When to Plant Garlic: Fall Planting Dates Where You Live

Plant garlic in the fall, within about two weeks either side of your area’s typical first frost, so the cloves grow roots before the ground freezes. That works out to late September to late October in Madison and Minneapolis, early October to early November in Des Moines and Columbus, late October to late November in Chicago, Atlanta and Boston, and November in New York, Philadelphia and Seattle. In mild-winter areas where frost is rare, plant from mid-October into early winter.

Extension rules for garlic sound contradictory: one waits until after the first frost, another counts back from when the ground freezes. We compared 11 published local garlic calendars with NOAA’s 1991–2020 frost normals. In 7 of them, the middle of the recommended window falls within 5 days of the median first fall frost.¹ This guide uses that anchor for 22 cities.

Garlic planting dates for 22 US cities

The window runs from two weeks before to two weeks after the median first 32°F frost at the NOAA station nearest each city. In a mild fall, don’t wait for the frost to arrive late: when the first frost came weeks behind schedule in 2021, University of Minnesota specialists advised sticking to the usual planting dates.³

Each city uses one weather station, so your garden’s dates can differ by a week or more in a valley, on a hilltop or far from the city center. For your own ZIP code, look up your first fall frost date and its odds, then plant in the two weeks either side of the median.

How the window compares with local extension calendars

We checked NOAA dates against every local garlic calendar we found from extension services, Master Gardener programs and a state growers’ group:^{8,5,7,11,12,9,13,14,15,16,17}

Seven calendars, from northern Wisconsin to central North Carolina, center within 5 days of the median first frost. Their windows open a median 15 days before it and close 15 days after it. That is where our two-week margin comes from.

The other four differ. Maryland Extension plants one to two weeks earlier, in mid to late October, so cloves can grow roots and a few leaves before cold weather.⁹ Fairfax Master Gardeners plant later, from November to early December.¹³ Georgia’s window is very wide, late September through November.¹⁶ In San Jose, where frost is rare, UC Master Gardeners plant from mid-October through November, at least two weeks before the first frost.¹⁷ Where your state’s extension service publishes its own window, use it.

After the first frost, or before the ground freezes?

Extension guidance for garlic is written in two ways. Cold-climate programs count forward from frost. The University of Minnesota puts it in one line:

Plant cloves in the fall, usually one or two weeks after the first killing frost.

Others count back from the day the soil freezes. Penn State puts it this way:

a good three weeks prior to the ground freezing

Illinois Extension and NC State give 4 to 6 weeks,^4,15 and UW Extension in Bayfield County gives 6 to 8 weeks, adding that the ground there usually freezes around Thanksgiving.⁷ Google’s AI Overview repeated the 4-to-6-week figure for “when to plant garlic,” then said 2 to 4 weeks when we searched for zone 6.

Both rules aim at roots in cool soil before winter. They differ on top growth: Minnesota says shoots usually don’t emerge until spring,² while Ohio State would like the first leaves up before freezing weather.¹⁰

We can’t turn “before the ground freezes” into a date, because NOAA’s climate normals don’t include soil freezing, so we don’t estimate one. As a rough signal of how often the rule even applies, in 52% of the 40,563 US ZIP codes we checked, not even the coldest month has a normal mean air temperature below 32°F.¹ Where the ground rarely freezes solid, a frost-based or local calendar date is easier to act on.

Why a zone chart gives only a rough date

Many garlic calendars are sorted by USDA hardiness zone. The zone map is based on the average coldest winter night, not on fall frost.²¹ We looked up the 2023 zone for a random sample of US ZIP codes²² and compared their NOAA first-frost dates:

Inside each half-zone, the median first frost still varies by two to three weeks, so a zone chart can be a week or two off for many gardens. Our guide to planting zone vs. frost date and our hardiness zone guides explain what the zones do measure.

Garlic in warm-winter areas

In the South and coastal West, plant on the local calendar: late September through November in Georgia,¹⁶ October in Austin,¹⁹ mid-October through November in the San Jose area,¹⁷ and late fall to early winter in Florida, where UF/IFAS suggests softneck types such as Artichoke and Creole.¹⁸

The real limit there is winter cold, not frost. Maryland Extension says cloves must spend about two months at 32–50°F before the bulbs form,⁹ and UGA gives 6 to 8 weeks below 40°F after planting.¹⁶ We counted the months between October and April whose normal mean air temperature falls in Maryland’s 32–50°F band. This is air, not soil, so treat it as a rough guide:

Fewer than two such months is the case in about 14% of US ZIP codes, where garlic gets the least winter cold. That doesn’t rule garlic out. UC and Texas A&M programs recommend it for San Jose and Austin, which have none.^17,19 Illinois suggests about 8 weeks in the refrigerator for cloves planted in spring;⁴ we found no extension source giving a chilling period for fall planting in the South, so we don’t give one.

How to plant garlic cloves

Depth and spacing vary a little by source; all want well-drained soil and a straw or leaf mulch:

1. 1

   Buy seed garlic, not grocery garlic

   Iowa State, Ohio State, Penn State and Maryland all advise against planting store-bought garlic. It may be treated against sprouting, carry disease, or be a softneck type from a warmer region.^8,10,6,9 Order from a seed garlic supplier.

   

2. 2

   Split the heads just before planting

   Separate cloves no more than a day or two ahead, and keep the papery skins on.^6,2,4 Plant the largest cloves, since bigger cloves give bigger bulbs.⁸

3. 3

   Plant pointed end up

   Set each clove with the flat base down and the tip up, at the depth and spacing in Table 5. Ohio State notes that cloves planted upside down or sideways give small or misshapen bulbs.¹⁰

4. 4

   Feed from a soil test

   Ohio State suggests half of the recommended fertilizer at planting and the rest when growth resumes in spring.¹⁰ Follow your soil test and the product label for amounts.

5. 5

   Mulch, then uncover in spring

   Cover the bed with straw or shredded leaves after planting, or in November in Iowa.⁸ In spring, rake the mulch from the rows so shoots can come through, and leave it between rows to hold back weeds.¹⁰

   

Hardneck garlic is hardier and suits cold winters; softneck stores longer but is less cold hardy.^4,10

Planted too early, too late, or not at all

Too early: warm soil invites top growth that winter can damage.¹⁰ Iowa State says foliage is likely to be hurt below 20°F, but the garlic usually regrows, though the crop is often smaller.⁸

Too late: cloves need time to root before the soil freezes. Penn State wants at least three weeks;⁶ NC State says 4 to 6.¹⁵

Missed fall: plant as early in spring as you can work the soil, late March to early April in central Iowa.⁸ Chill the cloves in the refrigerator for about 8 weeks first,⁴ and expect smaller bulbs than from a fall planting.^10,9

Fall bulbs share the season: our guides on when to plant tulip bulbs and when to plant daffodil bulbs have dates for 24 cities. For the rest of the season, see our vegetable planting guides, including when to plant potatoes, and frost and freeze guides. Our methodology page explains how every frost date here is calculated. More in the garden section and the climate data.