The Ultimate Guide: How to Choose and Plant Seed Garlic

The Ultimate Guide: How to Choose and Plant Seed Garlic


There is nothing quite like the flavor of homegrown garlic. To pull large bulbs from the soil next summer, the journey begins in the autumn. Unlike many garden vegetables that start from tiny seeds, growing garlic requires planting individual cloves directly into the ground. Investing in high-quality seed garlic instead of standard grocery store bulbs is the single most important decision you can make for a successful crop.

Here is your comprehensive guide to sourcing the right garlic bulbs for planting.

Why Organic Seed Garlic Matters

It is tempting to simply plant a few leftovers from your kitchen pantry. However, grocery store garlic is often treated with growth inhibitors to prevent sprouting and may harbor hidden diseases.

When you buy seed garlic, you are receiving clean, vigorous, disease-free stock specifically cultivated for reproduction. High-quality garlic seed bulbs ensure that each clove has the structural energy required to survive the winter freeze and explode with growth early next spring.

For the healthiest soil and cleanest garlic, plant certified organic seed garlic. Choosing organic seed garlic guarantees your food is raised without synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or non-natural interventions. These premium organic garlic bulbs offer superior vitality.

Choosing Hardneck vs. Softneck Garlic


Garlic varieties are split into two major categories: hardneck and softneck. Your winter climate will dictate which one you should grow in your garden.

Hardneck Seed Garlic

If you live in a northern region with cold, freezing winters, hardneck seed garlic is your best option. These varieties are incredibly winter-hardy. In the spring, they produce a central, woody stalk that loops into a delicious, edible curly stem known as a "scape." Hardneck garlic bulbs generally feature fewer, larger cloves per head and boast a complex, rich and sharp flavor.

Softneck Seed Garlic

If you live in a mild or southern climate, softneck varieties are recommended. They do not produce a rigid central stalk, which makes their pliable green tops ideal for weaving into traditional garlic braids. Softneck bulbs contain many smaller, overlapping cloves.


What Are Garlic Scapes?

One of the best reasons to grow hardneck garlic is that you get two harvests from a single planting.


In early summer, hardneck varieties send up a curling flower stalk from the center of the plant. This is the garlic scape — a tender green stem with a mild, grassy garlic flavor, and one of the first fresh crops of the season.


Scapes should be snapped or snipped off once they have made a full loop, usually in June. Removing them does more than fill your kitchen: it redirects the plant's energy back down into the bulb, so the garlic you dig in July is noticeably larger than it would have been otherwise. Leave the scapes on and the plant spends its strength on a flower head instead of on the harvest you actually want.


Do not compost what you cut. Garlic scapes are excellent chopped into stir-fries, blitzed into pesto, grilled whole alongside steak, or stirred into softened butter and frozen for winter. Softneck garlic does not produce scapes at all, which is one more reason cold-climate gardeners tend to prefer hardneck varieties.


Where to Source Your Garlic Bulbs for Planting


Because premium varieties sell out rapidly every summer, it is wise to secure your supply early.


Searching for seed garlic near you is a good thing, and regional farmers' markets are a fine place to start on your seed garlic search. But what matters is not the mile count — it is whether the garlic was grown in conditions like your own. Garlic adapts to the ecogeography in which it is raised. A bulb grown at humid, low-elevation will struggle in a high altitude, arid climate, and a short growing season.


Melissahof seed garlic is raised near Lander, Wyoming, at 5,400 feet in USDA zone 4b, in a semi-arid climate with cold winters, intense sun, and a compressed growing season. That makes it well suited to gardeners across the Rockies and High Plains. If you are growing garlic in Colorado, Montana, Utah, Idaho, or the Dakotas, the best garlic to grow is stock already acclimated to high-altitude, arid conditions rather than bulbs raised in a mild coastal valley.


Seed garlic ships nationwide, and premium heirloom varieties sell out every summer. Order early.

Melissahof Heirloom Seed Garlic Varieties

Every Melissahof variety is a hardneck, grown at 5,400 feet in USDA hardiness zone 4b and cured for four weeks before it ships. That means all five produce scapes, and all five are bred by their growing conditions to handle a hard winter.

Georgian Fire (Porcelain) — Originated in Cichisdzhvari, in the Republic of Georgia, and one of the hottest varieties grown anywhere. Its high allicin content gives it a sulfurous heat that stands up beautifully in salsas and anywhere raw garlic needs to make itself known.

Montana Giant (Porcelain) — Full-flavored and gently spicy, with jumbo cloves that peel easily. The heat runs high on first taste but mellows quickly, which makes it a rare hardneck that works raw without overpowering the dish around it.

Pehoski Purple (Purple Stripe) — Carried down through the Polish community of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and nurtured into its current form by Chris Pehoski in the 1970s. Seed Savers Exchange named the variety in 1988. It delivers three distinct tastes across the front, middle, and back of the palate, peels and chops easily, and suits nearly any dish.

Vietnamese Red (Purple Stripe) — Voted the best roasting and sautéing garlic, and it earns it. Creamy and sweet with a smooth, buttery texture that turns into a spreadable paste under heat — roast a head, squeeze it onto toasted bread, and you will understand the fuss.

Chamisal Wild (Rocambole) — Discovered growing naturalized along Chamisal Creek at 8,000 feet in New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Garlic has a long history in that country: one of the earliest written records of garlic growing in America appears in Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá's epic poem "A History of New Mexico," published in 1610. A rare heirloom, sought after for its robust flavor — and a variety that has already proven it can handle altitude.

How Much Seed Garlic Do I Need?

A pound of seed garlic yields roughly 40 to 60 cloves depending on variety and bulb size, which plants about 25 to 30 feet of row at 6 to 8 inch spacing. For a first-time grower, a half pound of one or two varieties is a sensible start. Gardeners who want to save their own seed should plant a full pound, hold back the largest bulbs at harvest, and replant those next fall.

How to Plant Garlic Cloves: Step-by-Step

When to plant garlic: aim for 4 to 6 weeks before your region's first hard ground freeze. This window gives the cloves just enough time to establish an anchor of roots underground without wasting energy sending up green leaves that will get nipped by winter frosts.

Follow these simple steps to successfully prepare your garlic bulbs for fall planting:

Prep the Garden: Select a space that receives full, unobstructed sunlight. Mix plenty of organic compost or aged manure into your beds to ensure loose, well-draining soil.

Split the Bulbs: Carefully break your garlic bulbs apart to separate the individual garlic cloves for planting. Keep the protective, papery skin intact on the cloves. Always select the largest, fattest cloves to plant, as bigger cloves yield much larger bulbs at harvest.

Set the Depth and Spacing: Dig a shallow trench or individual holes. Place your garlic seeds for planting about 2 inches deep, spaced 6-8 inches apart from one another. Pro Tip: Always plant the clove with the wide, flat root-end facing down and the sharp, pointed tip facing straight up toward the sky.

Tuck Them In: Cover the cloves with soil and water the bed thoroughly.

Mulch Heavily: Lay down a 4-to-6-inch blanket of clean straw, shredded leaves, or grass clippings. This thick insulation barrier protects the underground cloves from rapid freeze-and-thaw cycles and naturally suppresses weeds when spring arrives.
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