Comments on: Planting Spring Garlic

By: ©Rachel Arsenault

©Rachel Arsenault — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 16:22:11 +0000

In reply to Leah.

Leah, I don’t think planting it now will produce large bulbs. There is a cycle that garlic needs to go through to grow. Most of its growth occurs in early spring, and then it is triggered to form bulbs once the day length increases to about 14 hours. I don’t know how it will behave now that we are in the longest daylight of summer. Has the garlic started spouting while in your refrigerator? If not, the fridge may be cool enough to keep it dormant. After that, I would wait until fall to get it in the ground. This article may be helpful: https://growagoodlife.com/planting-garlic-3/

By: Leah

Leah — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 13:38:52 +0000

I have fall garlic that didn’t get planted
I kept the garlic in the back of the refrigerator. If I plant the garlic now but don’t harvest it and leave it in the ground will it grow the large heads of fall planted garlic?

By: ©Rachel Arsenault

©Rachel Arsenault — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 13:01:14 +0000

In reply to Angie. 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. :)

By: Angie

Angie — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 22:18:59 +0000

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?

In reply to Harry E. 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.