You can grow the ones from the store. The seed companies often speak out against it because, at least they claim, that if you get them from the store they are more likely to be diseased.

Although, I am personally a fan of getting them from the seed companies because there is a lot more variety than I ever find at my store.

Cloves from the store have sometimes been treated with an anti-sprouting agent. A farmer's market might be a better bet, and they'll have varieties that grow well near you.

Wherever you get your bulbs from, you can use a portion of your harvest as next year's planting stock. Just cure them all together, pick out the biggest ones, and plant them again next October.

A week or two ago, I was cooking and noticed some of my garlic cloves were sprouting. I put them in the ground and they are growing great. I remember garlic from the store being one of the things that was fun to grow as a kid, cause you just put it in the ground and they grow.

I've grown garlic from the store before, but the catalog ones are so much more interesting, so that's what I'm trying this year.

I think you should get whatever you prefer. You might want to try out the store garlic at first instead of investing in more expensive catalog garlic, but then again the stuff from the store might not do as well in your area as some other varieties. It seems to me like alliums are kind of picky about climate. I bought a variety pack of several different kinds of garlic to do some side-to-side comparison plantings.

That's a good point. Most of the garlic I buy comes from Gilroy, in central CA and my climate here in southern CA is very similar.

Thanks, i'm in zone 5 I think. I believe I will try out some from the grocery since this will be my first venture into real gardening (besides tomatoes).

tenessaa,

Did you know that there is a whole forum just for garlic and onion (and other allium). They will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about growing garlic.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/allium/

If this is your first attempt, this is a good website for garlic cultural info. I've also bought from them with good results.

http://www.wegrowgarlic.com/

I'm happy to send bulblets from my heirloom walking garlic to anyone who is interested. Just drop me an email and I'll send you my info. For a SASE I'll send you the little bulblets. This is a hardneck garlic that instead of a bloom it forms small bulbs at the top of the scape. The scapes dry and the garlics are ready to harvest in July (so I am pulling them now). I usually keep the larger cloves for eating and replant the small cloves and the little bulblets. I plant the garlic anywhere from July to August here. Ignored, the garlic will "walk" and plant itself!