How to Plant Garlic in Pots

Fill a 12-inch diameter pot with a loose, well-drained potting mixture. Use a pot that is approximately 6 inches deep and has at least one drainage hole on the bottom. Mix a slow-release 10-10-10 analysis fertilizer with the soil at the rate recommended on the label.

Break apart the garlic bulb into the individual cloves with your hands. Leave the papery skin on the cloves. Set aside the largest cloves, usually from the outside of the bulb, for planting.

Sow the cloves 1 1/2 inches deep in the soil mixture. Space the cloves 4 inches apart in all directions so the bulbs have room to form.

Water the soil in the pot until the excess moisture begins draining from the bottom, ensuring the soil is evenly moist throughout. Water thereafter when the top 1 inch of soil is just beginning to feel dry, always watering until the excess runs out the bottom of the pot.

Place the pot in a protected, full-sun location outside. Alternately, place it in a window indoors that receives at least six hours of direct sunlight a day.

Fertilize pot-grown garlic again beginning in March. Apply a 10-10-10 soluble fertilizer at the rate recommended on the package. Repeat this fertilization in May.

Harvest the garlic when the foliage begins to yellow and die back in mid- to late-summer. Dump the soil out of the pot onto a sheet of newspaper and separate out the garlic bulbs.