Watering Garlic: How to Achieve Perfect Soil Moisture for Healthy Bulbs

Continuing our garlic series, we are ready to dive into one of the most important aspects of growing plants: watering your garden, most specifically, watering garlic! Garlic watering is an important component of ensuring that your harvest is top notch. As an underground crop, garlic and water can have a complicated relationship, but with a few considerations in mind, including determining how much moisture garlic needs, preventing overwatering, understanding different ways of watering garlic, and how often you should water garlic, you can master this essential skill.

Help bulbs reach their maximum potential with proper watering practices.

How Much Water Does Garlic Need?

Garlic’s moisture content is somewhat lower than the average garden crop. Most veggies range from 70-90% moisture content at harvest. However, garlic runs around 64%, and loses moisture as it is dried for storage. Still, in order to achieve proper moisture and in turn, healthy garlic, your crop will need the proper amount of water throughout its growth.

Garlic needs about an inch of water per week, whether through rain or artificial means. This amount may need to be increased if your soils are on the sandy side. How often do you need to water garlic? That depends on your location and weather, and may even be different from week to week depending on the forecast!

*Watch your rain gauge to see if you’ll need to make up the difference for your garlic’s weekly needs. An inch per week is recommended in most soils.*

Can Garlic Be Overwatered?

Too much of a good thing can be dangerous, and overwatering your garden can be risky. Overwatered garlic can be at risk for problems just as much as underwatered bulbs. Overwatering makes underground bulbs susceptible to rot. Following the above recommendations should prevent this, but watch your crop carefully. If you are wondering what overwatered garlic looks like, keep an eye out for yellowing, mushy leaves (though you will see yellowing before harvest time, leaves will be drying at that time). If you see this, reduce or eliminate watering and monitor your plants.

While we almost always appreciate a good rainstorm to help soak our gardens, in rare cases, the moisture load for a period of time can potentially overwhelm your plants. I was worried that too much rain would ruin my garlic after the disastrous wet summer we had in 2023, and while it was not completely destroyed, my bulbs were definitely not as prolific. I have since learned that it is not a crazy idea to cover your more sensitive crops, such as shallow-rooted garlic, during periods of torrential rain. Just remember to remove the covering once the rain stops so that your plants can enjoy the sunshine!

How to Water Garlic

If you need to provide your garlic with supplemental water, you may find yourself deciding which watering system is right for you. Your garden may be small enough and your free time ample to water your crop by hand, or you may need an automatic irrigation system to help you out in the garden. A garden watering system can be simple or more detailed, but varies depending on each gardener’s needs. Some options include:

A watering can: simple to use and perfect for a smaller space.
Hose systems: These can help make your water source more mobile.
Soaker hose: A form of garden irrigation system that brings water to the roots of plants.
Garden sprinkler: This might be manual or on a timer.

Whichever method you choose, make sure you are following the water amount recommendation of one inch and monitoring the weather to prevent overwatering.

What’s your favorite way to get moisture to your garden? Let us know in the comments!

When to Water Garlic

We’ve already discussed how often you should water garlic, but as far as time of year goes, when to water garlic plants will vary depending on when you plant and when you fertilize.

As with all new plantings, your garlic should be watered after planting. So, if you fall plant, you will want to water garlic after planting in the fall. Spring-planted garlic should be watered right after planting, too. However, watering garlic in winter is not necessary, and you will resume providing moisture to your plants in the spring.

Water garlic in the spring once you see sprouts starting to appear above the soil line. From then, use the inch per week guidance to determine when to water.

Once you see your sprouts, start monitoring your garlic’s water intake carefully.

When to Stop Watering Garlic

When do you stop watering garlic? You’ll want to hit pause on watering about two weeks before you plan to harvest your garlic. This allows for the skins of the garlic to be preserved so that garlic curing conditions are ideal.

Harvesting garlic should ideally be done when the plants and environment are dry to reduce the risk of rot or damage during the harvest process, so watering garlic before harvest is not necessary. This is true regardless of your type of garlic or garlic varieties.

On that note, let us know your favorite variety to grow in the comments!

Water correctly, and it will pay off with a bountiful harvest!

Removing your garlic scapes, adding garlic fertilizer at the right time, and stopping the addition of water in a timely manner ensures your garlic’s best chance for success!

Be sure to check out the other articles in our garlic series to learn our favorite tips for bountiful bulbs! If you’re thinking about garlic but haven’t quite decided how to incorporate it into your garden plans, our planting and harvesting spreadsheet can help you make those final decisions! Or check out some of our favorite varieties, Music from High Mowing Seeds: