Introduction
One of the questions I get asked all the time is “how much garlic should I plant?” And honestly, when I first started farming, I had absolutely no idea how to answer that question for myself. I made so many mistakes those first few years trying to figure out everything from how much garlic to plant per person in my family to calculating how much seed garlic I’d need for an entire acre. It seemed like such a simple question but the answer depends on so many different things.
Whether you’re a home gardener trying to figure out how much garlic to plant for a year’s worth of cooking, or you’re scaling up to a small farm operation like we did here at Basaltic Farms, I’m going to break this all down for you the way I wish someone had explained it to me when I was just getting started.
The truth is, once you understand the basic math and know your variables, this becomes a lot less overwhelming. I’ve spent the last six years figuring this out through trial and error (mostly error if I’m being honest), and I want to save you some of that headache.
How Much Garlic to Plant Per Person
Let’s start with the most common question for home gardeners. If you’re just trying to grow enough garlic for your family’s cooking needs, here’s what I’ve learned actually works in the real world.
The average American uses about half a pound to one pound of garlic per year according to data from the USDA Economic Research Service. But here’s the thing—if you’re reading this, you probably aren’t average when it comes to garlic. Most of the folks who reach out to us absolutely love garlic and use way more than the national average.
Here’s what I recommend for home gardeners:
For light garlic users (maybe a clove or two per week), plan on growing about 12 to 15 bulbs per person per year. That gives you roughly one bulb per month with a little wiggle room.
For moderate garlic users (a few cloves several times per week), you’ll want 25 to 35 bulbs per person annually. This is probably where most home cooks who actually enjoy garlic fall.
For garlic lovers like myself who use it in practically everything, plan on 40 to 50 bulbs per person per year. And even then, you might run out before the next harvest comes in.
Now here’s something I learned the hard way—you need to factor in that not every single bulb is going to be perfect. Some will be smaller than expected. Some might not cure properly. And you’ll want to save some of your best bulbs for replanting next year if you’re planning to continue growing. I always tell folks to add about 20 percent extra to whatever number they come up with.
How Much Garlic to Plant for a Family
Calculating how much garlic to plant for a family is really just scaling up that per-person math, but there are a few extra things to consider.
Family Size Guidelines:
| Family Size | Light Use (Bulbs) | Moderate Use (Bulbs) | Heavy Use (Bulbs) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 people | 30–40 | 60–80 | 100–120 |
| 4 people | 60–80 | 120–160 | 200–240 |
| 6 people | 90–120 | 180–240 | 300–360 |
Here’s something else to think about—do you plan on giving garlic away as gifts? Because once people taste homegrown garlic compared to that grocery store stuff, they’re going to ask for more. I’d honestly double whatever number you calculate if you have family or friends who might want some. Garlic makes an incredible gift, and it’s something we do a lot of here at the farm.
Also consider whether you’ll be making any preserved garlic products like garlic-infused olive oil, fermented garlic honey, or pickled garlic. Those uses add up quickly.
For most families just getting started, I recommend planting around 100 to 150 cloves your first year. That should give you somewhere between 100 and 150 bulbs at harvest (one clove planted equals one bulb harvested), which is plenty to learn from while still having a meaningful harvest.
How Much Garlic to Plant Per Square Foot
If you’re working with raised beds or a small garden space, knowing how much garlic to plant per square foot is essential for planning.
The general rule for planting garlic in a home garden is to space cloves 4 to 6 inches apart within the bed. This works out to roughly 4 to 9 plants per square foot depending on your exact spacing.
Here’s how that breaks down:
- Tight spacing (4 inches between plants): 9 plants per square foot
- Standard spacing (6 inches between plants): 4 plants per square foot
- Wide spacing (8 inches between plants): approximately 3 plants per square foot. You would typically save this spacing for your largest varieties where bulbs grow upwards of 3 inches or larger or when soil fertility is lacking.
I personally recommend the standard spacing for most home gardeners. Tight spacing can work but you might end up with smaller bulbs and more competition between plants if you don’t have super fertile soil or the variety of garlic planted is a larger variety. The plants can end up competing for nutrients and sunlight and you could get a bunch of undersized bulbs that aren’t worth much but the possible benefit of having less weeds to pull as the garlic is better able to shade the soil and water does not evaporate quite as fast is definitely a pro to tighter spacing. These are some of the pros and cons of the different plant spacings.
