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Growing garlic indoors.

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It's easy, but you will not get a garlic bulb off a clove.

"I just read some advice (on this site) about growing garlic indoors. Apparently I did it right. I had a clove that had started a little green shoot so I shoved it into some soil until it was just under the surface. That little green shoot has grown more than 1.5 inches in just three days. My question is; how long do I let it grow before I can harvest a whole bunch of cloves. It's in a 4 inch pot right now. When should I transplant it and what sized pot whould be good?"

Yes, you can shove a sprouting garlic clove into a pot and let it grow on your windowsill.
No, you won't get garlic bulbs this way.

Garlic needs room, and lots of nutrients. You might manage if you were to plant the cloves in buckets (one clove to each bucket), but buckets are rather inelegant on the windowsill.

If you grow garlic outdoors it's not "shove just under the surface". It's "15 cm deep should be enough". Up here, it takes a year for garlic to mature from clove to 3-green-leaves-left, it's ready to harvest bulb. In addition, our garlic requires a winter a month or three after planting: we plant in August - September, and harvest in July - August.

Why would you bother growing garlic cloves indoors then? For the greens, kid. For the greens. They're really very tasty.

And, if you keep cutting the greens, your garlic clove will be exhausted in a month or two. Plant another -- if you liked your garlic greens.

And don't expect fat garlic bulbs from your 4" pot surface-planted garlic.

Comments

Also nice for kitchen scents. I keep a cut of basil and some parsely (the parsley actually does quite nicely on the sill, but then parsley takes small arms fire to kill around here) just to rub the leaves and release some of the oils into the air. Fills the room up nicely with just enough scent to get you drooling.

I should include some garlic greens in that mix. Thanks!

Have found garlic needs a lot longer than six months to mature. Not sure about indoors.

ok so i have my garlic in a waterbottle cut almost in half on my window seal and its growing rapidly, it being in there does that mean i wont get any bulbs cause i read mixed replys on that, also someone said they need a winter got go there, i dont have a winter down here in florida, thanks

p.s. i dont plan on keeping it in the water bottle

No bulbs unless it has enough dirt, and is kept over about a year. Eat the greens ... that's what growing garlic indoors is good for.

I have read a lot of people saying indoor garlic won't bulb. However i have a clove of organic garlic sitting in a 2 liter container and it has started bulbing after just 2 months. It gets good artificial light, plenty of water and to my surprise I now have a bulb starting that is already about twice the size of the clove I started it from. I am using nothing but organic seed starter mix that I go for 4 bucks and it seams to do very well for plants. I have also done morning glory, cucumber, squash, strawberries, and I'm even starting carrots. Don't be afraid to try things out, you may be surprised at what you find.