Planting garlic in Kentucky (zone 7A as of 2023 )

The garlic plant and where to buy “seed” garlic. Here are three explanations that describe how I grow garlic in Kentucky. 1. The garlic plant 2. Keep records every year 3. Where to buy seed

Choose a garlic bulb and hold it–don’t pull anything off–feel it, get to know the garlic. Find the different parts of the plant on the specimen you have in your hand. 

1. The garlic plant: 

1. Examine the catalog garlic plant diagram. The anatomy of a garlic bulb from the Filaree Farms catalog. Find the parts on the plant in your hands: bulb (with cloves), roots, stem, basal plate, leaves, (hard neck scape, and bulbil).

2. See Filaree Farms Catalog that contains information (available online) for growing near the Canada border (“located in North Central Washington State in the sunny Okanogan [River] Valley! 200 miles from the coast and 50 miles South of the Canadian border. We have cold winters and hot, dry summers. We water our crops from streams fed by snowpack in the beautiful Cascade Mountains. Our seed has proven to grow well in climates throughout the United States.”) In 2025 Allicins Ranch Seed Garlic 1 # about $32.

3. “Disease Free Seed We regularly test our garlic seed for disease such as harmful nematodes (stem and neck or bloat nematode)  and the fungus known as “white rot” (sclerotium cepivorum). Our team of seed experts are constantly walking our seed fields and eliminating any plants that do not have vigorous growth. Quality seed is what we have been known for since 1977!” (Filaree Farms). 

4. See Allicins Ranch Moiee Springs, ID (far north in Idaho panhandle near Canada border) online catalog w/ growing information, as well. I had a phone conference w/ Ben Ronniger re: my failed Monti crop 2024. Ben said, “I use 5 year rotation. Rather than counting days to harvest, let the plant tell you when it is ready to harvest, lift from the soil and see the cloves in the bulb or if the bulb is still round, leave it  in the soil another 5-7 days. Have plastic ready if the forecast is  days of rain just prior to harvest week.” See on their website: Migrant farm podcast interview and pics of Garlic bus that delivers through the states on their way from the garlic harvest in California Baja region farms to their home base in Moiee Springs, Idaho.

5. The garlic plant:  https://images.app.goo.gl/6H73NsyjCgBJDX4X9  from Science Direct where you can find articles about many aspects of allium sativum var. sativum (soft neck) and the hardneck variety as well– Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon (hardnecks are much harder to braid, yet many people do braid hardnecks (see my Pinterest page for many examples and instructions).
   
   
   

2. Keep records every year: 

If you are a serious garlic grower, record: how soil is prepped, seed (cost) where it was grown, variety and type (soft or hardneck), how many cloves and when planted, weather, harvest dates and what harvest is like–how many bulbs, # of sick ones which may be rust, white powdery mildew, black mildew, worms, (microscopic nematodes are not visible), how you cure it and for how long.

When and How to Plant in Louisville, KY and Wayne Co, KY

What you will need:

Soil amendments, (based on your soil test): composted manure worked into soil 2 months before planting, organic compost, wormcastings, slow-release nitrogen source: feathermeal, peanut meal (or bloodmeal), green potash or wood ashes, phostrell (phosphorus) magnesium (Epsom Salts), sulphur if pH is too sweet: garlic’s ideal pH is 6.8 to 7.2 (Allicins Ranch online catalog, 2025).

Sound (no discoloration or spots where papers are breeches) Garlic cloves, broken apart from the bulb with papers intact. Record how many cloves you plant and at what spacing. In the spring compare the number of plants in your harvest to this number to see how sound your seed actually was. I’m really happy when I only lose one or two of the cloves planted. Good seed! Weather impacts how well the plants grow and survive, as well.

Planting tools: measuring board, plant label sticks and garden markers.

Garlic record book: keep a record of everything: the number of sound cloves in your saved seed, the weather before and when planting, temperatures, rainfall, how often you had to water, forecast for 4 weeks prior to harvest time, and whether you had to cover the beds with a high tunnel to keep garlic dry for 4 weeks before harvest (May 1-June 6 in these parts of KY).

