Hello Greezer ... I grow different maturing garlics strains, mainly because the properties for each strain, I found that creoles .. specially AJO ROJO ( not rocambole spanish roja) stores well in my zone 6, with excellent terrific flavor good for all cooking purpose, saute, baked, soups .. or just simply rubed in a piece fo bread :)! these particular strain does not give you a large head instead it produces at least the first year a small head with at least 8-10 small cloves per bulb with a very pretty red clove wraper ( not bulb the bulb wraper reamins white). When the seed is recycle I plant the bigest cloves, and after 3-5 years I have seen the light with the bulb / cloves sizeing but one have to be patient.

I also found after years and lots of garlics 500 heads per season, that our garlics stored better if you simply hang them in bunches with their foliage and don't fuss over them. Also left them in our lower enclosed porch, there is where we hang them, during the hot summer days we have a big fan circulting the air if you will, and once Oct comes we turn the fan off and leave the garlics hanging, we do not bother to clean them or brush them, nor cutting the dried foliage if you will, just simply get what we need when we need them, again we grow @ 15 strains ... which are the ones that I like best after trying 30 + strains, and YES, some garlics like the persian star, and killerney, do show signs of the green shoot (and indication of spaouting and early maturing) -so I try to use those garlics first and contemplate the creoles for the last ones to use.

Martin could perhaps share his storing practices :)!

Thank you and
Be well,

I was going to suggest the excuse that some have longer or shorter storage times than others. Of course, always a chance that all of your varieties are the short-storage types. But think of another thing. You're going on 6 months already. For many of the hardnecks, 6 months sounds good.

I suppose that you could have tried my system of storing garlic almost everywhere! Some odds and ends are still in my office and no problem yet. Quite a few are stored with the potatoes and onions in the cool basement. Some are still hanging in mesh bags in the garden shed. There's also some in a small pail in the shed. Those outside are on permanent growth hold until spring, just like the ones in the ground. It may not be the proper way but seemed to have worked for me over the years.

Martin

Martin---The other day I found a small basket of garlic bulbs in the garage. I had put them aside because I wasn't going to plant any of them, They were small bulbs from garlic I bought at a flea market. I think they were from Mexico. These bulbs had gone through some extremely low temperatures in the garage in the last month. I took them in and cut open a clove. Not a hint of the little green sprout I found in the other varieties that had been stored in the cellar for a couple of months. When I read that you leave some garlic in your shed all winter the dim light became brighter in my old head. Since I am over supplied with garlic I can afford to experiment so I am taking some garlic bulbs and store them in the shed to compare with the ones stored in the cellar. See if the green sprout can be stopped in its growth. Geezer

Even if you have some cloves which have begun to sprout, outdoor storage should stop that in a hurry. Supposedly the ideal storage temperatures for garlic are 32 to 40. Otherwise, 6 or 7 months is about normal storage time for properly cured garlic. I don't know what it is about garlic and I but invariably I'd end up with some still hanging in the garage when spring came around. That would often become part of my spring planting stock. That only stopped when I built the garden shed. Same thing now, just different location!

Martin

Indeed, how I tried to describe how we store our garlics is defentenly in the range temps that Martins suggested, our lower porche is enclosed but not heated and very lil light, I meant to list the garlics I prefer best... and those are AJO ROJO, Japanese, chinese purple, second best
Cuban Purple, Floha, Killerney, Red Russian ... Notice I like all garlics when fresh harvest! YUM!...

So--what are the temp's in the outdoor shed/porch? does it get below freezing?so far, this is a warm winter here in missouri--but its been known to get in the zero range. normally 20's. too cold for shed storage?or garage, which is some warmer? and, biggest question of all--am i not going to jinx my first garlic bed, talking about storage too soon?

The garlic I was just about to plant has some mold at the root area. Is it ok to plant?

Mold on the root end, or anywhere else, does not sound good. Sounds like the roots may have been trimmed too close. I would not give it much chance of survival.

Martin

I have oddles of garlic stored in my garage. It's now been frozen. Can I still use it?

Is it too late for me to plant garlic bulbs this year here in SE Louisiana? I am just starting my garden and need advice for the garlic.

Thanks for any help you can give,
Leubafr