spryte
Senior Cook
I have a head of garlic that has spouted... can I just plant the cloves?
Hmmm... is this like growing flowers from bulbs? If I plant now am I likely to get anything?
I've tried to do spring flowers from bulbs a couple times. I plant in the fall.. but since my containers are above ground, and Pittsburgh winters don't really 'stay' all that cold, they usually sprout and die off some time during a warm stretch in January.
professional and amateur garlic growers plant their garlic in the fall. Even the links gotgarlic provided, say to plant in the fall. The reason for fall planting is to acheive maximum growth of the bulbs. If you do not care about the size of your garlic cloves, then plant them now.
I raise garlic to use and sell, so the size of the bulb and individual cloves are very important to me. I peel the vast majority of the garlic I use and I can't be fooling with small cloves. I raise a stiff neck white porcelain variety and have bred for large cloves, which really expediates meal prep. I would much rather peel one 2 ounce garlic clove, rather than 8 cloves that total 2 ounces in weight.
If you choose to plant your garlic now, I suggest that you only plant the largest cloves from each of your heads of garlic.
So you guys are saying to plant the garlic in the fall and let them winter in the ground and that there won't be anything of significance in bulb size until next summer?
I am going to plant a couple just as an experiment now (might as well since they are sprouting on me!), and see what happens but sounds like I am not going to get much more out than what I put in.