Can You Plant Garlic in Summer?

Ask any grower after they plant seed garlic, they usually’ll let you know someday within the fall. Below chilly climate, garlic silently divides into a number of cloves underground. Inexperienced shoots pop up by early spring, rising into lengthy, leathery, ridged leaves. The leaves accumulate vitality for below-ground enlargement, morphing a single clove right into a bulb. 

With no chilly interval to separate, garlic expands its single clove into a large clove! This additionally occurs to spring plantings that don’t obtain a correct chill interval. Big cloves are milder tasting—they’re distinctive delicacies exhausting to search out in grocery shops.

The Brief Reply

Sure, you possibly can plant garlic this summer season—however there are just a few caveats. Growers in USDA zones 6 and colder get higher harvests from fall plantings than summer season ones. Winter frost is just too excessive, and rising seasons are too brief. Tropical and heat winter zones 8 and hotter can plant it all through early summer season for distinctive harvests. Both approach, you should definitely supply high quality seed garlic to stop illness points and develop the best-tasting varieties.

The Lengthy Reply

Whether or not you possibly can plant garlic in summer season relies on the sort, your local weather, and whether or not or not you set your cloves within the fridge.

Early vs. Late Summer time

Early and late summer season are two very totally different instances! Planting earlier causes large cloves. With out winter chill, the garlic stays a single unit. Heat temperatures with constant moisture set off progress, and cloves broaden of their singular form. This creates large, mild-tasting bulbs.

Late winter or early spring plantings usually mature into this large clove kind after they don’t obtain a correct chill interval. You’ll harvest these across the identical time as regular garlic harvests, from late summer season by way of fall. Search for yellowing leaves; harvest when most leaves are yellow. 

Midseason crops might not fare in addition to earlier spring plantings or regular fall plantings. With a brief rising season, cloves put up leafy progress solely to cease with chilly winter climate. They don’t have sufficient time to develop into large bulbs. Weak, shallow-rooted, and with dying tops, late plantings usually rot out earlier than spring. 

The one exception is for growers in zones with no winter freezes. With out frost, single cloves continue to grow till their annual life cycle ends. You’ll discover yellowing leaves and falling tops that point out harvest time.  

Hardneck, Softneck, or Elephant?

Three main forms of garlic exist—they’ve differing outcomes while you plant them in the midst of the season. Hardnecks develop scapes. They’re curly stems with flower heads that develop from the central stalk. Pluck or reduce scapes off to redirect vitality into clove enlargement. Scapes are scrumptious delicacies. Use them in stir-fries, chopped in soups, or just sauteed with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Softneck varieties don’t usually develop scapes and are good for delicate winter areas. The place a stalk would develop lie clumps of small cloves. Massive cloves encompass the small ones, forming a large bulb. 

This sort is much less cold-hardy than hardneck; it’s additionally the widespread one you’ll discover in grocery shops. Softnecks are supreme for heat winter zones—use it all through the southern U.S.

Elephant garlic is the final sort you’ll hear about, though it’s extra of a leek, botanically. It produces gargantuan cloves greater than 3 times as massive as common varieties! Though bigger, they’re milder tasting and slower to develop.

Plant each hardneck or softneck varieties by round June or July for big, single cloves. Irrigate repeatedly and harvest earlier than your first common frost date to keep away from rot. The place autumn climate is moist, harvest earlier than cool rains convey ailments that threaten your bulbs.

Keep away from planting elephant varieties in the course of the hottest time of yr. It advantages from fall plantings when temperatures are cool in your ecoregion. Elephant bulbs sprout roots underground in autumn that assist it take off by spring. Heat-weather plantings threaten this course of by inflicting untimely high progress on the expense of bulb formation.

Refrigerate Cloves

Delicate by way of heat winter zones 9 and above can cheat the seasons by way of refrigeration. You’ll trick them into considering they’ve undergone a winter dormancy, priming them for brand spanking new progress. Let’s say you bought your bulbs in early spring. Put them within the fridge for a month or two earlier than planting. 

Use this methodology from fall by way of spring—it’s particularly helpful for gardeners in tropical zones. Give softneck varieties a month or two with temperatures between 33-39°F (1-4°C); give hardneck the identical temperatures for at the very least two to 3 months. 

Eat the Leaves

I’ve met some individuals who want consuming greens as a substitute of bulbs. They’re milder tasting, and you may eat them recent. They’ve an intense taste that makes them excellent seasonings in cooking recipes. 

Snip vivid inexperienced leaves as they sprout, however depart just a few to assist your crop accumulate vitality from the solar. Put cloves underground in early or late summer season to have edible leaves. 

You can even do that trick indoors! Put cloves suspended in glass jars with their roots in water. I take advantage of toothpicks to carry them up so the paper wrappers keep dry. Situate the jars close to a lit window or develop lights, and watch as your crop sprouts edible leaves. Do that neat trick anytime within the consolation of your private home. 

Regional Suggestions

Whereas you should utilize your native extension workplace to find your ecoregion, it’s simpler to know whether or not or not you possibly can plant midseason based mostly in your frost dates or rising zone. Use this chart to inform whether or not or not you must plant garlic in summer season: