How to Grow Your Own Garlic Indoors

Garlic is widely used for culinary and medicinal purposes with their special flavor and health benefits. Actually, garlic is an edible flowering bulb that belongs to the onion family. The unique aroma makes dishes taste better. Like many vegetables, garlic can be grown indoors. It is one of the most popular plants for commercial and home growers. Growing garlic indoors is a good way to have fresh garlic year-round. In addition, growing garlic indoors is pretty easy. But there are still some challenges for successful indoor garlic growing. Today, let’s talk about how to grow your own garlic indoors. Hope you can harvest fresh garlic at your fingertips.  

When to plant garlic

A good beginning is half of success. Planting garlic at the right time is the basement of successful garlic cultivation. Planting cloves in the fall will work out just fine for most places. Mid-October might be a good time to start indoor garlic cultivation. Garlic plants are hardy so that they can withstand the cold weather in the winter. The key for planting garlic is to promote root growth with minimal top growth. If you plant garlic too early, garlic grow fast in warm weather. Then, you may get lots of top growth when winter arrives. The cold weather will freeze top growth down to the bulb and kill the crop. If you plant garlic too late, there is not enough time for the garlic to mature. Cloves will produce one large clove rather than a new bulb. But the time for planting garlic is not limited to the fall, LED grow lights allow you to plant garlic all year round.

Choose the best variety

There are mainly two types of garlic, hardneck and softneck.

Hardneck garlic often has hus of pink and purple. It also has larger cloves and a stiff central stem. The stem produces curling flower stalks called ‘garlic scapes’ in midsummer. Garlic scapes will take energy away from bulb production. Thus, you should cut the scapes before they grow straight. But the scape is edible, and some growers grow it as a commercial crop. In general, hardneck garlic is more cold-hardy, which means they are better suited to northern climates. The downside of hardneck garlic is that it does not store well and is easy to form roots or dry out within a few months after harvest.

Softneck garlic usually has white bulbs and smaller cloves. The central stem of softneck garlic is soft and easy to twist. Softneck garlic can last for six months or even longer in storage. So it has a longer shelve time than hardneck garlic. But softneck has lower tolerance to cold weather. Therefore, it is more suitable for southern climates.

Preparation for planting garlic

After selecting the garlic variety that is best suited for your application, you are ready to plant garlic. There are several things need to prepare.

• Pot: a pot with good drainage
• Garlic bulbs: select fresh and smooth ‘seed bulb’ that is free of disease
• Soil: mix regular garden soil and potting soil half and half, the PH should be 6.5 to 7.0
• Fertilizer: organic fertilizer that contain nitrogen

How to start planting garlic

Differ from regular seeds, garlic is clonally propagated. The individual cloves will grow into the new bulbs. The larger the clove, the larger the mature bulb. Thus, garlic is started by separating the cloves from the ‘seed bulb’, and remove the paper wrappers on the cloves. Choose the large cloves that are free of disease and then plant with the flat end down and the pointed side up. Next, push the cloves about 2 inches in the potting mix. At last, cover the cloves with soil, and then water it. Garlic requires well-drained soil to support their growth.

How to care indoor garlic

In sum, garlic like moist soil, cold temperatures, and a lot of sunlight to thrive. It requires heavy feeders in the spring as well. Here are some common questions about how to care indoor garlic.

How do i water garlic

Garlic prefers moist and well-drained soil. Water your garlic at least one inch of water each week. Sprinkling the garlic plant with little water may stress the plant. But over-watering should be avoided. Too much water can cause bulb rot and encourage disease. If the leaves turn yellow in mid-summer, stop watering the garlic to prevent the bulbs from rotting.

How much light does garlic need

Garlic needs at least 6 hours of direct sunlight a day. For indoor growing, you had better your garlic plant near south-facing windows. If there is not sufficient sunlight, artificial lighting would be a good choice to supplement lighting for indoor garlic. Although garlic can grow in the shade, it won’t be robust and strong. Moreover, it will take longer to mature. In terms of artificial lights, we highly recommend that you use LED grow lights, which can simulate sunlight with less energy consumption compared to traditional light sources. There is no strict lighting requirement for garlic. Full-spectrum LED grow lights can balance and improve growth of the plant.

   >> Learn more about LED grow lights for indoor garlic. 

When and how to fertilize garlic

Generally, you need to fertilize garlic three times during their growing cycle. Once in the fall at the start of the growing season, and twice more in the spring as they grow. Applying fertilizer once in the early spring and the other in the late spring can provide adequate nutrient for its growth. Garlic requires a lot of nitrogen to grow large cloves, so you need to add nitrogen-rich fertilizer to the plant. But check the soil nutrients before adding fertilizers. Too rich soil will burn the plant.

Harvest your own garlic

During the growth of garlic plants, you can harvest a few older leaves for dishes until the bulbs mature. When the leaves running up the stalk turn yellow and then brown, your garlic plant is approaching maturity. If the leaves start to flop over and the tops begin to dry, it is time to harvest the bulbs. Dig up the garlic rather than pulling the garlic straight out of the ground to avoid damaging the bulbs. Then store the bulbs in a cool, dry, and shaded places.