Planting Process

1. Plant garlic in zone 7A in the fall during November (Fresh Start reports that garlic growers in Louisville area plant by Thanksgiving ). Expect it to take a few weeks before the green shoots appear above the mulch.

2. Prep the soil: work compost and amendments (according to pkg instructions) into the bed then water the bed the day before you plant the cloves. 

3. Planting tips from my mentor Ann Bishop:

1. Planting: Depth—shallow with the tip of the clove visible at soil level

2. Spring side dress: organic nitrogen source: feathermeal, peanut meal, or blood meal. phosphorus source: bone meal or Phostrell. Potassium source: green potash. Since years of compost had sweetened my soil too much, soil tests recommended I add sulphur to acidify—balance the pH to 6.8-7.2 for garlic.

3. Plant November in KY.

4. Best practice: get a Soil test. Amend the soil according to the recommendations for garlic (pH 6.0-7.0, ideally, 6.8-7.2). For any amendments identified as needed from my fall soil test, in the spring side-dressing, I amend the soil with again.

4. Soil Amendments From my growing experience (about 15 years):

   SPCG beds’ soil tests (were not the same, bed to bed, because soil had been added to some beds from different sources–for example, soil from someone’s yard increased my depth of soil in one bed; the soil test results revealed that garden bed was very high in phosphorous).

   1. Epsom Salts for magnesium: benefits roots and flowers (scapes). Water soluble, so re-dress each plant in the spring (1 tsp-1 Tbsp). Check your soil test whether your soil needs magnesium.

   2. Nitrogen: 

   1. In Lou: feathermeal or peanutmeal slow release organic sources (from Fresh Start)

   2. In Monti: blood meal, organic (from Country Farm and Home)

   3. Phosphorous:

   1. In Lou: Phostrell (Fresh Start) or a product labeled “for tomatoes” 

   2. In Monti: bone meal (from Country Farm and Home)

   4. Potassium-(https://hort.extension.wisc.edu):

   1. In Lou: green potash (Fresh Start); (kelp, maybe)

   2. In Monti: wood ashes (from our wood and yard trimmings fire pile). Wood ashes have up to 5% concentrations of potassium (aka potash). Calcium is the plant nutrient most commonly found in wood ash (20% or more of its content)

   5. Sulphur, Acidifier: Ideal pH for garlic 6.8-7.2 with 6.0-7.0 acceptable (https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1627 ). I needed to acidify the soil to counteract the sweet (pH) after several years of amending soil with only compost. The evidence that the soil needed an acidifier was that the vegetable plants didn’t grow (they weren’t garlic); once the pH was balanced for vegetables, the plants added new growth and matured fruit.

   6. Compost: (homemade or UoL Compost site), sifted, 2-3” layer, worked into the soil.

   7. Worm castings: UoL compost site

   Remove weeds (and their seeds, if possible) after a rain, just loosening soil enough to pull weeds out. Spread amendments and work them into the top 3-5” of soil. Smooth the surface of the bed. Water in to 3-5” depth the day before planting.

5. Before you go to the garden to plant (the day before if planting a large crop or several varieties—record how many cloves of each variety and keep varieties separated and labeled) remove outer papers from the garlic bulbs. Very carefully split apart the cloves, with papers intact. In other words, be sure to preserve the paper that surrounds each clove. If the paper splits or tears off the clove, it will rot from exposure to the moisture in the soil. Save the small or paperless cloves to cook with. Only plant the very largest cloves because small cloves grow small bulbs, but large cloves grow large bulbs. Keep records of the number of large cloves you plant, the number of too-small-to-plant cloves and the number of damaged or rotten cloves which are also NOT viable to plant and would infect your soil if you put them in the ground. In the spring compare these numbers with the number of plants harvested to see how viable your saved garlic seed was.

6. The day after watering in the bed, when the soil is not muddy but still damp, push cloves in so the tip of the clove is visible, and cloves are placed 4”, 5”, or 6” apart depending on the size of the cloves. (I’ve had excellent results—very large bulbs—after I changed my spacing from 8” apart to this closer separation that the seed catalogues suggest). I use a painted and labeled measuring stick + 3 smaller place holders with 4”, 5”, 6” gradations labeled (I use the small place holders to keep the long measuring stick in place).

painted board labeled at 4", 5" and 6" planting distances that are determined by clove size for the variety of garlic. Thai Fire-4" apart, Music-5" apart, Inchellium Red and Broadleaf Czech- 6" apart.

Placing the Cloves into the Soil

Place clove in its protective paper (clove rots without an intact paper) root end down, pointed tip up, so just the tip shows after squeezing soil together around the clove.

1. After cloves are in the soil, across the whole planting area, spread worm castings (very thin, 1/2” layer) (suggested by the UoL Compost co-op wormcastings guy who tends the worms). I used wormcastings in this way for the first time in 2023 Monti plantings. The soil was newly mixed top soil, compost (UoL compost site), sand, and wood ashes. My crop was greener and the plants grew larger and stronger than ever before.

2. Cover the planted area loosely with 2-3 inches of straw.

   [When I planted August 26-30, 2023 (before I learned that early fall planting unnecessarily encourages excessive fall growth that depletes what would best be retained for spring growth) the weather had been very dry, but I didn’t water in the cloves after I planted them. Watering in the amendments and letting the soil dry over-night puts water down in the root area where it needs to be. First the clove grows roots. The garlic root system has been studied and found that a root can grow 8 feet long if the soil will let it get through that far. When it rained a month later, green tips began to poke above the soil. That planting yielded a great harvest. ]

3. At the first freeze, water crystals may push all the cloves out of the soil. Once the soil thaws, push the cloves back under the surface so only the tip is visible. The growing plants will stay green all winter in KY, even with snow all around them. 

4. When they begin to grow new leaves in the spring (Feb or March), side dress each plant with the same amendments and scratch them shallowly into the soil with a garden claw.

5. How to know when garlic is ready to harvest in June next year: I had a phone conference w/ co-owner of Alicins Ranch Ben Ronniger who said, “Rather than counting days to harvest, let the plant tell you when it is ready to harvest. Lift from the soil and see the cloves in the bulb, or if the bulb is still round, leave it  in the soil another 5-7 days. Have plastic ready [to install a high tunnel to keep rain off the ready to harvest plants] if the forecast is  days of rain just prior to harvest week.” Wet leaves encourage pest growth that can make their way to the bulb to lay their eggs after harvest. To keep the leaves sound for braiding, they must be dry at harvest.

   3. Buy good organic, certified seed, soft neck to braid or hard neck: 

1. My first Louisville soft neck garlic seed bulbs, I bought from Fresh Start (maybe 2012–don’t remember how many or how much).

2. In subsequent years, I have bought seed from a garlic farm that the Garlic guy at Douglas Loop Farmers Market suggested to me: Filaree Farms: 2021-catalog.pdf (filareefarm.com) garlic anatomy 101 on p.5 has lots of amazing info about garlic and all 10 varieties and more than 100 strains.  (seed garlic: 1# Inchellium Red–2-3 bulbs + ½ # Music–2 bulbs= $55.05 in 2023)

3. Online I found Allicins Ranch: allicinsranch.com (Seed garlic: ½# Inchellium Red–2 huge bulbs of 4 or 5 cloves each + ½ # Music-2 bulbs of 10 clove each = $50 in 2023). 2025 Music 1# —5 huge bulbs of 5-6 cloves each + Nootka Rose 1#—6 large bulbs of 10-11 cloves each = $64.

4. Seed Savers (Iowa) 2018-19 seed. This is the original source for my Broadleaf Czech. But when I’ve searched for this seed in recent years, I’ve not been able to find seed from any of these sources. As recommended in the seed catalogs, I save my own seed (all the 5 varieties I grow) and plant that each year.

5. In 2025 I’ve found growers for my saved seed. If you have 8’x12’ or larger raised bed where you want to grow for me in 2026, I would supply my saved seed. See “Garlic Growers needed” blog post for details.