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 50°F and 95°F. (Show °C/cm)
  • Space plants: 4 - 5 inches 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
  • Mature cured garlic
  • Almost ready to harvest
  • Garlic cloves
  • Mature cured garlic
  • Young garlic shoots

Garlic is traditionally planted in cold weather and harvested in summer ("plant on the shortest day, harvest on the longest"). Plant the cloves (separated from the bulb), point upwards, deep enough to just cover with soil. A fairly tough and easy-growing plant but in better soil with regular watering you will get a better crop. On poorer soil, and forgetting to water them, you will still get some garlic, only not quite so much, maybe just a single large bulb.

Leave a garlic to go to seed, and you will probably get plenty of self-sown plants the following year.

To keep for later use, dig up and leave to dry out for a day or so after the green shoots die down. To use immediately, pull up a head when you need it, or cut and use the green shoots.

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Garlic

Cut the growing shoots or use the entire young garlic plants as 'garlic greens' in stir-fry.

Your comments and tips

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13 Jun 24, Peter (Australia - temperate climate)
I have already planted my Garlic and I was looking at bags of Garlic Cloves in my local shop. Reading through the instructions it said "Do not mulch Garlic". Wondering what your thoughts are. I mulched mine straight after I planted it. We have had a lot of rain. I am on the Central Coast NSW.
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16 Jun 24, (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
With mulching and a lot of rain the ground could become very wet and cause the bulbs to rot before germination.
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28 Oct 23, Kelvan.......Margaret River wa (Australia - temperate climate)
I have successfully grown garlic for several years now with huge success however this year most of my crop has secondary sprouting. I seems that the time their ready for picking in around 4 > 6 weeks most will be lost due to all cloves within the bulb sprouting. PLEASE any thoughts as to what's going on.
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15 Nov 23, Ric (Australia - temperate climate)
Hi Kelvan, I haven't had the sprouting problem but after 30 years of growing garlic I have just harvested the worst crop I have ever had, but having talked to fellow growers, they also have experienced lesser quality garlic and some premature sprouting as well. It is worth noting that we have experienced colder temperatures this springtime and below 15 degrees celsius soil temperature whilst bulbing will induce early sprouting. On numerous occasions I have placed garlic in the refrigerator in February to bring on earlier sprouting. I usually plant over 500 cloves each year and some years over 5000 and give the garlic away to people who can't afford the ridiculous retail prices. Of course also to replace the weak quality, low pungency Chinese garlic. I am a great believer in planetry positioning within the universe, it has a large effect on weather and all forms of life and will certainly effect all growth and evolutionary factors. Perhaps next year will be a better one or we might have to plant later as it appears the planet is cooling.
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15 Sep 23, Susan miller (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
My March/April garlic completely failed. Can I plant some more now (September).
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20 Sep 23, (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Plant around mid -late June.
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09 Sep 23, Mario Dalli (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Can a small complete bulb of garlic be replanted to grow larger in the next growing season.
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22 Sep 23, Faith Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate)
Certainly, BUT GENERALLY you break your bulb apart into it's constituent CLOVES and plant each clove separately. That is, each clove becomes a garlic plant.
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14 Sep 23, Anonymous (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Yes
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31 Aug 23, Ray wales (Australia - temperate climate)
How to store garlic after digging up.some of mine went soft.some started to sprout after a few months?.
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As the garlic profile says above, planting time was autumn. Pay attention to the saying: "Plant on the shortest day and harvest on the longest".

- Tony

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