For reference, a standard 4×8 foot raised bed at standard spacing will hold about 128 garlic plants. That’s enough garlic for a family of four with moderate use.
Quick Reference for Raised Beds:
| Bed Size | Plants (Standard Spacing) | Expected Yield |
|---|---|---|
| 4 × 4 feet | 64 plants | 64 bulbs |
| 4 × 8 feet | 128 plants | 128 bulbs |
| 4 × 12 feet | 192 plants | 192 bulbs |
How Much Garlic Seed to Plant
When you’re ordering seed garlic, it’s sold by the pound rather than by the clove. This is where things get a little tricky because the number of cloves per pound varies significantly depending on the variety and the size of the bulbs.
Hardneck garlic varieties like Music or Chesnok Red typically have fewer cloves per bulb when compared to softnecks. For example Music, a porcelain group garlic has 4 to 7 cloves per bulb and chesnock red, a standard marbled stripe group garlic produces between 8 to 12 cloves per bulb. Porcelain group garlics typically are very large and have huge cloves often consisting of 6 to 8 bulbs per pound. That means you’re looking at roughly 24 to 42 cloves per pound for larger bulbs and 32 to 56 cloves per pound for small to medium bulbs of Music hardneck seed garlic. Whereas with Chesnock you will get close to 100 cloves per lb on average as it is a much smaller sized garlic when compared to a porcelain garlic like music.
Softneck garlic varieties like Inchelium Red or California Early can have anywhere from 10 to 20 cloves per bulb, with about 8 to 12 bulbs per pound. You might get 80 to 180 cloves per pound, depending on the specific variety and bulb size. I go into more details on the specific varieties of garlic we offer and the average amount of cloves they have in a separate blog post.
Estimated Cloves Per Pound by Variety Type:
| Variety Type | Cloves Per Bulb | Bulbs Per Pound | Cloves Per Pound |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large Hardneck (Music) | 4–7 | 6–8 | 24–42 |
| Medium Hardneck (Thai Purple) | 6–9 | 7–9 | 42–81 |
| Small Hardneck (Chesnock Red) | 8–12 | 8–10 | 64–120 |
| Artichoke Softneck | 12–20 | 8–12 | 96–240 |
| Silverskin Softneck | 12–24 | 10–14 | 120–336 |
Here’s a tip I wish someone had given me early on—when you receive your seed garlic, take the time to actually count the cloves from a few representative bulbs before you plant. Every batch is a little different, and the last thing you want is to run out of seed halfway through planting a row. Been there, done that, and it’s incredibly frustrating when you’ve got all your rows prepped and you’re suddenly short on seed.
I also highly recommend ordering a little extra. At our farm, we always add 3 to 5 percent extra seed to what we plant in the field to account for damaged cloves, the occasional rotten one, or just real-world variation. You can always eat the extra if you end up not needing it, but you can’t plant what you don’t have.
How Much Garlic to Plant Per Acre
Now we’re getting into the commercial farming territory, which is where I’ve spent most of my time learning over the past six years here at Basaltic Farms. Calculating how much garlic to plant per acre is quite a bit more complex than backyard gardening because you’ve got equipment limitations, bed configurations, and a whole lot more variables to account for.
I’ll be honest, this was the most daunting calculation I had to figure out when we first started, and I made plenty of mistakes along the way. But I’ve developed a system that actually works, and I’m going to walk you through it the same way I do it.
Understanding Your Equipment Limitations
The first thing you need to figure out is what your limiting factors are. For us at Basaltic Farms, we use a John Deere 4630 for row cropping with an adjustable wheelbase. The rear wheels slide on a rack and pinion setup, and the front wheels adjust in 2-inch increments. That front axle is really what limits our row spacing options.
We also do mechanical weeding for most of our weed control, which means we need to factor in the width of our finger weeder. In our early years, I didn’t think about this enough and we ended up with the weeder fingers hitting garlic leaves as they grew outward and caused significant damage. We had to stop mechanical weeding way earlier than we should have and ended up doing a lot more hand weeding, which is not cheap when you’re paying for labor.
