I dry mine in the basement with a humidifier and and some years I use a small fan on them if the soil was not dry or if it rained in the week before harvest. When the leaves have no green on them about two weeks I cut the stalk off leaving a couple inches of stalk. I do not braid as cutting the stalk off allows me to store the garlic in a small amount of space. With the hardnecks keeping a couple inches of stem seems to give me slightly better storage. I then knock off any dirt on the roots that I previously missed (cutting and dirt knocking is done outside). Since the cutting of leaves takes some time, a couple days later I usually get around to cutting the roots off. I leave about a 1/4 inch of root. I never have varied this so do not know if this affect storage.

I place the garlic in a plastic shoebox minus the lid and store in a closet in my basement. The basement is dark with medium to high humidity. Ideally I would like the humidity to be much lower so the garlic stores better. Dry storage is much better. Even with the humidity I still have garlic from last fall that is usable. The core of the hardnecks may have a little green but can easily be removed.

thanks, gc - looks like I need to find a cool, dark and dry storage area. Not an easy feat here in central Texas...