How to Cure and Store Homegrown Garlic so It Lasts Longer

What to Do after Harvesting Garlic

Once you start to grow your own garlic, you’ll want to know how to store your homegrown garlic after you harvest it so it lasts longer. I have been growing garlic for over a dozen years, starting with a bulb of Russian Red garlic that a Master Gardener friend gave me. I added a few more varieties later, and then a couple years ago I narrowed it down to two, Music and Russian Red. Both of these are hardneck varieties, which do well in colder areas like mine.

However, hardneck garlic does not last as long in storage as softneck varieties do. University extension service websites say that you can expect hardneck varieties to last only two to four months while softneck garlic, the kind often sold in supermarkets, could last six to eight months. These times apply to garlic that has been cured.

However, I’ve been able to get my hardneck garlic to last for over a year! Here’s how I did it.

How to Cure Garlic

The first step to getting garlic to store longer is to cure it properly after you harvest it. You may start using your freshly harvested garlic as soon as you harvest it, but you should cure any that you are not going to use right away. To cure it, garlic growers generally tie the stalks or leaves of four or five garlic bulbs together and then hang these bundles in a shady place that is dry and breezy for at least a month. I cure mine in our garage. It gets some breezes there when the garage door is open, and I keep it far enough inside so that the sun does not shine on it. Instead of bundling and hanging the garlic, I lay the bulbs out on a wire shelf unit, and they get very good air circulation.

I tend to let them cure for longer than the recommended minimum of one month. I usually leave the garlic on my curing rack until it’s time to plant it in October. I choose the bulbs with the largest cloves to plant because those will produce larger bulbs for next year. The remaining garlic I store for use throughout the rest of the year. Perhaps the extra curing time helps the garlic last longer in storage. Letting the bulbs hang with the root side down may also extend the garlic’s shelf life a bit. 

How to Store Homegrown Garlic

For many years, I followed my Master Gardener coordinator’s recommendation for storing garlic after it was cured. After trimming the roots and stems of the cured garlic, I wrapped the bulbs separately in pieces of newspaper and then put them in cardboard shoe boxes. I kept those boxes in the darkest part of my basement. Some of the garlic that I stored this way lasted up to six months—pretty good for hardneck garlic. Some of it became soft and gummy. But most of it dried up and became rock hard. This video shows the results when I checked my stored garlic in March 2021.

The following year, I discovered an easier and better way to store homegrown garlic. I had left my garlic curing in the garage for an extra long time—after I’d already planted the next year’s crop—and I needed to put it away quickly before our first frost came. I grabbed a couple empty boxes, which happened to be the tall and narrow kind that gallon jugs of water come in, and I put the garlic in there. I was in a hurry so I didn’t trim the stems and roots off, and I didn’t wrap the bulbs in anything. I just stood them up inside the boxes. Because the stalks stuck out a little, I didn’t even close the boxes. Then I put the boxes of garlic in my basement, which is always cooler and more humid than the rest of our house. If you don’t have a basement, put your garlic in the coolest and darkest spot you can find.

Whenever I needed a bulb of garlic during the following months, I went downstairs and grabbed one from the box. Only then did I cut off its stem and roots. And guess what—the garlic lasted all year long! This method worked so well that I’ve stored my homegrown garlic the same way every year since. I made another video demonstrating my new method for storing garlic: How to Store Homegrown Garlic. This method is an easier as well as a more effective way to get garlic to last longer.

I hope you’ll experience similar success if you try my method of storing garlic from your garden. If you have any questions, ask them below. And if you found this article helpful, please like it and share it.