Missed your chance to plant garlic last fall? Has your winter storage garlic sprouted? Try planting spring garlic. You may not get large cloves, but you can still enjoy the mild flavor of green garlic.
Garlic is normally planted in the fall for larger bulbs. Once planted, the garlic begins growing roots, and then goes dormant when winter arrives.
Garlic needs a period of cold winter temperatures to stress the seed and stimulate it to divide into separate cloves that form a head of garlic. This process is called, vernalization.
Once spring arrives, fall planted garlic will begin growing right where it left off. Garlic is triggered to bulb when the day length increases to about 14 hours. The more time garlic has to grow foliage before forming bulbs, the larger the heads will be come harvest time.
If garlic doesn’t get a cold period of at least 40˚F for about 4-8 weeks, it may not divide into cloves that form the bulb. If you have time, you can try tricking the garlic by placing it in the refrigerator before spring planting.
Why you should consider planting spring garlic:
Even if you don’t have time to cold treat your garlic, there are many reasons why you should plant spring garlic anyway.
Green Garlic Shoots: The green shoots that appear shortly after planting have a mild garlic flavor. Snip some to use the same way that you would use garlic chives.
Green Garlic Bulbs: Immature garlic bulbs have a mellower flavor than regular garlic. Green garlic and the foliage can be used raw or cooked like scallions.
Garlic Scapes: If you planted hard neck garlic, it will produce a scape or flower stalk. These tender, mildly garlic flavored shoots are delicious.
Garlic Bulbs: If you allow the plants to grow to maturity, you should be able to harvest some small heads of garlic. Even if your spring planted garlic failed to segment into cloves, the small bulb will still have all the flavor regular garlic.
How to Plant Garlic in Spring
You can find garlic bulbs for spring planting at your local garden centers or order online. My farm store usually has garlic seeds in spring along with the onion sets and seed potatoes.
If you discover your storage garlic is beginning to sprout, go ahead and plant it and enjoy the mild garlicky flavor of young, green garlic.
1. Prepare your garden bed: Select a gardening area that receives 6-8 hours of sunlight per day. Wait until the soil has thawed and drained. To test, form a handful of soil into a ball, and then tap it with your fingers. If it crumbles apart easily, it’s time to plant. If it holds firm, wait a while longer for the soil to dry out more. Remove weeds, add some finished compost, and fertilize with an organic fertilizer.
2. Plot out your planting holes: Since the bulbs are expected to be small, you can plant them closer together. Plot out spring garlic planting holes about 2-4 inches apart, and about 2-inches deep.
3. Separate the cloves right before planting: Separate the cloves from the bulb. Use the largest and healthiest looking cloves for planting. Save the smaller and damaged cloves for cooking.
4. Plant the garlic cloves: Place the cloves in your prepare holes with the flat, root side facing down and the pointed end facing up. Cover, firm the soil, and water well.
5. Add mulch to your garlic bed: Cover the garlic bed with a 2-3 inch layer of organic mulch, such as straw or shredded leaves. This will help keep weeds down.
Green garlic can be harvested at any stage once it develops shoots. All parts are edible. Enjoy the shoots in salads, as a pizza topping, or sprinkled on your morning eggs.
Green or immature garlic bulbs will not hold up in storage. Harvest what you need for meals and freeze extras for later. The longer you leave the garlic in the ground, the more advanced the bulb will be. Garlic is finished growing when the outer leaves of the plant begin to die.
No garden? No problem. You can grow green garlic in containers. Just fill your pot with soil and push the cloves in about 2-4 inches apart and 1 inch deep.
You May Also Like:
- How to Plant Garlic in Fall
- How to Harvest Garlic Scapes
- 7 Tips for Growing Great Garlic
- How to Harvest, Cure, and Store Garlic for Winter
Good planning is key to a successful vegetable garden
Whether you are new to growing your own food or have been growing a vegetable garden for years, you will benefit from some planning each year. You will find everything you need to organize and plan your vegetable garden in my PDF eBook, Grow a Good Life Guide to Planning Your Vegetable Garden.
