Yes, planting grocery store garlic can work but you may run into some problems along the way. Store bought bulbs often come treated with chemicals that stop them from sprouting on shelves. The varieties sold in stores also might not grow well in your local climate zone.
Using grocery garlic for planting makes sense when you want to try growing garlic on a budget. A single bulb from the store gives you several cloves to plant in your garden bed. Your results depend on where that garlic came from and how it was treated before it reached the store.
I tested this myself a few years ago by planting store bought garlic next to proper seed garlic. The grocery store cloves took three weeks longer to sprout than the seed garlic in the same bed. When harvest time came around, the seed garlic bulbs weighed almost twice as much as the ones grown from store bought cloves.
Sprout inhibitors cause the biggest problem with regular store garlic. Growers treat the bulbs with chemicals that keep them looking fresh and firm on store shelves for weeks. These same chemicals stop the cloves from sprouting and growing roots when you put them in your garden soil.
Most store garlic comes from far away places with very different weather than you have at home. China grows most of the world's garlic and ships it across the globe to stores. Those types grow best in hot humid summers, not the cooler climates many of us garden in here.
When you compare seed garlic vs store bought options, the differences become clear fast. Seed garlic comes from growers who select for strong plants and big bulbs in climates like yours. Store garlic gets picked for how long it lasts on shelves and how cheap it is to grow and ship.
I had better luck when I tried organic grocery garlic for my budget tests. Organic rules ban those sprout inhibitors that cause problems. My organic store cloves sprouted within two weeks of planting. They grew into good sized bulbs by the time summer harvest rolled around in my garden.
Even organic grocery garlic comes with some risks you should know about before planting it. The bulbs may carry diseases or pests from wherever they were grown overseas. These problems can spread to your garden soil and cause issues for years after you plant infected cloves.
Seed garlic from trusted sellers gives you the best chance at a great harvest. These growers test their stock for diseases and pick varieties that thrive in your growing zone. The higher price pays off with bulbs that sprout fast and grow into fat healthy heads by harvest time.
You can grow garlic from store bought bulbs as a fun experiment without high expectations. Pick the fattest cloves from an organic bulb and plant them in a small test bed. Compare how they do against proper seed garlic planted at the same time in the same conditions.
My advice is to invest in quality seed garlic for the main part of your garlic patch each year. Save the grocery store experiments for a corner of your garden where you can try new things. This approach lets you grow garlic from store cloves without risking your whole harvest on uncertain results.
Local farmers markets often sell seed garlic that grows well in your exact region. These small growers know which varieties produce the biggest bulbs in your climate. The garlic they sell has already proven itself in soil and weather just like what you have at home in your own garden.
Read the full article: When to Harvest Garlic and How to Do It Right
