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If you want to torture your garlic into hotness, deny it water, don't mulch it, and/or plant it in soil that's low in organic matter and nutrients. "Poor soil and stress tend to produce hotter garlic," says Ron Engeland, owner of Filaree Farm, a seed garlic supplier in Okanogan, Washington, adding that "we also think that cold winters tend to make some garlic varieties hotter."
So the same type of garlic can vary in hotness from year to year. But variety does count as well. "Porcelain" garlics have hard necks, smooth paper-white bulbs with tight wrappers, and eight or fewer large cloves per bulb. They like a deep, soft, rich soil, and they need a good cold winter, stresses Engeland.
First, you have to find a variety that will grow and store well in your conditions, suggests Engeland. Go ahead and plant a porcelain type, but—at least the first year—grow a rocambole or an artichoke garlic as well, and try not feeding and/or watering them as much as we generally suggest.
