We frequently get questions about which garlic can be planted. Many people make a distinction between ‘seed’ garlic – planting stock and ‘culinary’ garlic — only for eating. The reality is: All garlic can be planted and will grow unless it’s been treated with a growth inhibitor.
When planting garlic for the first time, we recommend you plant several varieties using the largest bulbs you can find. Garlic is quite sensitive to micro-climates and soil. We tried over 40 varieties before settling on a few that grow well on our farm, are popular with customers, and are easy to clean (we clean thousands!). There is research that shows using cloves from large bulbs produces the biggest garlic. We’ve experimented over the years and find this to be true. We’ve also tried planting little cloves from big garlic and have been disappointed in the results. We recommend eating the little cloves.
If you have been growing garlic for several years with good results and then have a less than desirable year, your genetics should still be good unless the problem is due to disease. Not every year is the same on our farm of course and sometimes we plant smaller garlic that then sizes up well the next year under more favorable conditions.
Even store garlic can be planted if it hasn’t been treated with growth inhibitors but unfortunately you can’t know in advance of course. It’s why people don’t recommend planting store potatoes, they are often treated. For garlic, a second reason for not planting store garlic is that it often comes from CA or China and is most likely a softneck variety which prefers to grow in warmer climates. While some softneck garlics do grow in MN, they are much more likely to have problems due to weather. Hardneck garlics do best in the frozen northland.