Never heard of a fungicide used for planting garlic. I always just make sure my bed is raised and I plant on top the mound. That way mid winter and spring melt runs off and does

My main garlic bed is on a east facing slope, the best site for drainage and sunlight. But still I see some dead plants.

I've never done it, but some garlic vendors recommend soaking seed cloves in liquid seaweed plus baking soda or vinegar overnight and then vodka for a few minutes just prior to planting out to prevent pests or disease. Don't know that it would help with your winter rotting problem. Doubt you will ever get 100% winter survival.

This is something we can pay attention to. I do not expect 100% germination rate, but I just do not like to see perfectly good cloves, sprouted, then died over winter, even early spring. Bot the soil and seed garlic are clean.

Looking back through several years' records I've harvested about 90% from the seed cloves planted. This year the crop looks great and if all make it to harvest it will be right there with 91%. And that was planting "perfectly good cloves."

So 90% is considered good then. I pulled one dead plant today and it was rotten. I figure other dead plants are also rotten. I think our clay soil is part to blame.

I get 100% germination all the time. Only problem I have had with disease is from planting garlic in the same place/soil over and over. Now allowing beds to lay fallow for 2 years before I plant again with garlic. Still, there are some that show the screwy leaves that are a sign of some sort of disease. I try to plant only those from heads that look disease free, but no one is perfect, not people nor plants.

I get 100% germination all the time.

Maybe so, but I believe you live in an area that does not experience single digit or below temperatures during the winter so your garlic growth probably never really stops.

I have 192 of 206 (93%) planted that are growing well and a couple more that probably won't amount to anything. I am very happy with that rate. I blame some of the no shows on a mole that tunneled into one of my beds after planting in the fall and undermined the seed cloves. 9 of the 14 no-shows were in that bed.

Nothing went dormant this year, but the soft neck I grow usually does. Last year there was not adequate chill for the porcelains to bulb up. I do not plant in ground so that gives me an advantage as the gophers would eat everything otherwise. otoh, having to plant in beds and not be able to use all my land for vegetable production is a distinct disadvantage. Every zone has its advantages and disadvantages.

Has anyone heard of dusting cloves with cinnamon as a natural fungicide?

Some of the seeds are treated with Thiram, a type of anti-fungal powder. I do not know if there are other types of more organic treatment. My treated fava beans stayed in the cold soil for 25 days and germinated really well.

I get different survival rates from different varieties. Most get 100% or very close to it, but I definitely get below zero temperatures and very often do not mulch either. Those varieties that consistently do not germinate close to 100% in the garlics I look to replace. If my losses are less than 1-5%, though, that is not enough for me to worry about. IIRC there are at least one or two varieties that are considered less likely to rot even in wet soils. I have not had to pay much attention to that, but I have seen it mentioned in variety descriptions. I understrand Siberian is widely adapted, even though it originated in the far north.

For me Music, Siberian, Japanese, and Viet Namese Red, are all dependable, and the feral I am retaming seems to be eager to grow in any type of soil, but its bulbs have not gotten big enough yet to be considered ready for prime time, although last year they started to show some promise. Music is my favorite followed real closely by Japanese.

I've only grown Chinese white for two years but it is the only variety that has sprouted 100%. To me this variety is garlic on steroids! Both years it has spouted within a week, matured with large heads (2" with many 2+"). This spring it has outgrown everything else (upper right hand corner in pic). But it isn't a favorite since it has large heads but many smaller cloves - a good roaster but a pain to peel the smaller cloves for regular use. Prefer Siberian and Bogatyr. I haven't tried Music but with all you folks touting it so highly I'm going to give it a shot one of these times.

Your garlic is looking great horster!

Yes, Music is definitely a good one but my favorites that I have grown are German White and Estonia Red. German White is similar to Music but I get a little better and more consistent size with GW in my garden. Estonia Red, a marbled purple stripe, produces the largest heads with many of them over 3" and the 4 to 6 cloves per head look more like Elephant garlic cloves with many of them over 1/2 oz.

I had some rot problems with some of the Estonia red and Siberian last year due to the over abundance of rain. That cut into my available seed stock so I only have 15 of each growing this year. I removed most of the mulch from my raised beds this year to try to prevent the rot problem by allowing the beds to dry out more.