We’ve since switched to narrower fingers and narrower tires (went from 18-inch tires that spread to 22 inches under load down to 12-inch row cropping tires), and it’s made a huge difference in how much garlic we can fit per acre.
The Math for Commercial Planting
Here’s the formula I use to calculate plants per acre. It might seem complicated at first, but once you work through it with your own numbers, it starts to make sense.
Step 1: Determine Your Bed Width
At Basaltic Farms, our wheelbase is 67 inches center to center. That means our beds need to be 67 inches apart. We plant 3 rows of garlic per bed, spaced 20 inches apart within the bed.
Step 2: Calculate Your Growing Space Per Foot of Bed
Take your bed width (67 inches in our case) and multiply by 12 inches to find the square inches per foot of bed:
67 × 12 = 804 square inches per foot of bed
Step 3: Determine Plants Per Foot of Bed
We plant roughly one clove every 3 inches, so that’s 4 plants per row per foot. With 3 rows, that’s 12 plants per foot of bed.
Step 4: Convert to Plants Per Square Foot
Divide your square inches per foot of bed by 144 (the number of square inches in a square foot):
804 ÷ 144 = 5.58 square feet per foot of bed
Then divide your plants per foot of bed by this number:
12 ÷ 5.58 = 2.15 plants per square foot
Step 5: Calculate Plants Per Acre
Multiply by 43,560 (square feet per acre):
2.15 × 43,560 = 93,654 plants per acre
With 2-inch spacing between plants instead of 3-inch, you’d get closer to 140,000 plants per acre. Your actual number will depend on your specific setup.
Sample Calculations at Different Spacings:
| Within-Row Spacing | Rows Per Bed | Plants / Foot of Bed | Plants / Acre |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 inches | 3 | 18 | ~140,000 |
| 3 inches | 3 | 12 | ~94,000 |
| 4 inches | 3 | 9 | ~70,000 |
| 6 inches | 3 | 6 | ~47,000 |
Don’t Forget to Account for Variety Separation
If you’re growing multiple varieties like we do (we currently grow 9 different varieties), you’ll need to leave space between them. We leave one empty bed between each variety to ensure there’s room for our harvester and to prevent any mix-up between varieties during harvest.
This reduces your total plantable space, so factor that into your calculations. I also strongly recommend taking detailed notes on which variety is planted where, what side you started on, total weight planted, and acreage for each variety. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself at harvest time.
Choosing the Right Varieties for Your Needs
The variety you choose affects not just flavor but also how many cloves you’ll get per bulb and how long your garlic will store. Here’s what to consider:
For Home Gardeners Who Want Maximum Storage:
Softneck varieties like Inchelium Red or California Early will store for 5 to 9 months under proper conditions. They also have more cloves per bulb, so you’ll get more seed from the same amount of garlic.
For Gardeners Who Prioritize Flavor:
Hardneck varieties like Music, Chesnok Red, or Thai Purple offer more complex flavors that many garlic lovers prefer. They store for 4 to 7 months and produce bonus garlic scapes in spring.
For Warm Climate Growers:
If you’re in zones 8 and above, look for heat-tolerant varieties that don’t require as much cold vernalization.
Honestly I didn’t really even like garlic until I started growing it and experienced all the different garlicky flavors that are out there. Store-bought garlic just didn’t even come close to what we were able to grow. It’s like when you grow your own produce in your garden and it’s so much better than anything else.
