The Organic
Revival
Vegetables · Bulb

Growing garlic

Allium sativum · also called Lehsun, RuhanA cool season bulb crop planted from single cloves. It likes cool, moist weather while it grows and dry weather while the bulbs ripen.

Cold desert: Ladakh, Lahaul and Spiti

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.No published guide covers garlic here yet.Includes AI suggestions where no published guide covers a detail
Two whole garlic bulbs and an opened bulb with its cloves showing
Photo: JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/) · CC BY 3.0
Not suited here

Not a crop for this region

No published guide covers garlic here yet.

Where it grows nearest

Across India

When to sow it

Twelve growing regions, January to December. Your region comes first.

Not suited here

Sowing now in:Gangetic plainsArid westSouth interior
  • Sow
  • Harvest
  • Today
  • Not suited here
Cold desertLadakh, Lahaul and SpitiNot suited hereTemperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluSub-tropical foothillsJammu, Kangra, Dehradun
Compare all 12 regions
Temperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluSub-tropical foothillsJammu, Kangra, DehradunNorth-west plainsPunjab, Haryana, DelhiGangetic plainseastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal plainsNorth-east hills and valleysAssam, Meghalaya, SikkimNot suited hereArid westRajasthan, Kutch, north GujaratCentral plateauMadhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, VidarbhaDeccan plateauinterior Maharashtra, Telangana, north KarnatakaSouth interiorBengaluru, Mysuru, interior Tamil NaduWest coastKerala, Goa, KonkanNot suited hereEast coastcoastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, coastal AndhraNot suited here
Today
See the dates as a table
RegionSowNurseryTransplantHarvest
Cold desertNot suited here
Temperate HimalayaSeptember to OctoberMarch to AprilJune to early JulyLate August to September
Sub-tropical foothillsLate September to late OctoberLate August to SeptemberMarch to April
North-west plainsLast week of September to first week of OctoberLate March to April
Gangetic plainsSeptember to NovemberOctober to NovemberMarch to April
North-east hills and valleysNot suited here
Arid westOctober to NovemberMarch to April
Central plateauAugust to OctoberMarch to April
Deccan plateauAugust to OctoberMarch to April
South interiorJune to JulyOctober to NovemberAugust to October
West coastNot suited here
East coastNot suited here

What it needs

Soil, sun and warmth

  • Soil pH1,4,8

    6 to 7

    Fertile, well drained, friable loam rich in humus. Heavy soils that crust after watering, and very acid, alkaline or saline soils, do not suit it.

  • SunlightNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

    Full sun. Bulbs stay small in shade.

  • Temperature3,5,8

    Grows best at 13 to 24 °C

    Takes hard frost.

    Monthly temperatures for the Cold desert aren't in the library yet.

Good neighbours7

Seed and the season's end

Saving seed5,7,8

Keep planting stock only from healthy bulbs of a clean crop.

When the seed is ready

Bulbs are ready when the tops turn yellow or brown, dry and bend over.

Cleaning the seed

Split bulbs into cloves only at planting time, and plant the outer cloves, about 8 to 10 mm across.

Dry the bulbs well before storing and keep them in an airy room; avoid bruising them. Cold stores hold them at 0 to 2 °C and 60 to 70% humidity.

After the last picking7

Collect and destroy diseased plant remains and the culls thrown out of storage.

Rotation

Do not follow garlic or onion with garlic. Rotate with a cereal, a cucurbit or a cabbage family crop, for 2 to 3 years where purple blotch has been seen and 4 to 5 years where basal rot or white rot has. Avoid planting garlic straight after cauliflower or cabbage, whose rotting remains can carry bulb mites.

Sources

Where this comes from

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Reviewed by our team on 13 November 2026.

These published guides are the sources. Where none of them covers a detail for this region, the page shows an AI suggestion and labels it.

  1. 1Package of Practices for Vegetable Crops 2020 (Garlic; insect-pest and disease management in bulb crops; cropping systems)Directorate of Extension, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu (SKUAST-Jammu)Read the source
  2. 3Garlic production technology (Indian Horticulture 62(6), 2017)ICAR-Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research, Rajgurunagar, Pune (Khade, Thangasamy and Gorrepati)Read the source
  3. 7AESA based IPM package: GarlicNational Institute of Plant Health Management and Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage, Government of IndiaRead the source
  4. 8Agro techniques: garlicNational Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF), NashikRead the source

AI Farm Manager · In development

Plan this crop on your land

AI Farm Manager will turn guides like this one into a plan for your own plot. It doesn't make plans yet.

See how it will work