It's a question that comes up a lot in our circles, can you plant supermarket garlic? Well, we're here to tell you the answer to that question. (Just quickly, it's "not really")
The garlic that you buy to eat is referred to as 'Culinary Garlic', garlic for planting is "Seed Garlic". Imported culinary garlic, like the stuff you'd find in the supermarket, has been grown in a different hemisphere and climate so it's not going to grow well in an Australian climate.
Plus, planting imported garlic runs the risk of importing disease into your veggie garden.
Supermarket garlic has also often been cold-stored, prolonging its storage life. This interferes with growth, often causing secondary shootings. To keep it on the shelf longer, culinary garlic is often sprayed with hormones prior to harvesting. These hormones stop it from shooting on the shelf, and also in your garden.
Garlic Seed Bulbs are very different. They don't have to look as pretty as consumable garlic, so they're often bigger. Seed garlic growers have a high standard of soil health, plant health, size and quality – they're not the prettiest bulbs, but they'll grow some amazing garlic!
Kangaroo Island Fresh Garlic can be used as seed garlic in your backyard if you wanted to try your hand at growing garlic. We also sell wholesale seed garlic - just contact us!