Planning for Success: A Quick Reference Guide
Let me put this all together in a simple planning guide you can use:
For Home Gardens (Per Year Needs)
- Determine your family’s garlic use: Light (12-15 bulbs/person), Moderate (25-35 bulbs/person), or Heavy (40-50 bulbs/person)
- Add 20% for any bulbs you harvest that might be imperfect and for replanting stock
- Calculate your space needs: At standard spacing (6 inches between plants), you need about 1 square foot for every 4 plants
- Order your seed garlic: Divide your total bulbs needed by the cloves per pound for your chosen variety (check our ordering guide for specifics)
For Small Farms (Per Acre Planning)
- Map your equipment limitations: Tractor width, implement widths, turn space at row ends
- Determine bed configuration: Row spacing, rows per bed, plant spacing within rows
- Calculate using the formula above or use these rough estimates:
-
- Tight commercial spacing: 100,000-140,000 plants per acre
- Standard commercial spacing: 70,000-100,000 plants per acre
- Wide spacing: 45,000-70,000 plants per acre
-
- Add 3-5% extra for real-world variance
- Plan for variety separation if growing multiples
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Ive always found the best part about making mistakes is learning from them and not repeating them. Here are just a few of the ones ive made over the years and hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and avoid them yourself.
Mistake #1: Not Accounting for Seed Size Variation
The cloves per pound varies wildly depending on variety, growing conditions, and even which part of the bulb the clove came from. Always buy a little extra.
Mistake #2: Planting Too Dense or Too Sparsely.
Deciding on the spacing for your field largely depends on your soil fertility and your equipment. I like to cram as much per acre as I safely can as it saves money on irrigation and weed load as well as the amount of land you need to own or lease. The flip side to this is if you over do it and don’t allow enough space for each plant to flourish you will end up with subpar results and small bulbs. GET A SOIL REPORT BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING!!!!
Mistake #3: Not Planning for Storage
If you’re growing enough garlic for a full year, you need proper storage conditions. Garlic needs cool (55-65°F), dry conditions with good airflow. Plan this before you plant.
Mistake #4: Forgetting to Save Seed
If you want to replant next year, you need to save your biggest, best bulbs as seed. Factor this into your calculations from the start.
Mistake #5: Using the Wrong Variety for Your Climate
Hardnecks need cold winters. Softnecks are more adaptable. Check your growing zone and choose appropriate varieties.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many garlic bulbs do I need for a year’s supply?
For average home use, plan on 25-35 bulbs per person per year. Heavy garlic users should plan for 40-50 bulbs per person. Always add 20% extra for losses and replanting as well as any gifts you decide to give out.
How many pounds of seed garlic do I need?
This depends on variety. See my blog post going discussing the different varieties we offer and the specific cloves per pound I have found to be accurate for garlic grown at basaltic farms. Divide your total plants needed by cloves per pound to get pounds of seed needed.
Can I plant garlic from the grocery store?
I really wouldn’t recommend it. Grocery store garlic is often treated to prevent sprouting and may carry diseases. Invest in quality certified seed garlic for best results and avoid garlic where you dont know where it was grown. White rot is a scary thing and you dont want that because you wanted the cheaper stuff from the store. Its rare but you just dont know what grocery store garlic was exposed to. And if you are looking to start a business white rot is a great way to end it before you even get started. It stays viable in the soil for 50 plus years and is not very treatable and is nearly impossible to eradicate from your soil.
How much space do I need to grow 100 bulbs of garlic?
At standard spacing, you’ll need about 20-25 square feet of growing space for 100 garlic plants. A 4×6 foot raised bed would work perfectly.
When should I plant garlic?
In most climates, fall planting (4-6 weeks before your ground freezes) produces the best results. For most of the US, that’s October through November. Spring planting is possible but typically produces smaller bulbs. If you live in an area with a winter low that doesn’t get too far below 20f, starting them even earlier could be a benefit as you get 3 to 4 inches of green growth before it goes dormant for the winter which gives you a good headstart in the spring.
Ready to Get Started?
Figuring out how much garlic to plant can seem overwhelming at first, but once you understand the basic math and your own variables, it becomes pretty straightforward. Start with the per-person calculations, factor in some extra for losses and seed saving, and you’ll be on your way to growing more garlic than you ever thought possible.
I dream of growing this farm into a multi-generational operation where I can help other families get into growing garlic. It’s hard work but it’s so very rewarding. I want to be able to grow and supply healthy, nutritionally dense food for people instead of all the bland and unhealthy foods we eat as a country.
If you have questions about how much seed garlic you need for your specific situation, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re happy to help you figure out exactly what you need. You can also check out our pricing page to see current availability and our quantity discounts for larger orders.