Garlic Season

Garlic is available year-round in Australia, but the garlic on your supermarket shelf is almost always imported, most of it from China. Domestic garlic has a short season, typically running from November through to February depending on region, though specialist growers have extended that window by using Australia's diverse climates. If you want fresh Australian garlic, late spring and early summer is your window.

Garlic is in season year-round in Australia, with peak supply in spring.

Garlic is planted as individual cloves in autumn (March to May across most of southern Australia), establishes over winter, and is harvested November to February after a seven-to-eight month cycle, per Sustainable Gardening Australia. Hardneck varieties send up a flower spike (scape) just before maturity. Most commercial growers remove it to maximise bulb size, though some evidence suggests leaving it until after curing may extend storage life. Softneck varieties (most of what reaches supermarkets) don't produce scapes but store better and suit mechanical harvesting. After lifting, bulbs are cured in a dry, airy spot for two to eight weeks before the papery skin sets, as Gardening Australia notes.

Australian garlic is grown across southern Australia. Victoria's Murray and Sunraysia regions (Mildura and surrounds), NSW around Griffith, Hay and Balranald plus the tablelands around Crookwell, southern Queensland through the Darling Downs, and SA's south-east near Mount Gambier are the main growing areas, per the QLD DAF crop report. Garlic needs optimum monthly average temperatures of 13–24°C and does best in well-drained, moderately fertile soil. Subtropical cultivars like Italian Pink and Glenlarge have extended production into Queensland and northern WA.

Domestic garlic production reached around 3,406 tonnes in 2020/21, up from 1,786 tonnes in 2016/17, and is valued at more than $20 million, with 95% sold fresh, per AUSVEG / AGIA. But Australians consume far more than we grow. Fresh consumption runs to around 3,500 tonnes a year according to NSW DPI, while imports have regularly exceeded 10,000 tonnes, meaning domestic production covers well under a third of what we eat. All imported garlic is treated with methyl bromide under biosecurity requirements. Growers like Nick Diamantopoulos of Australian Garlic Producers are working to extend the domestic season, with a library of 292 varieties covering September through to March, as SBS Food reports.