How Long Does Garlic (Whole Bulb) Last?

A whole, unbroken garlic bulb stored in a cool, dry spot with good airflow keeps for 3-5 months, considerably longer than individual cloves once separated from the bulb, since the outer papery layers protect the cloves inside the same way an onion's skin does.

Softening cloves, visible sprouting (a green shoot pushing through a clove), and a strong, sour smell replacing garlic's normal sharp but clean scent are the signs a bulb is declining. A sprouted clove is still safe to eat, though the green shoot itself is sometimes removed for a milder, less bitter flavor; genuine mold, usually appearing as a fuzzy or powdery patch on a clove's surface, means that clove (and often the whole bulb, given how tightly the cloves sit together) should be discarded.

A garlic bulb kept away from onions in pantry storage, similar to the potato-and-onion separation, avoids one vegetable's off-gassing accelerating the other's decline — garlic and onion are close botanical relatives and share some of the same storage sensitivities to each other's presence in a shared, poorly ventilated space.

A garlic bulb stored in a mesh bag or a container with ventilation holes noticeably outlasts one stored in a sealed plastic bag, since trapped moisture is what most commonly triggers early sprouting or softening in stored garlic.

A garlic bulb kept in a small clay or ceramic garlic keeper, designed specifically with ventilation holes, often outlasts one stored in a generic kitchen drawer, since that dedicated airflow was the whole point of the design.

See Garlic (Whole Bulb)'s full storage & shelf-life guide (with spoilage signs) →