Choosing the right size garlic bulbs to plant:

When it comes to growing garlic, you can decide whether your priority is producing the largest bulbs possible or maintaining the strongest, healthiest plants. The path you choose depends on your goals.

If you grow garlic from bulbils (tiny air-borne seeds found in the scapes of the Hardneck garlic), it takes about three years to reach full-sized bulbs:

  1. Year One – The Round:
    From a single bulbil grows a small, one-clove bulb called a Round. These are the smallest bulbs, but also the healthiest starting point.

  2. Year Two – Small to Medium Bulbs:
    Planting a Round produces a small-to-medium bulb with fewer cloves than mature bulbs. These are still very healthy, and if you save their cloves for planting, they will grow into medium to large bulbs the following year.

  3. Year Three – Large Bulbs:
    From the cloves of second-year bulbs, you’ll harvest the familiar large garlic bulbs with multiple cloves.

    If your goal is to grow the biggest garlic possible, keep replanting the largest cloves from your harvest—bigger seed cloves almost always mean bigger bulbs at harvest.