This year’s hard neck braids. The giant one is our “seed stock” for this fall. Should be about 31 heads in that braid which will yield 175-200 heads of garlic next year.
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Nice! I had a great harvest this year. Flavor is outstanding. It’s so much fun to introduce hardnecks to friends. Some are now addicted to my garlic. One friend makes some killer sauces with them and always brings me some. I like to make guacamole to introduce my garlic to friends. Besides the fact I love it so much. One can taste the full power of raw Rocambole garlic in guacamole. Yum!
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if you like strong, hot garlic, try Geogia fire. one of my faves. just dont breathe on anyone after eating alot of it. 
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Ever try Red Janice? How could a garlic with a name like that be anything but sweet. Don’t know who the Janice namesake was, but although she might have had a sweet fragrance, she must have been fiery hot and spicy.
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where did you get it John?
Originally from Filaree Farms.
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Georgia fire is so strong it makes your eyes water.
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Thanks for the suggestions! I will try them.
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I finally braided my soft neck. It was difficult because the bulbs were massive this year. Not sure what cultivar this is? I mix them up and only keep the biggest ones. It’s strong for soft neck and very tasty. I took out the ten biggest for seed. This is what was left.
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Some hardnecks can be good keepers. This is Chesnok Red and it reliably keeps through august for us, although I usually give away the surplus after the new crop comes in. As @marknmt said, avoiding vernalization by not letting the heads get exposed to temps below 50 degrees seems to extend storage significantly.
When it comes to flavor, my favorite is probably Red Toch, a softneck variety.
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I grow some chesnok too. Nice garlic. Is that the one with the fan like leaves? Beautiful! Oh that one I think is Killarney Red? Thanks for saying your favorite. Feedback on garlic types is very useful.
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I grow music, a big white garlic I got at the farmers market, and white German hardneck. I lay them out to age from early August until October to replant, and always collect the bulbils from the biggest scapes to replant too. here’s seed cloves sitting in the shade until October:
and these I just finished braiding- I use twine or my braids fall apart. both white garlic I grow stay good hanging in the kitchen until the next summer. the music, which is the purple skinned one, stays good forever it seems like. it may dry out in the skin, hanging. I just grind those for garlic powder.
my second and last braid for this year:
any that are smaller or have fragile necks I give away to friends to use.
Not sure if Chesnok has fan like leaves, I would describe it as an average-looking plant.
Yes it is I was getting it confused with Killarney which has short compact leaves in a Japanese fan pattern. A very pretty garlic. Easy to tell its Killarney when growing.
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Do not know much about fancy garlic varieties so this post will help me a lot. They are expensive to buy a lb. $30.00 plus $12.00 postage.
Last year I bought organic large garlic at Whole Foods for $5.69 a lb. My neighbor who are picky eaters loves them so is my wife. Willlll add some hard necks for fall plantings. Lot to choose from. After reading about hardnecks, will add those. Got a supply for maybe 4 months then I got to buy store bought stuff. Maybe find a good source for some decent stuff . Going back to Whole Food sometime soon.
One question, I noticed that most here harvest their garlic still green stocks, i wait a little longer till plants are completely dry. I bundle a bunch with a ziptye, what’s wrong with that.
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Good idea, I didn’t think about it.
Well the wrappers around the cloves will be in bad shape if you wait too long. The garlic is fine but you just cut your shelve life by half or more.
Yes seed bulb is expensive but I now grow enough to produce my own seed. I still buy some seed once in awhile. Last year I didn’t buy any but this year I bought a few new ones to try. I need a good porcelain. I think I found one thanks to this thread. I like to grow many types as long as they work here.
Saving my own seed has resulted in large tasty bulbs. Best year ever this year (9th year saving seed). Since I save the largest bulbs for seed I have well adapted garlic that produces few small bulbs.
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Do you know if garlic goes well with peonies, I know they go well with roses.
got a 48f predicted tom. night. got to bring mine in. been curing in the garage for 2 weeks.
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We bought “seed” garlic the first year and have just kept the largest bulbs to replant every year. The garlic heads have remained large and healthy after several years of this process. Like Drew said, completely dried out garlic heads will start getting separated cloves and they will not store as well.