That's just dirty outer skin. It comes off easily with the hose or let it dry and peel it off. I don't preserve my garlic. I let the bulbs stay in the basement all winter, dry, and just use it fresh. It lasts up till May.

Two thirds of the bulbs do not look like this. Hosing it off does nothing. I have grown garlic before and never seen this.

Posting a picture would help to better identify what is on your bulbs. Without a pic, all we can do is vaguely guess.

Rodney

It is a fungus, I think. The black scaley things are called sclerotia, but I forget which disease(s?) make those. With our extra wet summer my garlic has lost more of its wrappers than I like plus I'm finding onion maggots (ick), so I'm taking heads that I know will not store and making garlic powder. It is way way better than store powder, I think because the cloves are very fresh. But you need a dehydrator for that. I guess if I had to think up a secondary method of stoarge I might lightly sautee crushed garlic in butter to freeze so it can be grabbed quickly and used later. Good luck!

So, here is a picture of the garlic. The one on the left seems pretty clean and as you can see, the one on the right has a clean clove underneath.
I decided to take no chances and am currently slow roasting all the cloves from the infected garlic. I am told they will keep for a long time in the fridge in olive oil.
I'd still like to know what sort of disease this is and what the repercussions are for next year's crop.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Carol
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It's definitely some type of fungus. For the next planting you shouldn't plant in the same place you did this year (or for a couple years afterward). Keep the clean, fungus free bulbs and before you plant them, you might want to try presoaking your garlic to hopefully kill the fungus or disease. The following directions are from wegrowgarlic.com (link below):

"A few years ago we also started pre-soaking our garlic as recommended by Bob Anderson of Gourmet GarlicGardens as an added precaution against pests and diseases. We soak all of our seed garlic before planting whether it's our own seed stock or newly acquired planting stock. Basically what you do is soak the cloves overnight in a solution of one tablespoon of liquid seaweed, and either one heaping tablespoon of baking soda, or one tablespoon of vinegar per gallon of water. (we start with warm water for the soak but that's our own variation) Then follow up with a three or four minute soak in either 140 proof vodka or rubbing alcohol just before planting. The skins will fall off the cloves during this soaking process, that's okay. Note: You really don't want to do this soaking process inside the house. It stinks to high heaven!!! Also be sure to process each variety separately or you're not going to know what they are when you're all done."

Or if you really want to be safe, buy new seed stock.

Rodney

Here is a link that might be useful: Planting and Growing Garlic

Thank you. I'll try soaking them this Fall before planting. In the meanwhile, the roasted ones taste great!

carolml-

Preserving garlic in olive oil is only recommended for up to 30 days unless it is frozen. That is because garlic and oil make the ideal medium for severe food born illnesses such as botulism.

If you do this, be sure to keep refrigerated and disgard after 30 days unless frozen.

Thank you for that advise, I thought that only applied to raw garlic and that it would be safe once cooked. I guess I should freeze it in multiple small packets.