I have the softneck garlic that we harvested in June hanging in the pantry, or the shady windy window if it’s muggy. We don’t have AC and live in northern Kentucky zone 6b. I’m wondering how people used to store garlic in a “cool dry place” without AC (root cellar are cool but not really dry). Also what’s the earliest garlic can be planted to harvest next year. Are they like multiplying onions that can theoretically just be left in the ground (or replanted a month or two after harvest) and they’ll be fine next year?
I store most of my garlic in ground and harvest it year round whether dormant or in active growth. Most of the garlic I store out of the ground is stored in salt brine and allowed to ferment. It’s delicious that way.
When I dig up a dormant garlic crop, I replant on the same day.
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Interesting, so they will overwinter just fine then it seems. I’d rather it grow then die back in the winter than get moldy in the pantry. I plan to plant them where our tomatoes are currently being grown, do you see any harm in sticking them in the ground now beneath the plants and manureing the plot in the spring?
The general recommendation for garlic storage is 60F to 65F. If the house is warm I would keep them in the root cellar. Not all garlic stores well so it would be a trail.
They need air so don’t put them in sealed containers. Leaving them in the ground is an option but they may start growing again and it sounds inconvenient to me.
Garlic can be frozen as an option.
September or October is a good time to plant for next years crop.
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Can you break this down a little more for the less experienced? When you say you store it in the ground, are you harvesting, curing and then putting them back in the ground? Or harvesting when it’s dying back just to break up the roots and then replanting?
Storing in ground just means I pull (or dig) out what I need when I need it. If it’s late in the season or dormant then I’m harvesting garlic that looks like you’d expect it to look. If harvested at other times when it’s in active growth then I will generally use the tender greens along with the new bulbs which are forming at the base.
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Understood. Our issue is that we have no root cellar and no air conditioning. Our house is usually 10 below ambient temp outside and humidity is quite high. And on days we are canning the temps are basically the same as outside. (89 in the kitchen, 69%humidity). Not ideal, but our house is small with big windows, we basically live on a glorified screened in porch with insulation.
I want to save all the garlic we have for seed this fall, but I think it might be ripe for spoilage in these conditions. That’s my wonder about planting now, or finding some way to better store it. Mainly how in the world did they do this 150 years ago?
I edited a couple typos
I pulled my garlic last summer, like usual and I split the harvest up into a couple boxes. I hadn’t even trimmed the bulbs, they still had the stems and leaves. I found a box I had misplaced and 90% of the bulbs were still solid and usable. another 10% were pushing growth.
These were over a year past harvest and left in my Michigan basement.
Storage, if left untrimmed seems quite long.
Braid it or keep it in the ground! I’m pretty novice but that’s what I’ve been doing the past few years. We keep our house about 75 in the summer and softnecks can last a while. You may notice we have a few hard necks in there too. I’m only just now figuring out the difference, ha! Just planted whatever was at the local coop.
First pic is the remnants of 2024’s harvest that we haven’t finished. Second pic is this year’s. I accidentally miss some of the garlic I plant each year and it always just comes back bigger next year.
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One option is just wait and if you see a sign of green growth and then plant. I’ve had some last 10 months before growth started.
Also it’s best not to store in the refrigerator.
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