I had the same problem with the basal rot on about 25% of my Metechi this year in early June but other types in the same bed did not have a problem. All of the leaves on the rotted Metechi plants turned yellow in a matter of 2-3 days and the plants leaned over. I attributed it to the very wet May and early June we had here in Missouri. I did not have to water anything except newly planted transplants and seeds and still have not watered and it is almost July!

I dug the rest of the Metechi in that bed and the adjacent Music and German EH on June 7 just to make sure it did not spread. The rest of my garlic (also in raised beds) was harvested between June 17 and 20 and is hanging in the shed to cure. All of it looks good especially the Estonia Red (3" +), Music, German EH, Siberian, Spanish Roja, and Purple Glazer. Martin's Heirloom, Metechi, Chesnok Red, and Russian Red were a little smaller than I had hoped.

If I were you I would be digging ASAP and hope for the best. If all of the garlic has the basal rot I would be hesitant to use it for seed stock, but it should be OK for eating though it might not store well.

Well crap.. I was afraid of that. I really can't afford to rebuild seed stock :( At least not this year, the stuff is just too dang expensive. Maybe I'll be able to find a folk or few here on GW that I can get a head or two from. Extra bummer is that the Great Russian, Leningrad, and Up North varieties I'm growing were from a member here- and my first successful garlic.

if you didn't cut off all your scapes, you could start rebuilding your stock by growing on the bulbils - a three year exercise but inexpensive

I did cut of all my scapes. Pickled them too, they are yummy. So no starting from scapes this time around. Maybe I'll luck out and hit up a local farmers market with something good.

I don't think it is possible to tell if you have white rot from the photos. Do you have a local agricultural extension office? If you do, I would get an experts opinion. It could be downey mildew, or another less serious mold, that would not effect next years crop if you planted from healthy looking cloves saved from this year. It could be that the water drainage wasn't good in that corner of the bed for some reason. I'm in zone 6 too, WV. Usually my hardneck garlic is ready July 4th but this year the bulbs matured earlier, I am guessing due to the weird weather. I usually harvest when 2 leaves have died back as a rule. For me, waiting longer than that has resulted in higher chances of rot BUT I think it depends of the variety of garlic, the weather, and the soil. I grow a hardneck rocambole type that only tends to have an average of 7 leaves total, so when 2 leaves die back the bulb has less layers of protection than if the plant had started out with more leaves. If you can stand to sacrifice a couple pull them up and check the size of the bulbs. If they look ready cut the bulb in half horizontally (like you are cutting the roots off) and see if there is any air space between the cloves and the skins. If the cloves haven't filled out completely then they are not ready to come up. If they have filled out then I would pull them asap because this weather is awful. I harvested a lot of my garlic yesterday ahead of the rain.. and the ground was already very wet from the last rain. The bulbs were ready though, and only a couple had questionable spots on them. I know it is not recommended to harvest garlic in wet weather but sometimes you have to weigh the pros and cons. The rain is bad today, but I may go out and harvest more. I read that if you have to harvest in wet weather to wash the wet dirt off the bulbs and roots before curing. I guess its better than them sitting the soaking wet ground for another week :(

Well- I pulled them all. I figured better early and on the safer side, than later and on the wetter side.

On the bright side... only the one box with the Pearl Porcelain looks like it was totally messed up. And at that it was mostly the Pearl- which is a sigh since that was my most expensively bought garlic. And two other garlics, one from a semi-local source, so I might luck out and find them again at the same farmers market. And a hardneck I got while on a trip out of state that most of it looks pretty good- I might try using the best looking of it in a container this fall to give it a chance. All three were grown in one of the new beds.

In the other new bed- pretty much all the soft neck looks like a skip it for seed- it just didn't grow up too big or well. The Up North I might be able to salvage a few seed cloves from. The other two kinds that were bought somewhat local and were in their "give it a second year" shot are now shot- mostly rounders or otherwise too small to make it worth it.

In the third bed, the one seeing it's second year of use.. one of the local garlics is all rounders and I'm not growing again. The Great Russian had some excellent looking heads from the far side of the box- so I think I will set up another container grow for that one. The Leningrad looks like all rounders, so not sure if I'm going to try again. And the last of the very local garlic looks pretty good- but rather than risk it, I will again keep my eye out at the farmers markets to see if I can't just pick up new heads for seed stock.

I would love to be able to blow the cash to order up garlic, but that is not in the books. I can either pick some up local, or pay shipping, but not pay the terrible costs that most catalog garlic places charge.

Of them all, I think I might be the most sad about Great Russian.. it makes an incredible roasted garlic, and we are huge roasted garlic eaters.

So now I've planted in some mid-season beets, radishes, and carrots into the raised beds. Once those are done I'll see if I can squeeze in a late season green crop to till in or maybe go with an early dose of horse compost and let the beds sleep till next year- plant in tomatoes or maybe beans there next year. This years tomato and bean beds will get an extra through tilling and weeding and I'll plant in garlic there in the fall.

Don't know if the problem was because of the weather since it was so prime for crapping out garlic.. or because one of the beds was in it's second year though the other two were new beds- maybe the top soil I laid in had some stagnant wild garlic/onion/chive problems I didn't know about.

Maybe I'll get time and resources to build a few more new raised beds and fill them up before it's time to plant in new garlic this fall. If so, great, my ultimate goal is to have a long line of beds that are in rotation, so maybe this is just Mama N's way of telling me to get on with it.

For something that supposedly has a lot of anti germ properties, garlic sure loves to rot.