Planting

How to Plant Garlic: A Step-by-Step Planting Day

By Qiu Xiaodong 8 min read

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Four-panel line diagram: split the bulb into cloves and remove the basal plate, orient the clove pointy end up, set it 2-3 in deep and 3-6 in apart, then cover, firm and water once.
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Plant garlic by setting each clove pointy end up, 2–3 inches (5–7.5 cm) deep and 3–6 inches (8–15 cm) apart, in rows 6–10 inches (15–25 cm) apart — then cover it, firm the soil, and water once. That is the whole job. Everything below is the order to do it in, what the videos actually show at each step, and the few places where the advice splits.

Two things to settle before you start. The date matters more than any step here — garlic is a fall crop, and the timing article linked at the end covers the window for your zone. The other is the cloves themselves: buy certified seed garlic from a seed source rather than planting grocery-store bulbs, which may carry disease without showing it 12; if you are working from supermarket bulbs anyway, a three-day water test tells you whether they will sprout at all 3.

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Step 1 — Prep the bed

Garlic wants loose, well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter; it does poorly in clay and compacted ground 12. Work the top few inches of the bed, mix in compost, and pick a spot that gets full sun 12, 13.

The field version of the same advice is to plant on low ridges — the raised rows drain winter water away from the cloves, which is one of the ways growers keep root rot down 4. In the backyard version you may dig a shallow furrow down the middle of the bed and heap the soil into a low ridge on each side 5. Either way, the point is drainage: garlic sitting in a puddle over winter is how you lose cloves.

Step 2 — Split the bulb and sort the cloves

Break each bulb into individual cloves — the growers in our sources do it by hand, working around the base 5, 3. Sort as you go:

  • Big cloves go in the planting bed. The larger clove grows the thicker plant, and the thick plant is what makes the larger bulb 2, 3.
  • Small cloves can still be planted, but Chinese growers use them for a different crop — tight spacing to cut greens, or in the case of one grower, to grow single-clove (solo) garlic 3.
  • Soft or rotten cloves are thrown out, not planted "to see" 2.

Two small operations matter more than they look. First, if there is a hard, dry base where the clove attached to the bulb, snap it off — the Chinese growers describe it as a hard peg that blocks root growth if it stays 4, 2. Second, leave the thin inner skin on; it protects the clove 4. And do not split the bulbs weeks early: one grower says splitting within a week of planting is fine, earlier is not 4.

Step 3 — Point the clove up, not down

This is the step everyone asks about. The pointed end goes up, the flat base down. Every source that addresses orientation says the same thing, in different words: the tip goes up 6, 7, 8, 9; one grower puts it as "the tail side up, this side down" 3.

Why it matters: roots form at the flat base and the shoot rises from the tip, so planting the clove upside down makes the plant work against itself. The observable result is slower, not fatal — one grower says a reversed clove grows "into the soil" before it turns 11, and another notes that the clove will right itself as it sprouts 4. Commercial planting machines do not sort orientation, and the footage of one shows a few upside-down cloves in the row — "but not many" 10. For a home bed, get it right; you are planting dozens of cloves, not thousands.

Step 4 — Open a furrow, set the spacing and depth

Draw a shallow furrow (or press holes with a dibber) at the row spacing you want 1, 5. If you would rather not eyeball the depth, a hand dibber sized for garlic cloves sets it in one press. Two more we would use:

Then set the cloves:

  • US extension guidance: 2–3 inches (5–7.5 cm) deep, 3–6 inches (8–15 cm) between cloves, rows 6–10 inches (15–25 cm) apart 12, 13.
  • Chinese field practice: cloves at 7–10 cm (3–4 in) between plants in 15 cm (6 in) rows 4; a Yangtze-valley grower sets rows at about 15 cm with 5–8 cm between cloves 2.

On depth, the Chinese sources measure differently — they talk about the soil left above the clove, roughly 2 cm (about 1 in), and say the depth is right when the tip barely shows through the soil you have just replaced 2, 3, 6. The full comparison of the two systems is in the depth-and-spacing article linked at the end; for planting day, pick your standard and keep it consistent across the bed.

Step 5 — Cover, firm, water once

Cover the cloves with the soil you moved. One grower brings the soil back by hand and presses it down just a little — the aim is good contact with the clove, not compaction 6, 1. Water the bed once, thoroughly, and then leave it alone: garlic does not like wet feet, and the growers water again only when the surface has gone pale and dry 1, 2. If rain is in the forecast for the next day or two, you can skip the watering entirely — the same source warns that soaked cloves in wet ground are the ones that rot 1.

Step 6 — Optional mulch, and what happens next

Mulch is optional at this stage. Straw, leaves, or a light layer of compost will hold moisture and soften freeze-thaw cycling; a plastic or degradable film is a different tool for a different job (the mulching article linked at the end covers both). The Maryland extension notes that many gardeners mulch after planting and keep it through harvest, while others find un-mulched beds resume growth faster in spring 12 — so if you do it, do it lightly.

Then wait. In warm soil the first shoots are up in about a week 1; in cold autumn soil it can take considerably longer, and none of that is a problem as long as the cloves are in the ground before it freezes.

FAQ

Point up or down?

Up — the pointed end, the flat base down 6, 7, 8, 9. A reversed clove usually still comes up; it just has to fight its own orientation first 11, 4.

Should I soak the cloves before planting?

The videos show both practices. One grower pre-soaks split cloves to break dormancy and speed emergence, changing the water repeatedly 4; another soaks for a couple of hours after trimming the tip 11; a third says do not soak when rain is coming, because wet cloves in wet ground rot 1. Whether it pays depends on your soil drainage and the moisture at planting — we are not going to pick a side for you.

Do I need to peel the cloves?

No. Keep the thin inner skin; remove the hard base peg and discard any soft cloves 4, 2.

How many cloves does a bulb give me?

About six or seven in a large hardneck bulb, and large seed bulbs are sold at roughly six to seven per pound 12.

Next steps

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Sources

  1. 种地老夏, 大蒜什么时候种？大蒜怎么种？ (230 s, 2025-09-22): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV19Sncz8ELQ — planting-day routine: split, furrow, set, cover, water.
  2. 小林种植记, 进入10月份长江流域华北地区大蒜可以种起来了… (238 s, 2026-10-07): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1iLHC6qE5A — October planting in the Yangtze valley.
  3. 老李种菜, 大蒜种植的两种方法：普通种法和独头蒜种法… (429 s, 2026-10-09): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1z94y1Z79F — normal vs solo-garlic method, with the supermarket sprout test.
  4. 农民云飞V, 大蒜怎样种好？用这种水泡一下，出苗快出苗齐没病害 (181 s, 2024-08-29): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV15KHMetErK — ridge planting, base-peg removal, soak practice. Subtitle status weak — cited after line-by-line check.
  5. Gabby的杂记, 种大蒜 (601 s, 2025-11-12): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1AFk1BuEbq — European garden planting day, furrow between ridges.
  6. 一枝花生辰, 种蒜爆盆 8 个关键技巧，超市大蒜变家庭菜园！ (547 s, 2025-12-17): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1VCqLBfER6 — orientation and thin cover.
  7. 烩生活EnjoyLife, 原来这样就能种出巨型大蒜头🧄 (269 s, 2025-02-22): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1pQ4y1q7c8 — point-up close-up.
  8. 账号已注销, 最新方法种大蒜 200瓣大蒜一会儿就种完了 (440 s, 2022-06-23): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Db4y1876y — orientation in a batch-planting demo.
  9. 正成非, 盆栽大蒜居然也能高产，土壤还需要疏松 (104 s, 2025-11-09): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gN19BUExt — point-up in a container.
  10. 农村华子521, 大蒜开始种植了，华子第一次用大蒜播种机… (287 s, 2023-10-23): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1nH4y197Dt — machine planting, some cloves upside down.
  11. 风信子的田园小院生活, 种蒜苗选对时间 用对方法 出苗快… (450 s, 2026-10-03): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ne4y1B7Tb — upside-down behaviour and short soaking. Subtitle status weak — cited after line-by-line check.
  12. University of Maryland Extension, Growing Garlic in a Home Garden (updated 2023-08-22): https://extension.umd.edu/resource/growing-garlic-home-garden
  13. Utah State University Extension, How to Grow Garlic in Your Garden (published 2020-05): https://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/garlic-in-the-garden