When to Plant Garlic
Plant garlic cloves from 2 weeks before to 3 weeks after your first fall frost; they grow through winter and are ready the next summer.
Garlic at a glance
- Plant in fall
- from 2 weeks before to 3 weeks after your first fall frost
- Time to harvest
- 7 to 9 months from planting
- Harvest lasts
- about 3 weeks
- Spacing
- 9 per square foot
- Frost
- Takes hard frosts
Growing garlic
Garlic is planted in fall and dug the next summer. Choose rich, well-drained soil in full sun, and keep the bed weeded and watered in spring until the leaves begin to yellow. Hardneck kinds send up curly scapes in early summer; cut them and cook them.
Dates by hardiness zone
Typical dates for each zone; your ZIP code gives your own.
| Zone | Plant | Harvest |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 3a | Aug 31 – Oct 5 | Jul 30 – Aug 20From last fall's planting. |
| Zone 3b | Sep 11 – Oct 16 | Jul 19 – Aug 9 |
| Zone 4a | Sep 14 – Oct 19 | Jul 14 – Aug 4 |
| Zone 4b | Sep 17 – Oct 22 | Jul 10–31 |
| Zone 5a | Sep 21 – Oct 26 | Jul 5–26 |
| Zone 5b | Sep 26 – Oct 31 | Jul 3–24 |
| Zone 6a | Oct 2 – Nov 6 | Jul 1–22 |
| Zone 6b | Oct 8 – Nov 12 | Jun 25 – Jul 16 |
| Zone 7a | Oct 11 – Nov 15 | Jun 18 – Jul 9 |
| Zone 7b | Oct 18 – Nov 22 | Jun 7–28 |
| Zone 8a | Oct 24 – Nov 28 | May 31 – Jun 21 |
| Zone 8b | Oct 30 – Dec 4 | May 19 – Jun 9 |
| Zone 9a | Nov 12 – Dec 17 | May 4–25 |
| Zone 9b | Dec 1 – Jan 5 | Apr 5–26 |
| Zone 10a | Dec 13 – Jan 17 | Mar 28 – Apr 18 |
| Zones 10b–11b | Frost is rare here, so grow garlic in the cooler months, from fall to early spring. | |
Questions about garlic
Which garlic should I plant?
Hardneck garlic suits cold winters; softneck garlic suits milder winters and stores longer. Plant seed garlic sold for gardens rather than grocery garlic.
When do I dig up garlic?
In early summer, when the lower leaves have browned but a few green ones remain. Dig carefully, then hang the bulbs somewhere airy and shady to cure for a few weeks.
