Growing Garlic

Allium sativum : Amaryllidaceae / the onion family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec
    P P P P            

(Best months for growing Garlic in Australia - sub-tropical regions)

  • P = Plant cloves
  • Easy to grow. Plant cloves. Best planted at soil temperatures between 10°C and 35°C. (Show °F/in)
  • Space plants: 10 - 12 cm apart
  • Harvest in 17-25 weeks.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Beets, Carrots, Cucumbers, Dill, Tomatoes, Parsnips
  • Avoid growing close to: Asparagus, Beans, Brassicas, Peas, Potatoes

Your comments and tips

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26 Mar 16, Len. (Australia - temperate climate)
I grow garlic in the same spot. Before planting each year, I add compost and a small amount of well rotted animal manure. Mix it in well and to date have had very good results.
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24 Mar 16, Alan (Australia - temperate climate)
Hi Lesley, Garlic has a very long growing season (longest day to shortest day) so we prefer not to grow it in our normal garden beds since it invariably gets in the way of further plantings so we plant them all around the ornamentals in the front garden as a border & we do this year after year without effecting the yield or quality. Regards, Al.
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18 Mar 16, Jessica (Australia - temperate climate)
Hi, Im a first time garlic grower, and I wanted to find out if I should be putting in sticks or something to keep the leaves straight up? Or can they just bend over the pot with out issues?
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26 Mar 16, tony (Australia - temperate climate)
I have been growing garlic for a few years now and I just let them do what they want to do...
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13 Mar 16, debbie (South Africa - Summer rainfall climate)
the best way to firtilising carlic
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17 Mar 16, Bee-Pie (South Africa - Summer rainfall climate)
Nitrogen. Add well rotted cow manure as a side dressing if you've already planted your garlic. When cow manure isn't available to me, I use Comfrey or worm tea.
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08 Mar 16, Estelle (South Africa - Semi-arid climate)
After planted how long before fully developed
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17 Mar 16, Bee-Pie (South Africa - Summer rainfall climate)
Approximately 200 days.
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03 Mar 16, Greg (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
You can get great fruit n veg stock, lots of great garlic from a nursery at crystal creek near numanba vally . Greg
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29 Feb 16, Tony (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Thanks for your reply Ann - I have been searching the web for a week and I think I have exhausted all the web-sites, including green Harvest. GH have seed but what they have in stock is more suited to cooler winters than we experience here. I have found some Italian Red in the Hunter Valley - but it has sprouted - I guess I'll just have to take the risk and plant it now - at least a month early and hope for cooler weather. Thanks again for taking the time Tony
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Showing 521 - 530 of 923 comments
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my Zone 10A garlic, all in rectangular containers 24" length x 7.5" width, x 6.5" height, is sprouting well also, with some shoots up to about two inches. I had several garlic bulbs I intentionally kept in my refrigerator for a couple months, divided them into cloves, peeled them to avoid mold and decay, and kept the separated cloves open to the light at room temperature until they started sprouting. When the majority had tiny green shoots, I selected the best cloves (solid, no spongy or discolored parts) and planted them shallow with the very top of the clove showing as per advice from an internet container gardening site. I am really being careful not to overwater and it looks like all the cloves sprouted green shoots, but after a couple weeks I did have birds pull up maybe eight out of thirty or so of the newly sprouted cloves, so I replanted the missing ones with a more cloves, then added about an inch more soil over the top, and so far the birds have not raided again with the cloves now about two inches deep. Lesson learned: the internet advice for container gardening to plant the cloves with the tip showing is an invitation to be raided by birds. Solution: plant deeper, maybe two inches below the soil surface, even in shallow containers.

- Dave in California Zone 10A

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