
Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Garlic
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Before you choose a variety of garlic, you need to consider your climate, which determines whether you plant a hardneck or softneck variety. Then you need to consider your cooking because different varieties have different taste profiles, from mild to sweet to bold to spicy!
Hardneck Garlic
Hardnecks are the best choice for Northern gardeners. This variety is extremely cold hardy for harsh winters. These grow one ring of fat cloves around a hard stem, with fewer but larger cloves per bulb than softnecks.
Bonus! Hardnecks produce flower stems, aka “scapes,” which must be cut to encourage the bulbs to reach their full potential. The scapes themselves are an early summer treat, delicious if chopped into salads or added to stir-fries.
Popular hardneck varieties: ‘Music’ (on the mild side yet rich and mellow); ‘Chesnok Red’ (mild and sweet, creamy texture when roasted); ‘Early Italian’ (sweeter flavor that won’t overpower dishes); ‘German Red’ (robust, classic garlic flavor which cooks love); ‘Spanish Roja’ (strong and hot, heirloom with classic garlic flavor).
Softneck Garlic
Softnecks are more common with Southern gardeners, growing well in warm climates with warm winters. They have more intense flavors and tend to grow bigger bulbs with smaller cloves per bulb because energy is not being diverted to top-set bulblets like hardnecks.
They do not have scapes, but they store better than hardnecks. Like their name suggests, they have necks that stay soft after harvest and, therefore, are the types that you see braided together.
Popular softneck varieties: ‘California White Early’ (classic moderate garlic flavor, most popular grocery store type, harvest in spring); ‘California White Late’ (harvest in summer); ‘Inchelium Red’ (wonderful but mild garlic flavor, superior storage life); ‘Silver White’ (classic garlic, great storage, excellent for beginner); ‘Lorz Italian’ (hot and zesty heirloom, popular with cooks).
Elephant Garlic
Elephant garlic isn’t a true garlic, but it is grown similarly to hardneck varieties, requiring a long, cool growing season in zones 3 through 9. Most types take about 90 days to harvest once growth starts. Despite its size, it has quite a mild flavor, more similar to onion and shallots than traditional garlic. Bulbs and cloves are large (up to one pound each!), with just a few cloves to a bulb.
See our complete video that demonstrates how to grow and harvest garlic!
Cooking Notes
- Learn how to make your own garlic powder to easily spice up a recipe.
- Roasted garlic bulbs are also a favorite of ours!
- Around the summer solstice (late June), hardneck garlic sends up a seed stalk or scape. Allow it to curl, then cut off the curl to allow the plant to put its energy into bulb formation. Use the scapes in cooking the same way you would garlic bulbs. We like to stir-fry scapes the way we cook green beans—similar, with a spicy kick! Note that they get more fibrous and less edible as they mature.

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I live in southern California where the coldest temperature of the year is around 48 degrees fahrenheit, and from reading other comments I learned the garlic has to stay for 40 days under 40F. I live in an apartment and just plant these for farm, but I still wanna get some results. How do I get my garlic to form bulbs?
Do you know that the garlic capital of the world is not far from you? Folks in Gilroy have been growing garlic for … ever! So it’s possible. It doesn’t really need a chill. But it does need rich, loose (not compacted) soil. Some growers plant on the shortest day of the year (winter solstice) and harvest on the longest (summer solstice) but you can just use that schedule as a gauge.
Hi I just receive some awesome local garlic and sense I have like 5feet of snow outside right now in NB I was wondering what could I do with my new garlic? Should I plant it in soil inside to transplant in the spring or plant directly in the soil when spring is here?
As per above, “Garlic can be planted in the spring as soon as the ground can be worked.” Planting it in fall is not required.
Can you trick a garlic plant if you freeze it in the house for a few weeks then plant it outside in the spring?
You do not need to “trick” it, Joanie. As per above, “Garlic can be planted in the spring as soon as the ground can be worked.”
One year my Garlic is mild enough to eat like candy and the next year it's so hot it burns my tongue. What am I doing different?
Donald, the only thing we can think about the garlic is that you are growing different varieties. You do not say that you replant some of your harvest, so…if you get different stock/seed garlic from year to year, you may be getting different ones. With the ease of growing, it has become very popular in home gardens and many more types are around. About taste, porcelain tends to be mild; rocambole is high in sulfenic acid so has a chili-like taste; and Spanish, or red, tends to mild.
Hoping to plant my first garlic this year and was going to try in a large planter. My question is where I live (South Texas) we don't get a freeze. We had 1 day where them temp reached 32 this year but not long enough for the ground to freeze. Will in have any luck with garlic?
I'm in the RGV in South Texas. I planted my first crop of garlic in 2 self-watering bucket systems that i keep on my 2nd floor balcony. I ave healthy green scapes now, and all looks good.
No idea how the harvest will turn out at the end of the summer, but for now i'm happy with how it's moving along.
Good luck!