PlantSowGrow
How to grow Garlic Chives
Allium tuberosum
🌿 Herb
🔁 Perennial
Flat leaves with a mild garlic flavour and white star-shaped flowers in late summer. A hardy perennial for stir-fries and salads.
At a glance: Sow mid April to mid June, harvest from late June.
When to sow, plant and harvest
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Sow outdoors
Harvest
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Garlic Chives: what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Keep evenly moist; water pots daily in hot weather
- Soil
- Fertile, well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 20 cm
- Height
- 30 cm
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- A liquid feed every two weeks for pot-grown plants
- Harvest
- About 80 days from sowing
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 4–9
- Difficulty
- Easy
Step by step
- Mid April – mid June · around the last spring frost
Sow Seeds Outdoors
Sow thinly in shallow drills where they are to grow.
- 10–14 days after “Sow Seeds Indoors” · Late April
Check Germination
Seedlings should appear in 10–14 days. Keep the compost moist. If sown outdoors, thin to 20 cm apart.
- 66–87 days after “Check Germination” · Late June – late July
Start Harvesting
Cut leaves to 3 cm above the base; they regrow within weeks.
Every year
- MarchDivide the Clump
Every few years, lift and split crowded clumps.
- AprilStart Cutting
New leaves are up — start cutting.
- SeptemberRemove Flower Heads
Cut off flower heads before they set seed, or garlic chives will pop up everywhere.
