The usual advice for mild-winter gardens is to stick to white softneck garlic. You do not have to. Some purple turban varieties are bred for warm districts and need nothing special, and the cold-climate ones can be given a spell in the fridge before planting to stand in for a winter they will not otherwise get.
Why cold-climate garlic sulks in a warm winter
Garlic uses cold as a signal. A period of roughly 0 to 10 degrees tells the clove that winter has passed, and that when the soil warms it should stop making leaves and start dividing into a bulb. Growers call this vernalisation.
Varieties from cold districts expect a decent run of that cold. Plant one into a Brisbane autumn and it will often grow happily all winter and then hand you a single undivided bulb about the size of a small onion, called a round. The plant was never told to divide.
Softnecks are the traditional answer because they ask for much less cold. That advice is sound, it is just incomplete.
Start here: the purple that already suits warm climates
Before reaching for the fridge, consider Lismore Red. It is a turban-group hardneck, purple, and it is grown in northern New South Wales precisely because it copes with a mild winter. It is also one of the earliest to mature. If what you want is purple garlic in a warm garden with no fuss, this is the straightforward answer.
Turban types in general carry a lower cold requirement than other hardnecks, which is why they turn up in warmer growing regions around the world.
The fridge method, for the genuinely cold-climate varieties
If you have your heart set on a variety bred for the south, such as Glamour, which does its best work in cold climates and heavy soils, you can supply the cold yourself.
- Buy in late summer. You need the bulbs in hand by February or early March, because the chilling has to finish before your planting window opens. Buying in April leaves no time.
- Keep the bulbs whole and put them in a paper bag. Not plastic, which traps moisture and rots them.
- Four to six weeks in the crisper, which sits at roughly 4 degrees. Write the date on the bag, because it is easy to forget them.
- Plant straight out of the fridge. Break the bulbs into cloves on planting day and get them into the ground the same day. Going from cold storage into warm autumn soil is the sequence that triggers bulbing.
Do not use the fridge for ordinary storage. If you bought your garlic in January, keep it in a dark, airy cupboard at room temperature and only move it to the fridge four to six weeks before you plant. Months in a crisper produce mould and premature sprouts, not better garlic.
Which of ours need the treatment
| Variety | Type | In a mild winter |
|---|---|---|
| Lismore Red | Turban hardneck | No chilling needed. Bred for warm districts and early to mature. |
| Kenlarge | Subtropical, day-length neutral | No chilling needed. Australian bred for Queensland and northern NSW. |
| Glenlarge (Early Purple) | Subtropical, day-length neutral | No chilling needed. Developed at Gatton Research Station in Queensland. |
| Italian Pink | Softneck | No chilling needed. A dependable warm-climate softneck. |
| Australian White | Softneck | No chilling needed. Softnecks are the low-cold-requirement group. |
| Tasmanian Purple | Turban hardneck | Chill 4 to 6 weeks if your winter is mild. |
| Australian Purple | Turban hardneck | Chill 4 to 6 weeks if your winter is mild. |
| Glamour | Weakly bolting hardneck | Chill 4 to 6 weeks. Best suited to southern Australia and cold, heavy soils. |
Scroll the table sideways on a phone.
What to expect
Chilling improves your odds, it does not guarantee a result. Seasons vary, and a warm, wet autumn can still produce a few rounds. If it happens, the round is perfectly edible, and you can replant it the following season, when it will usually divide properly.
Garlic is a long crop either way. Planted in autumn, it comes out in late spring or early summer, once about half the leaves have yellowed.
Where this applies, by climate zone
The fridge method exists to stand in for a winter you do not get. How much of one you get decides whether you need it at all.
- Cool and alpine (Tasmania, Ballarat, Orange, the southern tablelands): no chilling needed. Your winter does the job, and this is where the cold-climate hardnecks such as Glamour are at their best.
- Temperate (Sydney, Melbourne, coastal New South Wales and Victoria): usually no chilling needed inland, though mild coastal pockets around Sydney can benefit from four weeks in the fridge for a cold-climate variety.
- Mediterranean (Perth and southern Western Australia, Adelaide): winters are mild and wet, so a cold-climate hardneck often benefits from chilling. Note that we cannot ship garlic to Western Australia.
- Subtropical (Brisbane, the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, northern New South Wales): this is the zone the method was written for. Either chill a cold-climate variety, or simply grow Lismore Red, Kenlarge or Glenlarge and skip the step.
- Tropical (Darwin, Cairns, Townsville): the hardest zone. Even chilled, most garlic struggles to bulb, and the day-length-neutral subtropical types are the only real prospect.
- Arid and semi-arid (Alice Springs, Mildura, Broken Hill): cold winter nights often supply enough chill on their own, so try a variety unchilled first before committing fridge space.
Frequently asked questions
Can I chill the cloves instead of whole bulbs?
Keep the bulbs whole while they chill. The papery wrapper stops the individual cloves drying out, and separated cloves lose moisture fast in a fridge.
What if I chill for longer than six weeks?
Longer is not better. Extended cold can bring on rooting and sprouting in the bag, and very long chilling is associated with rough, uneven bulbs. Four to six weeks is the useful window.
My garlic made a single round bulb. What now?
Eat it, or save it and plant it next autumn. A round usually divides normally the following season. It is a sign the plant did not get the cold signal, not a sign of disease.
Does the freezer work faster?
No. Freezing damages the clove. The signal it needs is cool, not frozen, and the crisper drawer is the right place.
Can I grow garlic in the tropics?
It is difficult. Even chilled, most varieties struggle to bulb in the far north. The day-length-neutral subtropical types are your best prospect, and results are still mixed.
One shipping note. We cannot send garlic bulbs to Western Australia or Tasmania, because of their plant quarantine requirements.
Related growing guides
- Which garlic should I grow? A flavour and variety guide
- Hardneck or softneck: which garlic suits your climate
- How to store seed garlic before planting
Ready to plant? Browse our Vegetable Seeds.