I don't see why not -- if you don't dig it, it lives in the ground from year to year. If you're concerned about it rotting, try to plant in the most sandy, gritty, well-drained soil you have, and consider using a fungicide dust or soak on the cloves prior to planting.

It is best to plant in the fall.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garlic & onion forum

So, could they be replanted now? Or should I wait and keep my fingers crossed until October/November?

Cure it properly and wait.

Dan

Thanks for your input, guys! Dan, the problem is that given the state of the wrappers at this point, I don't think proper curing is going to occur. It is past the stinky phase, though, so perhaps I can convince the husband to let me move it into the house and out of the high humidity. Oddly, he doesn't like it when the whole house smells like curing garlic for days. Maybe I'll turn this into an oppertunity to experiment and plant a few bulbs from the worst looking heads back in the earth now and see what happens next year!

Cheers!

So you left them in the ground for too long? You want to plant the largest cloves else your production will be lowered. Plant properly at the proper time. Hopefully you can get production if you plant soon...

Dan

No Dan, I did not leave them in the ground too long. :) This year's weather was bad for the sheath formation: very hot dry weather and very wet weather both interfere with proper sheath formation. Here we had first one, then the other. I left them in the ground only long enough for the bulb to go from being one large, round onion-type thing to being fully differentiated cloves. Any sooner and the bulbs would not have been completely differentiated; I checked every 2 days because I could see what was happening. In other words, this year is not a good one for the hardneck garlic in my garden. It is likely to be hard on the soft-neck too if it doesn't stop raining every day. I am familiar with the protocols of planting garlic under ideal conditions but this year things are not ideal... as they often aren't since everything is so dependant on the weather in gardening. ;)

Cheers!

Interesting. We have single-digit humidity combined with heat and high winds on a regular basis here, and I have no problem. I plant in Oct, side dress with blood meal, mulch heavily, fert with liquid N 2-3x, cut the scapes for pesto, and harvest. Never a problem. If you're worried about keeping a variety going, leave a few in the ground for next year and see what happens. I have 2-3 volunteers come up in the garden every year.

Dan

If you are intersested, here is a link that describes what I'm talking about with the sheathes, perhaps better than I did myself. Read the section "Harvesting". Maybe the difference is that you have the described weather on a regular basis while for us it was very irregular? I have only been growing garlic for 5-6 years, so I know I haven't seen everything yet, but I've been getting a nice harvest for 3 years. I really am interested in keeping this strain going. I really like it and no one seems to offer it anymore (unless it is under another name which is quite possible). That's why I was hoping someone would let me know if they have tried keeping some in the ground and whether that worked! I like the idea of scape pesto, by the way, sounds nice. I usually grill mine with some other veggies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Garlic

Thank you, I understand. I merely relayed my method as I take precaution to moderate any weather swings they get. I suspect that your winter up there has much of the blame, and leaving some in the ground over the winter is a way to decrease risk.

Dan