It is surprisingly easy to plan garlic indoors without even using potting soil. The method for doing this involves a glass container and a little water, and it’s the perfect way to grow garlic leaves year-round. What exactly are garlic leaves? Also known as baby garlic or garlic strands, garlic leaves are the shoots that emerge from a garlic clove before the bulb forms. They are a less mature version of garlic flowers, taste similar to garlic chives, and are very similar to shallots or scallions.
3 common varieties of garlic
There are three main varieties of garlic that you can choose to grow at home. Soft-necked garlic is your best choice for growing garlic leaves, while hard-necked varieties are best for growing garlic flowers.
Soft-necked: Soft-necked varieties like Silverskin are ideal for storage (the soft stems that give them their name are easy to braid together when hardening off). The most common soft-necked varieties are Korean red, Duganski, European red and Spanish roja.
Hard neck: Hard-necked garlic can be identified by its single ring of cloves and milder flavor profile, while soft-necked garlic most likely includes the garlic bulbs at the grocery store, featuring several layers of cloves, and has a stronger, more traditional garlic flavor.
elephant: Big-headed garlic, also known as elephant garlic, is not usually one of the recommended varieties for gardeners. Elephant garlic tastes more like other alliums like leeks, without much of a punchy garlic flavor.
How to grow garlic in water
Growing garlic in water indoors is much easier than planting garlic plants outdoors. You don’t have to worry about soil type, weather conditions, mulch, weeds or pests – all you need is a clove of garlic, a glass of water and some sunlight.
- Sprout a garlic clove. Buy a garlic bulb at your local farmers’ market or grocery store and remove one or more individual cloves (be sure to keep the cloves inside their paper-white skin). Sprouting garlic is a simple process: simply wrap your cloves in a damp paper towel and place them in a warm place. After about two days, your cloves should start to sprout.
- Place the sprouted clove in a clear container. You want the sprouted pointed end to face up. A shot glass is the perfect size for an individual clove. For multiple cloves, a drinking glass or jar works well.
Fill a container with water. The water level should cover a little less than half of the garlic shoot. Room temperature water is ideal. - Place the container on a sunny windowsill. Make sure the location you choose gets eight to 12 hours of sunlight a day. If the tops of your sprouting garlic cloves begin to wilt, they may be receiving too much light and you should remove your container from the windowsill for one to two days.
- Renew the water periodically. If the water turns cloudy brown, empty the dirty water and refill it with the same amount of clean water.
- Harvest the garlic leaves after one week. Throughout the week, you should notice green shoots growing upward and roots growing from the base of the clove. You will know your garlic leaves are ready to harvest once the shoots are four to seven inches tall. When harvesting garlic leaves, cut off the top third of the shoot; garlic leaves are most bitter near their base. Be sure to harvest only what you are ready to eat; fresh garlic is tastier than garlic leaves stored in the refrigerator.
- Chop your garlic leaves and add them to your favorite dish. Garlic leaves are a great seasoning for many soups, sauces, stews, pastas and stir-fries, and they are also a great alternative to chives on a baked potato.
