Is it too late to plant garlic in November? How to tell you can still make it

As everyone knows, varieties of cultivated garlic, one of the oldest and most popular garden crops, are divided by growing agronomy into spring and winter types. The cloves of the former are planted in beds in spring and harvested in autumn, while the latter need to overwinter under low temperatures to ripen, so they are planted before winter.



At the same time, some varieties are not «better» or «worse» than others, they simply have their own characteristics. Thus, winter garlic has higher germination and yields a larger harvest compared to spring garlic. It ripens earlier, and its bulb contains fewer cloves, but they are larger and have thinner skin. The only drawback of such «winter» garlic, according to most gardeners, is the greater likelihood of bolting (although there are also non-bolting varieties) and its lower keeping quality compared to spring garlic. However, it will store perfectly in various culinary preparations (salting, pickling, etc.), and its taste is usually more «vivid» than that of spring garlic.

Of course, to obtain a rich and healthy garlic harvest, many nuances are important – the quality and proper treatment of planting material, the choice of a good spot in the garden, the preparation of the bed, the planting method, and further agronomy during the growing season… And also the timing.



Yes, yes, the planting timing, and for winter garlic it is far more critical than for spring garlic. If spring planting work can safely be postponed for a week or two and the garlic will still grow, just a little later, then in the case of pre-winter planting «at the wrong time» problems may begin.

Which ones exactly? If winter garlic is planted too early in warm soil, it may manage to sprout and produce leaves. In winter such green mass freezes, which depletes the nutrient reserve in the clove and leads to the formation of a single-clove bulb or, in principle, to a sharp reduction in yield.

But if it is planted immediately before severe frosts, and moreover in soil that is already freezing at night, it simply will not have time to root properly and may freeze out in winter.

So when should winter garlic be planted? Folk signs say that the leaves on birches should turn yellow and the leaves on cherries should fall. But the climate is changing, autumn weather is capricious and may fluctuate even within one region, and we are modern gardeners, so we will be guided by more definite factors. Namely: the soil temperature for pre-winter sowing at a depth of 5-10 cm should be no higher than 5-8°C, and the daytime air temperature should still hold at 8-15°C.

Taking into account all the nuances, the suitable time for planting winter garlic «starts» usually in mid-October and ends at the end of October, about a month before the expected severe colds and freezing of the soil. The cloves need about 35-45 days to root at a low positive temperature, and by the severe November colds long and strong roots will have grown on the bulbs.



So what should be done if, due to being busy or for some other reasons, the recommended timing has been missed and November is already here? Should you try to plant garlic «late» after all, or wave your hand at winter garlic and rely only on spring garlic in the spring?

There is no definite answer – focus on the current weather in your region. If you live in the south or the autumn is simply warm and you fit within the temperature ranges we indicated above – feel free to proceed with November planting, why not.

Moreover, for garlic this will even be more successful, because with warm weather with positive air temperature persisting for a long time after planting, «early» planted garlic may «wake up» prematurely and sprout before winter. And then you will have to mulch the plantings abundantly and simply hope that all the green mass does not freeze out.

If the November colds are already noticeable, you can still try to plant winter garlic «on the off chance», of course, if the soil has not yet frozen at the planting depth, and abundantly «insulate» the plantings with mulch (hay, straw, humus, leaves, spruce branches, peat) with a layer of at least 10 cm. Even if part of the bulbs dies without having time to root, in spring you can plant spring garlic in that spot.

The key rule of autumn garlic planting can be formulated as follows – it is better to plant a week later than the optimal time than a week earlier. Natural cooling will stop the premature sprouting of cloves, and the root system will in any case manage to form even with late planting.