Chives, Onion Chives, Garlic Scapes – Which One Do You have?
Leek Moth on Garlic: Identification, Prevention, and Control
My one time planting of spring garlic had a decent harvest but the bulbs didn’t last long in storage.
Hi, thanks for this helpful post! I’m planning to plant garlic in a pot and missed the optimal October window. Do you think it’d be successful to simply keep the pot inside for a few weeks to establish the early root growth, and then transfer it outside for overwintering? Thanks!
I’d just plant outside.
I have read all of your posts regarding garlic. (Hardneck/softneck, when to plant, companion garlic, etc)
I am in zone 5, USA midwest Illinois, I think I heard you say once that our, zone 5 growing zone is the same as yours in Canada. (-20° winters?) I have around 160 days frost free growing season (early May- early/mid Oct.)
Last year I planted both hardneck and softneck at the same time, same everything.(depth, soil, moisture, etc. A few varieties of each kind. The hardneck (music specifically) did the best. All of the other varieties produced small heads/small cloves. You asked in a different post about “why planting hardneck/softneck in northern climates.” I was thinking of planting softneck cloves in very early spring (March-when I can work the ground on south side) as an experiment. It seems that you don’t even mess with softneck varieties but do u think it would work? I want the sustainability of both kinds.
As far as I know both types grow the same way, but different cultivars will grow differently. I don’t see why softneck would do better with spring planting.
For people like me who live in the Southern Hemisphere, would you mind mentioning, please, ‘early autumn’, ‘mid-winter’ etc rather than ‘October’, ‘January’ etc.
Thank you. And thanks for all the excellent content!
good idea.
i would like to have a phone conversation with you about an experiment i want to try in south carolina
i want to build a double lined green house appr 50×500
but,the bed will have glycol lines to simulate winter in july, and tricking the garlic that a frost is upon us stimulating growth. what do you think? email me for phone number
Great article! It’s early nov here in Texas and freezing for a week but I am planting garlic for the first time in my raised garden. I bought variety pack from Keene garlic- must I plant it all or can I keep some for next summer? If yes, how? Thanks! Will join your FB group.
May depend on your climate, but in colder climates spring planting does not work very well – better to plant it all now.
We live in Georgia in Zone 7b – I’m assuming that we can plant garlic as late as November (or early December) with better results than up north. Is that correct ?
correct.
Hey, I just wanted to let you know, you can absolutely save your fall planted and July harvested garlic for replant in the fall, as long as you cure it! I do ghost every year, saving the biggest bulbs to divide and replant. Just make sure you cure and store them properly, and don’t divide the bulbs until just before planting.
https://youtu.be/uReY1L-0lvs
I appreciated all the details you added in your blog. It felt like I was reading a science fair project. I loved the picture examples. Very helpful to me as I am a first time garlic planter. I bought some at my nursery this spring, hopefully they ggow.
A rogue Garlic crop as a casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic?
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In Summer of 2020 I wasn’t able to harvest the Garlic growing in my garden in Oxford, UK. The missed crop came originally from some tasty, large sprouted Spanish cloves – thanks to my local greengrocer – which I planted in late Autumn of 2019.
I missed the harvest because while visiting Nepal, I became stuck in the Covid-19 national and international travel restrictions. Mind you, I’m not complaining about being “locked-down” in rural Nepal for six months on an organic Coffee Farm! I had the chance to experiment with growing Moringa (successfully) in the Himalayan mid-hills and we harvested two species of Garlic while I was there.
Fast forward to the emerging Spring of 2021 and now that I’m back home in jolly old England, I have clumps of baby plants (looking like Onion sets) coming up where the previously solitary cloves were planted.
I’ve dug, gently divided and replanted some and was wondering if you or your readers had encountered this type of happy “rogue” regrowth and what sort of harvest one might anticipate?
I ask as on the newly sprouted “sets”, the bulb portion is a tiny fraction of the size of their parents, making me wonder if I should bother fussing with them, or just go back to my reliable greengrocer and start over with some new, decent sized bulbs?
Thanks in anticipation,
Chris.
Since it is spring – the wrong time to plant garlic, you might as well let them grow.