How to grow Organic Garlic: planting, growing, & harvesting

Tips on how to grow organic garlic including varieties, planting direct and in modules, after care, harvesting, and storage.

One of the easiest crops to grow in the organic garden is garlic. It’s hardy, suffers few pests, and in mid-summer will reward you with dozens of bulbs that can be dried out and used over the next three months to a year. Garlic is truly one of the most rewarding crops you can grow.

If you’re new to growing garlic, read on for tips on when to plant, how to plant, harvesting, and how to choose which garlic varieties. Though it might seem a little daunting, you’ll eventually agree with me that growing garlic is easy.

If your garden soil is wet in winter, plant cloves into modules and then plant them out in spring

Choose your garlic

Garlic comes in two main types: ‘Soft-neck’ and ‘Hard-neck’. They’ll both form delicious garlic cloves and most gardeners can grow both types. However there are some main differences in how to grow and care for them. The video below shares more on growing and harvesting both varieties.

Soft Neck Garlic

Most kitchen gardeners tend to grow soft-neck varieties since they produce more and bigger cloves. They’re also easier to grow because they don’t form garlic scapes, which need to be pruned off. Another bonus is that you can plant it outdoors in either autumn or spring since it tends not to need a period of cold to begin growing bulbs. That means if you’re running late with getting your garlic in in autumn, you still have a time to get it in.

Another great thing about soft-neck garlic is that it stores for a long time. Their dried necks can easily be plaited and garlic you see in the supermarket or hanging in ornamental braids is almost always soft-neck.

Here are some popular varieties of soft-neck garlic:

• California Softneck
• Early Italian Purple Garlic
• Early Purple Wight
• Solent Wight

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Hard Neck Garlic

Hard-neck varieties literally have a hard neck. This neck sprouts a ‘garlic scape’ that should be trimmed off when spotted in summer. Leaving it on can weaken the plant and reduce the size of your bulbs. Fortunately it’s tasty and can be used in cooking. If you leave this scape growing, it will eventually transform into bulbils, tiny edible garlic cloves.

Although less commonly grown by the average kitchen gardener, hard-neck varieties are said to have more complex flavor and are considered more gourmet. They’re also much more cold-hardy than soft-neck so better suited for those growing garlic in cold climates. In fact they need 6-12 weeks of cold temperatures in winter to kick start a bulb into forming.

Here are some popular varieties of hard-neck garlic:

• Chesnok Red Garlic
• Chesnok White
• Spanish Roja Garlic
• German Red Garlic

Three month old garlic shoots in late January.

The best time to plant garlic is Autumn

Garlic needs around six to eight months to mature and that time is up around the end of June to July. That means that if you plant your garlic in early spring, it might not have as much time to grow and fill out as it would have if you plant in autumn. This applies to both soft-neck and hard-neck varieties, irregardless of whether it’s said to be ‘spring-planting’ or not.

The best time to plant garlic is from late September to late November. Basically a month before your first hard frost. Funnily enough, the traditional time for planting garlic here in Britain is actually the Winter Solstice. That’s the shortest day of the year usually falling on December 21st.

• Garlic will arrive in bulbs, don’t separate them into cloves until you’re ready to plant.
• Gently break the bulbs into individual cloves and plant direct in the soil or in modules with 1.5-2″ square cavities. Each clove should have a bit of the original bulb’s base still attached.
• Planting in modules is a great way to grow garlic if you know your garden is going to be wet and boggy over the winter. Garlic does not like having ‘wet feet’.
• Garlic will grow in most types of soil but it needs to be free-draining. That means sandy, loamy soil or fluffy compost for the modules.
• Plant each clove with the pointy end sticking up. This pointy end should be sticking up through the soil.
• Water the cloves in well and set your modules outside in a sunny and sheltered part of your patio/garden
• If you’ve planted into modules make sure to keep the soil moist.
• Green shoots will sprout in as little as a few weeks. They’re tough and can ride out wet, wind, cold, and snow.
• If you have very cold winters, you could theoretically grow soft-neck garlic in modules in a greenhouse. Plant them outside in spring.

Garlic does best when it’s mulched with garden compost, manure, or mushroom compost. In very dry climates, you can also mulch with straw.

Garlic will begin to grow again in early Spring

I sometimes will plant my own garlic in modules and then plant them in the garden in March. By this time I’ll have noticed them starting to grow again and when I lift them out of the modules their root systems are bright, branching, and looking for more space to grow.

• Plant garlic in free-draining soil with plenty of direct sunlight
• The soil doesn’t need to be rich in nitrogen at first. It’s only when the garlic begins taking off in spring that mulch is really important.
• Mulch around your plants with mushroom compost, composted manure, or garden compost
• A top dressing helps keep the soil underneath rich and moist as well as free of weeds.
• Place your plants (or bulbs, if you’re direct planting) 12″ apart and in rows that are 6-12″ apart. Technically they can be grown in tighter conditions but your harvested bulbs won’t be as big and you’ll have trouble weeding and/or hoeing between them.
• Plant your module-grown plants at the same level that they’re growing at. Firm them in afterwards by pressing the soil with your fingers.

Straw mulch is best used in dry climates. In wetter ones, like Britain, it creates habitat for slugs

Garlic is an easy crop to care for

Once garlic is planted out into the ground they’re easy to care for. I do very little for my plants while they’re growing except to make sure that weeds are not growing among my patch. I also make sure that the soil they’re growing in is always moist. This means mulching the top of the soil with compost and soil.

Most animals and birds will steer clear of garlic so you shouldn’t have too many issues with them. The only real disease that I’ve seen them come down with is ‘Rust’ which is a kind of rusty mottling on the leaves. It doesn’t hurt the bulb though so if you’re close to harvest time don’t be too concerned. If you spot it earlier in the season though it can be a problem. Snip off the leaves as soon as you see it happening and make sure to dispose of them rather than put them on your compost heap.

This garlic is almost ready to harvest. Note the lower leaves turning yellow.

Harvesting Garlic

Garlic is ready for me to dig up in late June and early July. I dig them up all at once and after a day of drying in the sun, take them in to fully dry in the garage. Here’s some more tips on harvesting:

• When you notice the bottom leaves of the plants beginning to turn yellow it’s almost harvest time. Try not to water the plants too much in the last month of their growing time.
• When the bottom 1/3rd of the leaves are yellow it’s time to dig them up.
• On a dry day, use a garden fork to gently pull the garlic up. Brush as much of the soil off them as you can. Don’t wash them with water since it can cause the bulbs to spoil.
• Set them on a screen, a table, or another dry surface and let them dry out completely — both greens and bulbs

Dry garlic until it’s green leaves are brown and crispy

• When bone-dry, you can braid the garlic, tie it in bunches, or snip off the dried foliage and put your garlic in paper/cloth bags for storage.
• The dirty roots and skins of the garlic will clean up nicely by just rubbing with your fingers.
• Use some of your harvested garlic cloves to grow next year’s crops. Once you’ve invested in garlic, you can continue growing from year to year with no added expense.

Braiding garlic is a lot easier than you’d think

Braiding Garlic

Once your soft-neck garlic is fully dried, you can plait it if you wish. If you’ve french-braided hair before it will be pretty easy. It’s better seen than described so have a watch of my video below showing how to braid garlic.

Whether you braid it or not, store garlic at room temperature or slightly cooler and out of direct sunlight. Cold temperatures will cause it to sprout and damp can encourage mold and rot. Soft-neck garlic can last 6-12 months if stored properly and hard-neck from 3-6 months.

If you enjoyed this piece and would like more tips on how to grow your own food, head over here for ideas.