When to plant / Garlic

When to plant garlic

Plant garlic in fall, 1 to 2 weeks after the first fall frost. That is the University of Minnesota Extension rule, and it lands between Oct 7 (Concord, NH) and Dec 15 (Houston, TX) across the 39 U.S. cities on this site, because the first fall frost arrives on a different date at each NOAA station.

The planting rule for garlic, in plain words

Garlic is the one common crop planted after the first fall frost rather than before it. University of Minnesota Extension: Plant cloves in the fall, usually one or two weeks after the first killing frost. and Roots and shoots will emerge from the cloves by the first hard freeze Its seasonal note puts it another way: This sweet spot for planting is typically within two weeks of the first frost.

Other extension services anchor the date to the ground freezing instead of the first frost. Illinois says plant 4 -6 weeks before the ground freezes.; Penn State says a good three weeks prior to the ground freezing Ground-freeze dates are not part of the NOAA freeze normals this site uses, so the table below applies the Minnesota rule, which is stated against the first frost, and shows each station's 28°F hard-freeze date beside it as the signal that the window is closing. Harvest follows in summer: Depending on variety and climate zone, harvest garlic between late June and late July. Plant cloves with the base of the clove two to three inches from the soil surface.

Garlic: planting dates for 39 U.S. cities

The rule above applied to each station's own NOAA normals, earliest first. City links open that station's full calendar.

3 frost-free stations are left out. Not in the table? The planner takes any pair of frost dates.

Three cities, one rule

• Concord, New Hampshire — first fall frost Sep 30, so cloves go in Oct 7 – Oct 14; the first 28°F freeze averages Oct 8.
• Charlotte, North Carolina — first fall frost Nov 3, so cloves go in Nov 10 – Nov 17; the first 28°F freeze averages Nov 14.
• Houston, Texas — first fall frost Dec 8, so cloves go in Dec 15 – Dec 22; the first 28°F freeze averages Dec 26.

Related planting dates

• When to plant onions — 2 to 4 weeks before the last spring frost
• When to plant tulips — in fall, before the first frost
• When to plant potatoes — up to 2 weeks before the last spring frost
• All crops · calendars by city · cool-season vs warm-season crops

Sources for this page

Every date in the table is arithmetic on the station's NOAA normal and the offset stated by the source; the quoted sentences are the only figures on this page that are not computed. Normals are 30-year averages and describe the station, not your yard. Rules checked 2026-10-23; see the methodology page.