My hardnecks do it every year around this time. But then I leave mine hanging in my unattached garage all summer and the cooler weather in fall initiates growth.

Rodney

I agree with Rodney, Hardnecks seldom make it past x-mas in good shape IME. My Rocambole type hardnecks need to be used by October, purple stripes and Porcelains will usually stay firm a couple months longer.

I went thru my various remaining stored garlic over the holiday weekend and found several that had a clove or 2 that were getting soft and turning brown. I ended up sorting thru all the remaining bulbs and making 5 half pint jars of pickled garlic out of the cloves that were still in good shape. About 2 cloves in 10 had to be tossed.

My hardnecks are still good when I am harvesting the next year's crop. It is the softies that go around the middle of December for me. Dark room, door closed, window open 6". Cool Northern California temps all year long is the trick, I think. Also, of course, at any sign of disease you should know that the crop will not make it very long.

Thanks for the responses. My experience in the past has been like kristincarol. I guess I'll chalk it up to a wet season and think about dehydrating some for this year.

Mary

It is known that Rocambole type garlic does not store well. But Porcelains should store well. If yours do not store past X-mas, then that is not even 6 months. Seems something is wrong....

I store my garlic in the kitchen which though a bit cooler than some other rooms is never less than about 60-65. My hardnecks store quite well into the new year, but then they are never cooled except those that get replanted, and then only after they are in the ground. I get few garlics sprouting in storage, but I do get some dried up cloves, even then not all the cloves in most bulbs dry out either. I was able to find enough good cloves in one hardneck variety to plant a decent bed last June from a preceding late July harvest. Although most of the cloves had dried out (no bulb was 100% good, although most had 1 or 2 good still well plumped cloves), I still got a 100% stand of those that hadn't dried out. I think it is too much cool or cold during storage that triggers premature sprouting. I have the best luck storing my well cured garlic warm (room temperature) rather than cool.

Dutch

That is what I was seeing in some of my garlic too. The smaller cloves were browning and drying out but not sprouting. Most of the cloves were still firm and plump. My garlic is stored in my basement where it stays somewhere in the 60s year round. I think the wet spring that caused some neck rot in some types also contributed to the poor storage I am seeing in some. It seems the largest bulbs tend to not store as well. I still have quite a bit of Persian Star, Chesnok Red, Music, German White, and Lorz Italian that are in good shape and will hopefully store awhile longer. I have plenty dehydrated already and the aforementioned pickled garlic. We are really enjoying the pickled Spanish Roja and Russian Red rocambole garlic that I pickled back in October. I little bit of a pain to peel that much at once but with the double bowl shaker method it is not too time consuming.

Jack,

You store relatively warm, too. I find that I continue to find usable cloves in bulbs where with some dried out; so I tend not to cull bulbs with only dried out cloves so long as some cloves remain plumb. I don't break them up either. I have used dried out cloves to grind into garlic powder and what I made this year seems to be especially mild and sweet for some reason. It also takes a long time to air dry the stickiness out of the resultant powder.