Softneck garlic stores better than hardneck. I am told that cleaning it and hanging it in a cool dry place gets you the longest storing period. There are a number of videos about how to do it correctly on line.

I just made a preview of a garden book I recently acquired. It says garlic stores at 32F and, while it does say "low humidity" that means in the range of 65-70% humidity. That is low as compared to say, carrots, cabbage, Kohlrabi, and beets which all prefer 98-100% RH.

I don't have winters cold enough to store it dug up even outside. I wonder if the more stable way for me to keep it would have been to either leave it in the ground and dig as needed or to re-plant the harvested bulbs in fall, including the bulbs I really need for cooking.

I just planted 420 grams of garlic today ( a bit late). That should give me enough next year to experiment with.

You can always dry or freeze the garlic. Doesn't necessarily have to be stored fresh.

Hardneck garlic definitely doesn't store for very long in the fresh state. I've got some hanging in my garage right now that are wanting to grow. The softnecks that have been under the same conditions are fine for now and will be for months.

I wonder if the more stable way for me to keep it would have been to either leave it in the ground and dig as needed or to re-plant the harvested bulbs in fall, including the bulbs I really need for cooking.

Keeping them in the ground would not be ideal. At the very least the bulb/clove wrappers will rot away. Plus they will start to regrow in fall.

Rodney

UC Davis Ext.- How to Safely Store and Preserve Garlic

Dave

Jeeze, my hardnecks, Leningrad and Chesnok Red, sit on my counter from the time I bring them in in the fall (after having been dug and hung to dry in July) until the next harvest. They do begin to sprout a little in late spring, but mostly they are still very usable.

That's very interesting laceyvail. Do they hang out of the sun? What are your July to autumn temps and humidity like?

I hang them from beams inside the barn which has a big door opening to the north. They're out of the sun, but we sometimes have high humidity. Temperatures range from cool to very hot summers over the past few years.

I'm in a high desert, so very low humidity 10-15% range, I harvest mine in early July, cure them for a month in the shade until the whole plant is dry, them trim and clean them up then and hang them in old onion sacks in my greenhouse over the winter. It doesn't freeze, runs 40 - 70 degrees. They last until March/April of the next year, some longer than that.