Angie says
Hi there, I planted spring garlic this last spring. I harvested it mid summer and it was fabulous!! So here’s the mystery. I was about to prep that bed for winter and discovered two full rows of newly sprouting spring garlic cloves! Some of them are big, like an inch in diameter. The sprouts were anywhere from just beginning, to green sprouts about 4 inches tall. The rows were in the same spot as where I had my spring garlic. I don’t think its possible that I could’ve missed so many cloves. So, has this ever happened to you? Is it possible that new spring garlic could grow from roots leftover or something? I’m just totally bewildered. Or even if I had somehow missed harvesting these two rows, would the original green tops die off and the cloves start to produce new sprouts?
I left some, and I moved some to a new bed, and I harvested many of them to enjoy. It feels like bonus green garlic! (I live in northern MN just to give you an idea of the climate I’m in.) Do you think the ones I leave in the ground will turn into regular bulbs over the winter?
©Rachel Arsenault says
Angie, Yes, cloves left in the ground will sprout the following year. I often miss some garlic at harvest time and get a surprise later in the season or the following year. Sometimes the greens do die back, and new garlic sprouts from the cloves. It’s also possible that the planted clove sprouted later than the rest. It is a nice surprise. 🙂
Harry E says
Hello, I it’s mid-march and my garlic bulbs started in perlite have shoots that are about 5 inches high I want to plant them in pots. How deep should I plant them and will I have a successful harvest in the fall, TY Harry
©Rachel Arsenault says
Harry, Yes, you can plant your sprouted garlic in pots. I would plant them shallow, only about one inch deep and about 2-4 inches apart. Spring planted garden doesn’t separate into cloves like fall planted garlic. So feel free to harvest as you need for meals. The garlic plants will tell you when they are finished growing, usually around mid summer. The bottom foliage begins to turn brown indicating the end of the plant’s growth cycle.
Nora Daroy says
I just planted store bought garlic today, so I’m excited how it will turn out. Thank you for the tutorial, now more or less I know what to expect.
Greg says
How long after planting would you harvest spring garden? Or maybe the better question is “when do you know your spring garlic is ready for harvest?”
©Rachel Arsenault says
Greg, It depends on the variety of garlic you are growing. You can harvest spring garlic any time for the shoots, small cloves, or small bulbs.
Most garlic matures fully in 6-9 months. In addition, garlic plants are triggered to bulb when the day length increases to about 14 hours. That’s one of the reasons garlic is typically planted in fall. The shorter day length allows more time for the garlic to grow larger before forming a bulb.
The garlic is finished growing when the outer foliage begins turning brown. There is more info here on how to harvest, cure, and store mature garlic: https://growagoodlife.com/harvesting-curing-storing-garlic/
Jaime says
Will I be able to save my spring garlic for fall planting?
©Rachel Arsenault says
Jamie, Do you mean the garlic grown from spring planted seed? If the bulbs formed, you can plant the cloves in the fall in the same way as described in this post: https://growagoodlife.com/planting-garlic-3/
The trick will be getting a large enough bulb from spring planted garlic, and keeping the bulbs cool after harvest so they do not sprout prematurely. Personally, I would experiment and see what happens 🙂
Susannah says
I ADORE green garlic! I usually plant mine in fall, but I wonder if I could use your instructions to plant myself more a little later in the season? Green garlic’s season is so woefuly short!
Darlene Palmieri says
I Love Planting Garlic , in Oct, and Watching it Grow ALL Winter.. Every year we’ve been Planting More,, Last Oct we Planted 150 Cloves, and we Harvested Approx 300 Heads of Garlic , Currently Curing in the Barn,, I’m Hoping it doesn’t get too hot out there,, Once I clean it up , then I can bring it inside ,Hope we Have enough ! LOL !
Maria says
I tried this after reading your article. They are growing like crazy in my garden now! Thank you 🙂
©Rachel Arsenault says
Maria, That is so exciting!
Laura Nielsen says
Thank you for this thorough tutorial!! I have planted garlic in the spring when I have forgotten to plant it in the fall and you’re right, it produces smaller heads but is definitely better than the alternative (not planting any garlic at all). Luckily, the garlic I grew last year is still going strong in storage…hooray! Thanks again for this awesome tutorial. I love the picture of your garlic cloves poked into the soil. Makes me happy!!! Love your blog!
Margy says
This is the first year I’ve planted hard neck garlic in the fall. I’m excited to see how it works.