Whether you garden in the ground, in raised beds, or on the patio, garlic is a great addition or re-addition to your plant family. Read on for simple, straightforward specifics about growing garlic.
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Family | Container Size | Good Companions | Bad Companions | Soil Conditions | Germination | Sun | Water | Temperature Range | Height | Lifespan | Reproduction | Yield Per Plant | Ingestibility | Further Reading
What Family Does Garlic Belong To?
Garlic (Allium sativum) belongs to the Alliaceae family, also known as the onion family.
Some of its relatives include leeks, chives, and ramps.
What Size Container Should I Use for Growing Garlic?
The minimum container depth recommended for garlic is 6 inches.
If you are planting multiple garlic cloves in the same container, be sure to space them at least 4 inches apart.
Learn more in our Choosing the Right Planter for Your Container Garden article here.
What Are Good Companion Plants for Garlic?
Some of garlic's best companions are as follows:
- Carrot, as garlic repels carrot fly
- Rose
- Blackberry
- Chamomile
- Geranium
- Tomato
- Peppers such as bell pepper and poblano
- Yarrow
- Fruit trees such as peach and apple, as garlic repels many fruit tree borers
- Kale, radishes, and other Brassicas
- Dill
- Parsley
- Beet
- Lettuce
- Orach
- Strawberry
- Celery
- Eggplant
- Potato
- Spinach
- Nasturtium
- Toothache plant
What Are Bad Companion Plants for Garlic?
Garlic is not compatible with every plant. Some things to avoid planting with garlic are as follows:
- Peas
- Beans like green beans
- Sage
- Parsley
- Asparagus
What Soil Conditions Does Garlic Need?
Garlic prefers loose, moist, well-draining soil. Sandy loam is ideal for growing garlic.
How Long Does Garlic Take to Germinate?
Garlic seeds take 4-8 weeks days to germinate at a temperature of 40-65°F.
But many gardeners plant garlic cloves instead of seeds. In most regions, cloves are planted in the fall. They sprout and start growing shoots and leaves above the ground in 1-8 weeks. The bulbs are ready in 6-9 months from the time of clove planting, depending on climate and variety.
How Much Sun Does Garlic Need?
Garlic does best in full sun.
In many regions, the bulbs will remain tiny if grown in the shade, and the plant will grow much more slowly.
Garlic is more tolerant of shade in tropical and subtropical areas, but gardeners in those areas may struggle to grow it due to a lower amount of chill hours. Most garlics need a minimum of 4-12 weeks of temperatures below 40ºF to grow properly.
How Much Water Does Garlic Need?
Garlic needs 0.5 to 1 inch of water per week.
What Is the Ideal Temperature Range for Growing Garlic?
Garlic grows fastest in temperatures of 55-75°F after its winter chill period.
This is its ideal temperature range. Although it will grow in temperatures both cooler and warmer than this range, the growth could be slower or even stunted.
Minimum and maximum temperatures will vary by variety. Some garlic varieties are bred for earlier harvests and others for warmer climates.
How Tall Does Garlic Get?
The average height of garlic is 1-3 feet.
Is Garlic Annual, Biennial, or Perennial?
Garlic is a biennial herb, meaning that its life cycle spans 2 years, and it flowers, produces seed, and dies in its second year.
But it is often grown as an annual, meaning that it starts and ends its life in the same year. As mentioned in the Germination section above, garlic bulbs are usually ready to harvest 6-9 months after cloves are planted.
Arguably, it is still biennial even when grown similarly to an annual, as described above, since its lifespan still spans 2 years, the autumn of the first year and the spring and summer of the second year.
Some sources claim that garlic can be "grown as a perennial," but they describe a process of replanting the bulbs or bulblets or allowing the plant to self-seed. This does not describe perennial garlic but simply replanting biennial garlic continuously. True perennials are plants like mints and most trees where the original plant, not its offspring, lives for more than 2 years.
Elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum) is perennial. But despite its common name, it is a different species than true or "regular" garlic. Elephant garlic is actually a variety of wild leek (Allium ampeloprasum).
How Does Garlic Reproduce?
Garlic reproduces by clove and by seed.
Cloves are divisions of the root bulb, while seeds are produced from above-ground flowers.
How Much Garlic is Produced Per Plant?
Garlic produces 1 bulb, also called a head, per clove planted.
Each plant also produces several leaves. Hardneck varieties produce a bundle of scapes and bulblets 1-2 months before the underground bulbs are harvest-ready.
Can Garlic Be Ingested?
Garlic bulbs, scapes, bulblets, flowers, and leaves are edible.
Garlic bulbs have antimicrobial and expectorant properties and can be used in herbal preparations. The most common preparations are broths and herbal honeys.
There are no known safety concerns associated with ingesting garlic in culinary or average herbal doses. In very high amounts, garlic may cause blood thinning and intestinal flora disruption.
Further Reading
This article is intended as a quick-reference guide for gardeners. Consult your seed packet or seed catalog for variety-specific information.
When you have a bumper crop of garlic rolling in, you may not have enough time for long, complicated recipes or many-step preservation procedures. Check out my article on quick, simple uses for garlic here!
Garlic is featured in these Plant to Plate articles: