How to Grow Garlic in Australia: When to Plant and Harvest

Updated October 2026

Autumn planting, curing, and variety picks for every Australian region

Garlic is a must-grow for any kitchen garden. It takes up very little space, needs minimal attention once planted, and home-grown bulbs have far more flavour than anything from a shop. The timing is simple: plant in autumn, harvest in summer.

This guide covers the best garlic varieties for Australian conditions, planting times by region, and how to cure and store your harvest properly.

What it looks like as it grows

🌱 Plant profile: Garlic, with sowing times for your region, companion plants and common pests.

When to Plant Garlic in Your Region

Garlic is planted as cloves in autumn almost everywhere in Australia. The table gives the planting months for each of our ten regions, straight from our planting data. Each region links to its full vegetable planting calendar, and the Garlic plant page has spacing, companions and care notes for your region.

Garlic Planting Calculator and Timing

Best Varieties

How to Plant Garlic Cloves in Autumn

Garlic needs a cold period to form bulbs properly. Plant individual cloves (not whole bulbs) in autumn, pointed end up, 5 cm deep and 15 cm apart. The cloves will root through winter and form bulbs as days lengthen in spring.

Choose your biggest, healthiest cloves for planting. Small cloves produce small bulbs. Break the bulb apart no more than 48 hours before planting to keep cloves fresh.

Timing shifts with your climate. Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and the Northern Rivers plant from March to May, and Melbourne has a slightly longer window, from March to June. In the tropics (Darwin and North Queensland) garlic goes in during April and May, at the start of the cool, dry season, and softneck types are the sensible choice. The genuinely cold districts (Hobart, Canberra, the highlands) plant from March to May and are the only places hardneck garlic reliably thrives. Use the timing tool above for a quick read on your zone.

Position and Soil

Garlic wants full sun, at least 6 hours a day, and free-draining soil. Waterlogged ground rots the cloves over winter, so raised beds or mounded rows help in heavier soils. Aim for a soil pH of 6.0 to 7.0.

Garlic is a hungry crop. Dig in plenty of well-rotted compost or aged manure a couple of weeks before planting. Loosen the soil to a spade's depth so the bulbs can swell freely. A light mulch of straw keeps weeds down and moisture even through the growing season.

Feeding and Watering

Keep the soil moist but never soggy through autumn and winter while the cloves root and put up leaves. Garlic does most of its leaf growth in late winter and its bulbing in spring as the days lengthen.

Feed with a nitrogen-rich fertiliser through winter to drive leaf growth, then switch to a potassium-rich feed in early spring as bulbs begin to swell. Stop watering two to three weeks before harvest so the bulbs firm up and the skins cure on the plant. Weeds compete heavily with shallow-rooted garlic, so keep the bed clean.

Growing Garlic in Pots

Garlic grows well in containers, which suits balconies, courtyards and gardens with heavy, wet soil. Our plant data calls for a pot at least 20 cm deep, and a wider pot or trough lets you plant more cloves at the same 15 cm spacing you would use in the ground. Use a free-draining potting mix with some compost through it, because waterlogged mix rots cloves just as quickly as wet garden soil.

Plant at the same time as you would in the garden, pointed end up and about 5 cm deep. Pots dry out faster than beds, so check them through dry spells in winter and spring. Give a nitrogen-rich liquid feed every few weeks while the leaves are growing, then ease off once the bulbs start to swell. Our garlic in containers guide covers pots, mixes and watering in more detail.

When to Pick Garlic

Garlic is a slow crop. Our plant data allows about 210 days, roughly seven months, from planting a clove to lifting a bulb, so the month you planted tells you when to start checking. A March planting is usually ready from about October and a May planting from about December. Melbourne gardeners who plant in June can expect bulbs around January.

The regions differ a little. Our Canberra calendar expects the garlic harvest in October and November, and in Tasmania, where cold winters build big bulbs, the harvest runs through November and December. In the tropical north, cloves planted in April and May grow through the cool, dry months and are lifted as the weather warms up again.

The plant gives the final signal. Lift when the lower leaves have browned but the top five or six leaves are still green. If you wait until every leaf is brown, the papery wrappers around the bulb break down and the bulbs do not store as well.

How to check and lift garlic

Before you lift the whole bed, scrape the soil away from one or two bulbs and look at them. A ready bulb is plump, with cloves that have filled out under the skin. If it is still small, give it another week or two. Stop watering two to three weeks before you expect to harvest so the bulbs firm up, then loosen the soil with a fork a little way out from the row and ease the bulbs out. Never pull them up by the stem, which can snap or bruise the neck.

Curing and Storage

Harvest garlic when the bottom 3 to 4 leaves have browned but the top leaves are still green. Dig carefully with a fork, never pull by the stem.

Cure bulbs in a warm, dry, well-ventilated spot out of direct sun for 2 to 4 weeks. The outer skins should become papery and the neck should be completely dry. Once cured, trim roots and cut stems to 3 cm (or leave long for braiding softneck varieties).

Properly cured garlic stores for 4 to 8 months in a cool, dry spot. Never refrigerate garlic or store it in plastic bags.

Common Problems

White rot

This is the most serious garlic disease in Australia. It causes white, fluffy mould at the base of bulbs and can persist in soil for 15 to 20 years. There is no cure. If white rot appears, do not grow garlic, onions, leeks, or shallots in that spot again. Prevention is the only option: use clean seed stock and rotate beds every year.

Rust

Orange pustules on leaves. Common in humid conditions. Improve air circulation, avoid overhead watering, and remove badly affected leaves. Mild rust infections rarely affect bulb quality.

Small bulbs

Usually caused by planting too late, using small cloves, or insufficient feeding. Plant on time, use your biggest cloves, and feed with a potassium-rich fertiliser in early spring as bulbs begin to swell.

Frequently Asked Questions

See also: Garlic in the Plant Library

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